2012 Awards: Story of the Year

The 2012 Story of the Year involving fighting games could have been one of a few candidates. But let me get this out of the way — as easy as it could have been to say that the tension and fake rivalries between players throughout the year was the Story of the Year, I chose not to.

I didn't want to put the focus on something like that. There were too many good stories this year to let fake beef be my vote-getter. My choice came down to three storylines, and my Story of the Year ended up being the one that lasted the longest of the three.

This year, instead of giving the honor to one story, I asked all of the writers (well, almost all of us. Tim went M.I.A.) to note their pick for Story of the Year. That way, you could get an idea of what was going on throughout 2012.

Enjoy.

Glenn's story of the year: "When's Capcom?"

For years, we wondered why. Everyone else was doing it. And this is where parents would come in and ask you if you would jump off a cliff if everyone else did. Of course not. But this was competitive gaming, and companies were putting money into it. Companies were running their own events. Companies were letting professional leagues use their games without the threat of legal ramifications.

Finally, after so many years of wondering why it didn't, Capcom joined the party, announcing that it would run its own championship tournament series throughout the year in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Street Fighter series. There was obvious speculation, but those doubts turned to positives once the events started rolling.

Cities and countries all over the world were tournament destinations as Capcom ran regionals. And if that wasn't enough, the championship final in San Francisco brought together the best of the best. Breno Fighters' tournament run in Brazil. The Gamerbee matches. Dieminion's matches. The two Daigo vs. Infiltration matches. Those will all be remembered for a long time. And we can thank Capcom for putting it together.

In addition, Capcom announced it gave the OK to the IGN Pro League to use two games for its league: Super Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken. Given that the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 series wasn't included, some people were sad. But the overwhelming majority of tournament goers and fans were relieved that Capcom finally gave the OK for something related to a professional league.

It's one of those stories that could end up being the Story of the Year for 2013 as well.

Glenn's story of the year runner-up: "The revelations"

Having talked to several people during Revelations 2012, it made me wonder why we all didn't speak up about John Nelson and the alleged shady dealings he had over the years in the tournament community. From the Super Smash Bros. community, to the fighting game community, people had questionable feelings about the man who had wanted so badly to run major money tournaments throughout Southern California.

I should say personally that I've had interactions with John in the past, and I stayed silent until this year's Revelations tournament, when everyone decided to share their thoughts. And then the man does the despicable honor of reportedly not paying out entrants. I hope this man never runs another tournament of any kind.

Perfect Legend's bounce-back from ninth at MLG to winning Evolution for a second straight year was my early pick for story of the year, but these two topics overshadowed his spring and summer tournament run.

Antonio's story of the year: "The fighting and giving community"

My vote for story of the year is the charity of the community. It didn't even start with everyone coming together for Ducky last year. It continued with Clock's Fight For Youth, GeoffTheHero's Florida Charity, people coming together for Knives -- and those are just off the top of my head. We have recurring headlines of players improving, dominating, etc. That's to be expected, but what sets our community aside from any other community is the generosity.

Dakota's story of the year: "Shoryuken.com Introduces the EVO Annual $10,000 College Scholarship for Gamers”

My recent article here at Corner Pressure already delves into how significant this event was, and to this day this is definitely one of the most praiseworthy events in the competitive gaming community this year, at least as far as I am concerned. The importance of this is paramount – contributing towards the education of our youth with a positive association with competitive gaming and video games overall. I felt that this story was ultimately overshadowed by more dramatic issues that came and went, and unfortunately I have yet to see similar events mirror this one. Thus, this still remains as the model of absolutely commendable work by those behind EVO and this scholarship.

As it stands, this has to be my Story of the Year. Not only was this event a beacon of light for the amazing gamers chosen for the awards, but it stands as the potential beginning of further contributions such as these, and I hope to see more in the near future.

Dakota's story of the year runner-up: “Competitive Gamer’s Inflammatory Comments Spark Sexual Harassment Debate”

Call Kotaku! We have a runner-up!

This story spawned the “Call Kotaku” meme and, indeed, this became one of the more memorable events that unfolded before our eyes as 2012 was just a mere toddler. It's actually quite funny to realize that this happened almost a year ago, as I remember this controversy so vividly because it practically blew up Twitter for almost too long. Nevertheless, while this wasn't the best thing to happen to the FGC, it was hard to ignore. I mean, how could you forget the awesomeness that was “Cross Assault”? #kappa

Also, this came around when Street Fighter x Tekken was still a relevant game, which also feels like an ancient memory. The reason why I picked this as my runner-up is namely because it's a way for us competitive gamers to avoid repeating the past, but also because the drama was just so delicious.