Red Bull Kumite 2021 — return of the live crowd, unbelievable comebacks, one of the best results in the series

Loading

Red Bull Kumite is an annual LAN fighting game tournament, which returned in 2021 after a one-year break caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The series has been running since 2015 with many major cities hosting it, including Paris and London. November's Kumite 2021 was the second event in the series this year, it was held in Las Vegas with a live audience.

As usual, participants fought in the octagon (MMA cage), which was set up in the middle of the hall, while spectators watched the matches from the tribunes. The event included three disciplines — Street Fighter V, Tekken 7 and Guilty Gear Strive. A total of 32 players took part in three tournaments with a total prize money pool of $45K. The event was held at Caesars Palace, one of the largest hotels in the world.

What does the name of the tournament — Kumite — mean?

Kumite (Japanese: 組手, literally "grappling hands") — sparring in Japanese martial arts (budo). Kumite is regarded as both a training method and a goal for perfection. Kumite shapes the proper way of perceiving combat itself, trains reaction, agility and helps to achieve the most effective fighting technique.

The new installment of the Guilty Gear series — Guilty Gear Strive — has managed to revive interest in the discipline. Guilty Gear used to attract fewer than 10K Peak Viewers on average, but the current event has turned out to be much more interesting for spectators. Moreover, the championship even surpassed the Street Fighter V competition, traditionally the most popular discipline within the Kumite series.

Of the three tournaments, the highest number of viewers (47,5K) was attracted by the battle between Diaphone vs. ApologyMan who fought for a spot in the finals of the Guilty Gear tournament. Diaphone was one of the underdogs at the tournament: he qualified for Red Bull Kumite through the Last Chance Qualifier and made it to the grand final, but still lost to Gobou in the decisive match.

The second most watched tournament was Tekken 7, where Knee and Gen clashed in the final. Both have won numerous EVO tournaments, and Knee recently achieved an extraordinary record: he became the first player ever to reach Tekken God Omega on all of the game's characters. However, it was Gen who won the event; he defeated Knee with a 5:2 score. The game was watched by 37,9K Peak Viewers.

Problem X with Red Bull Kumite 2021 Las Vegas trophy

Street Fighter V is ranked 3rd among the Kumite Las Vegas tournaments. The match between Problem X and NL was watched by 35.4K Peak Viewers. Despite a lower Peak Viewers number than the other tournaments in the series, the match was extremely entertaining to watch: Problem X, the EVO 2018 champion, came back from a 0:3 deficit and won the event. It was his first victory in the Kumite series, in which he has been competing since 2018.

The SFV tournament was on air the longest of the three events, so it ranked first in terms of Hours Watched with 209K. The other championships reached 145K-151K Hours Watched.

Kumite 2019 event is leading with 55K Peak Viewers among the tournaments of the series. The Las Vegas event has shown competitive statistics, and the Guilty Gear tournament even ranked in the top 3, despite the fact that Street Fighter championships usually attract the biggest audience in the series.

The return of the Red Bull Kumite series is great news for fighting game fans. The scene has been stagnant with most tournaments being canceled for the past two years. One of the main features of these disciplines is LAN matches where competitors feel free to express their emotions. Let's hope that offline events will become the normal thing again in 2022.