COVID-19 Update and Online Tournament Schedule

It has been a tough month or two for any community that relies on live events – our FGC included. Those following our social media accounts will know that the realities of the coronavirus pandemic have forced CouchWarriors to make a number of changes to our 2020 plans, including postponing tournaments or moving them online. To ensure an easy reference for our community over the next few months, we’re collecting those announcements in one place.

Ranbats Cancelled Until Further Notice

Government restrictions on public gatherings have now made it impossible to hold our usual weekly and monthly tournaments, but even without those it would be irresponsible to try and keep them going. We will make an announcement to relaunch CouchWarriors ranbats once the public health risk has subsided. Until then, we are looking at different ways to keep our community connected even during isolation.

CouchWarriors League Continues with Online Weeklies

Ranbats being cancelled doesn’t mean we aren’t running tournaments! Our recently announced CouchWarriors League will still be awarding points via our new online tournament series.

Tournaments will run every Saturday afternoon at 3PM AEDT, with check-in half an hour before. Every week will feature a different game from the CWL roster, as follows:

• 1st Saturday of the month: Street Fighter V (stream)
• 2nd Saturday of the month: Smash Melee (stream)
• 3rd Saturday of the month: Tekken 7 (stream)
• 4th Saturday of the month: Smash Ultimate (stream)

These online tournaments will be the best venue for competition during this isolation period, featuring Australia’s top players across each game. They will also be livestreamed on our Twitch channels, so be sure to watch live and show your support to the players!

There will be prizes for these online tournaments, thanks to our generous sponsors. However, these events will only be awarding half the usual CWL points, to acknowledge the gap between online and local play. Follow our Twitter and Facebook pages to receive signup information for these and any other CWL events we announce!

BAM12 Postponed – Not Cancelled, Date TBA

Obviously with all of the huge announcements and hype leading up to our biggest-ever edition of Battle Arena Melbourne, we tried to delay changing our plans as long as possible. But with the pandemic restrictions now fully in place, we have accepted that BAM12 will not be able to run on its originally planned date.

However, we are not cancelling BAM12, and will be organizing a new date for the event later in 2020. We are honouring all tickets and tournament entries purchased for the original date, and we ask for patience and support from you in the community as we sort things out.

BAM12 is still on track to be Australia’s biggest ever FGC event, featuring top international players, the CouchWarriors League finals and ranking events for the official world tours of seven different fighting games. Stay tuned for the eventual announcement of our new date!

CouchWarriors exists to serve the Australian FGC, and we appreciate how that community has already pulled together to adapt to the unique challenges we’re all facing in 2020. We hope you continue to support each other and CouchWarriors until we can get back to doing what we love best every month.