Olivia Richman is a seasoned esports journalist who has worked with Inven Global, Esports Illustrated, Esports.gg, and more. As an editor and writer at Esports Insider, she loves telling unique esports stories, especially within the FGC. When not working and gaming, Olivia loves collecting Kirby plush, eating sushi, and driving her cars at the track.
If you’re anything like me (chronically online, spend too much time scrolling TikTok), you’ve probably seen tons of videos over the past few weeks of World Cup fans from Europe, Japan, Korea, and Mexico flooding various cities in the United States to watch the matches.
It’s one of those rare, wholesome moments that you barely see on the internet these days, with people of all races and cultures getting along, and Europeans finally realizing that all the propaganda they heard about America is false. Seeing British people’s eyes light up when they taste food with flavor for once has also been pretty entertaining, and a break from the usual doom-scrolling.
Tourists trying 🇺🇸 food for the first time during the FIFA World Cup 2026 ⚽🏆
But I couldn’t help but notice something in the comments because I’m a downer who likes to be overly critical, as you can probably tell by now. I saw a lot of people saying that this is some groundbreaking moment in history that has finally allowed humans to connect, learn, and grow together.
And I thought: “Nuh-uh! Esports has been doing this for ages . Especially the FGC.”
Image Credit: @Tempusrob / Evo Obviously, the World Cup is a mainstream, worldwide event that has a much larger audience than esports could ever dream of. It’s no surprise that the “normies” out there think this whole “cultures clashing at tournaments” thing is a novel experience. I don’t expect them to know about some random Tekken tourney in Japan.
But I think it’s cool that the FGC has been doing this for decades without any recognition. It wasn’t for internet clout or TikTok attention. It was just an authentic gathering of like-minded nerds that didn’t care about race or nationality. They just wanted to win.
What started as grudge matches at grungy arcades grew to fighting game tournaments by the 1990s. One of the earliest notable tourneys was Battle By the Bay, held in California in 1996 by the organization that later started Evo. It featured 40 competitors across a variety of arcade games, including Alex Valle and John Choi. And there were no cash prizes. It was all for the love of the game.
Image Credit: benji / YouTube Decades later, the FGC hasn’t really changed all that much. The prize pools are generally lower than in other esports scenes, but their passion has remained just as strong. In fact, fighting game competitors will travel across the world to compete, even if they only have a chance at a few thousand bucks. You’ll casually see players from Japan competing at Super Smash Bros. tourneys throughout the year, willing to fly 10-plus hours just in hopes of winning $500.
They aren’t there for money. They’re there for Smash. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a passion. It’s a niche community you feel almost obligated to keep supporting and representing .
Knowing you’re at an event with other sorta unhinged people willing to fly to another country just because they love a game… That’s something not many outside the FGC wil…