VFCC: We Are Alive (Rough Draft)

Virtua Fighter Community Collaboration: We Are Alive

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Preface

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Before I begin, I want to stress that this is all in the IDEA / BRAINSTORMING PHASE. If you have a suggestion, please make it. I may be the one writing this down and pitching it to Sega, but I only want to move forward with this if enough of us are in agreement as to what it can be and how it should be done. I will create a second draft of this after collecting feedback. If this idea is not currently workable, I will aim for something on a smaller scale.

Extra Special Thanks to Himajean, ChimpanJ, and Ryan Hart. A dinnertime conversation with them over some deep dish pizza prompted a wave of ideas that led me to pitch this idea to Sega while at Combo Breaker 2025.

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Cross play is coming to VF5: Revo. More players and viewers will arrive soon. The NA VF community is no longer just surviving. We are a presence at offline majors and interest continues to grow. I am hoping to capitalize on this interest with planned online exhibitions and events that celebrate and highlight our existing community, while also creating a welcoming environment for any who are curious about starting to play the game and connect with a local scene. I have spoken with Sega representatives about this idea and they support it, as well as offered to pledge material support such as Sega merch, game codes, and they even floated the idea of in-game titles. I also spoke with every VF player I was near at Combo Breaker, and all of them emphatically supported this idea. It is my hope that we can come together and make this happen: to grow the number of competitive VF players, raise awareness of VF play in the United States, as well as helping to raise the skill level of our most dedicated players.

So, what is it, you may be asking?

I want to light the spark of regional pride and friendly cross-region rivalry, modeled after Beat-Tribe. Why were their 5v5 events so magical? How did they get so good? Well the short answer is, because each team came from their REGION. Within each region they practiced and grew together, then sent their best to the big team events. I propose that we do something similar that better suits our material circumstances.
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STREAMED, COMMENTATED, CONSISTENT online exhibitions based on regional rivalries. We take two VF scenes, such as Columbus OH and Phoenix AZ, and have a 3v3 or 4v4 or 5v5 exhibition match. Ideally, this would be on a consistent basis such as every 21 to 35 days, maybe even weekly or biweekly if we can swing it. More than one per month would be ideal to showcase as many scenes and individuals as possible.

The hope is to have the same 5v5 format, but depending on how things pan out, we can start with 3v3 or 4v4. Different VF scenes will obviously have different amounts of availability, and that is part of the details we would need to iron out as a community. There will also be those who do not have local scenes, and they can be incorporated as alternates/substitutes, or even creating their own separate team of Free Agents (though we should still list their general location, as one of the main goals of this is to promote local play opportunities).

Some of the scenes I'm aware of are Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, Columbus, Denver, New York City, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Florida, and California. If there are more cities/regions capable of fielding a consistent 3-or-more person team I would like them added to the list. As the community grows over the course of Revo and VF6, it would be lovely to add even more scenes as they emerge. If anyone has information on local scenes in Canada/Mexico or in the Carribean, getting them involved is also not out of the question.

In addition to the team exhibitions on a consistent basis, I am also proposing Secondary events. The secondary events would be things like FT10 exhibition matches, also chosen based on regional rivalry, INCLUDING in-region grudge matches (example: Solari challenges Juicebox for title of Phoenix Team Captain). An alternative idea for this would be a 1v10 kumite, where one person fights 10 different people (from other regions). This is a good format for showcasing and assisting our low- and mid-level players as well. This allows us to always have some kind of planned exhibition matches on the horizon: either the regional team matches or these secondary exhibitions. Really, almost any interesting match format or even educational/tutorial content could work here and I am open to further ideas.

These Secondary events should, in theory, be easier to plan, and could conceivably happen more often. Imagine this kind of schedule: In early July, an RPanda vs Assassin FT10. The following week, Chanchai vs Bushido FT10. The following week, the Portland vs Denver 5v5. Two weeks after that, (phoenix player) vs (columbus player) FT10. And so on.

Event Format is negotiable: We could turn it into a round-robin sort of thing, or we can go with the classic elimination-style match. These will be STREAMED AND COMMENTATED EVENTS - designed to spark interest in viewers and let them know that there are scenes around them they can join and play with. Obviously without some additional support, this will be an amateur broadcast, but the hope is to be loosely based on the Maximillian exhibition that happened right before VF5:Revo was released on Steam. Give it an air of official-ness, but obviously operated by and for the NA VF community. One stream Event could feasibly include a Team Exhibition, and a Secondary Event (such as a 1v1 FT10), and some kind of Community Showcase such as longer-form player interviews, fanart showcases, "story-time" (OG player talks about a classic arcade experience, or the first time they went to Japan, etc), and so on.

As for prizes, assuming Sega can do what they suggested, they would send me merch which I can then send to winning teams and individuals. I would give away game codes to the chat and/or via social media interactions and presence. We can also attempt Matcherino-style cash prizes to plug during the stream. That said, it is my hope that the NA VF community would all want to participate regardless, as it will be an opportunity for regular, organized competitive play and to promote your local scenes.

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Hopefully that paints the picture. There should always be some planned matches on the horizon. When people ask "Do people still play VF?" We can answer: "Oh yeah, we're throwing another exhibition this week (next week/very soon/etc), this time it's (city) vs (city)". Naturally, the goal is for this to exist alongside our existing ecosystem of events such as Virtua Kazama's VF Takeovers and the Akai Leagues.

Assuming this idea is workable, this would be the action plan:

	1) Create a twitch and youtube channel to broadcast it on
	2) Create a social media account or two along with a logo
	3) Choose a date and time for the first team match, hopefully July or August
	4) Create a poster to promote, which can be used as a template for all upcoming event dates
	5) After the first event is planned and test streams are done, I present this to Sega for final approval

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My idea for a marketing/catchy phrase to attach to this, is [VFCC: We Are Alive]. VFCC stands for Virtua Fighter Community Collaboration.

Part of the reason for this name is because although I am putting forth this idea, I do not necessarily want to 'own' it in perpetuity. By creating separate social and streaming accounts it is conceivable that I could hand control of it to interested parties temporarily or permanently as the needs of the VF community change over time. I am merely the one getting the ball rolling, so to speak.

Thank you again for taking your time to read this.

If you have suggestions, please send them to me. Sending them via DMs on Twitter [@Juicebox_FGC] or Bluesky [juiceboxfgc.bsky.social‬] would be nice so I can keep everything sorted and tracked, but I will keep an eye on discords and social medias of course. If I know you personally I am OK with discord DMs as well.

After receiving a round of feedback I will revise this document and re-present it to you all for a final look over.

[Version 1.0]