Australian fighting game event runners and community. Hosts of BAM: Battle Arena Melbourne, Australia's largest fighting game/open entry esports event.
Battle Arena Melbourne stands out on the FGC calendar not only because it’s Australia’s largest fighting game tournament, but because it is more than “just a tournament”.
BAM lives up to its status as a Major by bringing together the widest possible audience for fighting games – whether they be competitors, casual players, or simply fans of these games and their iconic characters.
This year’s Alley will feature both returning artists and exciting new residents!
The BAM Artist Alley is always a major draw for attendees as they pass through between main stage matches or en route to their setups. This year we will again be hosting a group of talented and passionate local artists whose work features fighting games and other pop culture themes.
So take a look through these introductions and remember to check out their booths while you’re enjoying BAM2022!
We are pleased to announce BAM12’s official cosplay competition! Join us in your best fighting game costume for a chance to win some awesome prizes and your very own BAM Trophy! Not only is BAM Australia’s biggest fighting game event, it’s a gaming festival, so we would like to invite everyone to appear in character!
There’s over $250 in cash and prizes for the Cosplay, Plus, TOP 4 – Passes to CrunchyRoll Expo!
Photography: On the floor of BAM, we will have a photo wall and photographer onsite, so there’ll be great shots to come from the event. We also welcome photographers to join the event!
Cosplay Changerooms: There will be a dedicated space off-floor for Cosplayers to change.
When: May 15 (Cosplay welcome all three days of event)
Cosplay registration: Just register in person at the Registration Desk. You can also pre-fill some info for our judges by entering details on this form
Event Entry: Only a spectator pass ($25 for weekend) is required.
TIMES:
Registration Ends 12:30PM Sunday
Pre-Judging 1pm to 2pm (Marshall at Photo wall 12:45)
Parade: 2:30PM Sunday (Marshall at Photo wall 2:15)
Theme: Fighting Game characters (Has appeared in a fighting game)
Where: Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Bays 23 & 24
The hype train for Battle Arena Melbourne next month is picking up a ton of steam with each passing week, and we’ve got a couple more announcements here which are sure to help fuel that engine!
Not only has the list of fighting games represented in the tournament schedule grown significantly since the initial announcement, but CouchWarriors have now confirmed the return of the “BAM Bounties” competition – offering special prizes to anyone who can take down the top-ranked players of CouchWarriors League in their favorite game.
With BAM2022 now officially announced, offline events are heating up across Australia as April offers some crucial tournament practice. Here are the dates and sign-up links for all this month’s CouchWarriors League events, both online and offline.
You can also send us your highlights, photos and stream links on Discord, Facebook or Twitter – help us share your favourite tournament moments with the rest of the AUS FGC!
March events are now lined up for CouchWarriors League 2022, with another set of CWL Online monthlies and regional ranbats for players to enjoy. Here are the dates and sign-up links for all this month’s CouchWarriors events across Australia.
You can also send us your highlights, photos and stream links on Discord, Facebook or Twitter – help us share your favourite tournament moments with the rest of the AUS FGC!
We now have the complete first month of CWL Online play for 2022 in the books, as the monthlies for Smash Ultimate and Guilty Gear: Strive rounded out February. Even at this early stage, the lack of offline ranbats means the results for CWL Online will be incredibly important to the seasonal points race.
Many eyes were locked on the stream to find out who would claim the first leaderboard points of the year – and an Astro Gaming A20 headset into the bargain.
A fierce new wave of competition has struck the Australian FGC, as the CouchWarriors League 2022 season is officially underway. While the status of in-person ranbat play is still up in the air for certain states, online monthlies will remain a vital source of leaderboard points for their communities.
In addition to the honour of becoming the first points leader for 2022 in their chosen game, our CWL Online winners this month will be rewarded with an Astro Gaming A20 Headset. So who has been keeping their form over the offseason? Who will set the early pace? For Street Fighter V and Tekken 7, we now have those answers.
A new month in the CouchWarriors League brings fresh opportunities to score ranking points in your favourite games. Here are the dates and sign-up links for all our November ranbats and CWL Online events across Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.
You can also send us your highlights, photos and stream links on Discord, Facebook or Twitter – help us share your favourite tournament moments with the rest of the AUS FGC!
If you ask the question, “why are the CouchWarriors events all called Ranbats?” It’s short for Ranking Battle – a long standing tradition in the community, offering players an incentive to compare their progress and get ever stronger! Today we’re announcing an update to the point system to make it more inclusive of players of all levels.
Of course, all our Ranking Battle live events are not just about tournaments, they’re perhaps moreso about socialising, casual matches and even long sets, with a great opportunity to learn and improve.
By also having tournaments this adds some goals and structure for a day’s play – and the point system is part of that. Tying all our offline and online events together via the points is CouchWarriors League – the league ladder tracks each game and region, which you can filter here on the website. This has been a great way to determine seeding and invitations for events, and prize rewards.
Now as we dive into the 2nd half of this year’s season under CouchWarriors League, we’ve updated the system, in consultation with the tournament teams.Lets take a look:
What’s new and why do we like it?
Expands the point system down to all participants, not just top 4-8
This means participation is encouraged for those who think they can’t place, they can build up a small base of points just by entering consistently.
We have kept the weighting towards offline tournaments vs online, however all points totals are increased, so if you play consistently, even online, you have a chance to post a good score
This provides a nice second split/half season boost as we go towards finals. We won’t reset the points completely, but it provides an effective reset for those actively playing thanks to the increase.
Still acknowledges season 1 players who get a kick start, recognizing due to COVID, its been an uneven year for live events.
The system gives more scope for flexibility in determining prizes and finals seeding.
The point system will be in effect from July events onwards! Yes, that means you can earn more points for playing any of the current tournaments! Register here
Rewards
We recognise this year has been uneven due to Covid, so some regions may have more events than others. This is why we will award end of season prizes to the top players in every game – in each region.
So if you’re the best player in a feature title in your state, or online, which is treated as its own region, you’ll be rewarded!
Current online feature titles are Street Fighter V, Guilty Gear Strive, Tekken 7 and Super Smash Bros Ultimate. These run monthly, so there’s a tournament each week and a prize will be allocated each month.
An additional two titles, while not guaranteed to run an online tournament each month, are staples of offline and will also have an end of season prize: Dragon Ball FighterZ and Super Smash Bros Melee.
Prizes are to be announced as the season progresses. You can count on support from our excellent sponsors Astro and Mwave for starters.
Regular titles you find at your local ranbat are all tracked in the points system, and at minimum we will add rewards at the finals.
Finals
On finals we will be planning to conclude the CWLeague season at CWC – CouchWarriors Crossup – in December with a boosted prize pool and more, to be announced.
If it is impossible for us to run a live finals event, we will run an online invitational using the league ladder. Last year there were over $5,000 in prizes and we are aiming high for this year. We will have more to share on this soon, but rest assured those points are worth striving for!
Sunday, July 11th saw a year of pent-up competitive energy unleashed from a highly unusual venue. Inflation Nightclub and Entertainment Complex has been a party fixture on Melbourne’s King Street for decades, but they’d never seen anything quite like the crowd of 240+ FGC diehards hollering over the noise of the venue to celebrate a knockout blow.
With a brief window to take advantage of lowered COVID restrictions but no way to facilitate a full-sized major, an event was planned to carry on the spirit of BAM in the best available venue, and thus we got to enjoy #BANC – Battle Arena Nightclub 2021.
