The most talented Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition players in the UK will face off at London’s Red Bull Gaming Sphere on May 19th.
The winner of this Red Bull Kumite UK qualifier will progress to Europe at the end of the year to compete in the Last Chance Qualifier, the night before the Grand Final in the Red Bull Kumite cage (pictured). This will be an all-expenses paid trip.
This Last Chance Qualifier will see 256 of the best Street Fighter players from around the world battle it out for a top spot in the final.
Top Street Fighter players, including the likes of Fujimura and the UK’s very own Problem X, have competed in this fighting game tournament in the past. Last year, the Red Bull Kumite 2018 UK qualifier was won by Shakz and the Grand Final was won by Fujimura Atsushi.
A series of university-based tournaments also offer another way through to the UK qualifier, and you don’t need to be a student to enter them.
The NUEL will be holding qualifiers at Staffordshire University (April 28th), Newcastle University (May 5th) and the University of Salford (May 11th), with the winners securing an all-expenses paid trip to London to compete against the best players in the nation at the UK qualifier.
Red Bull Kumite is now in its fifth edition.
The UK has historically produced a host of Street Fighter talent, from Ryan Hart to Problem X, Shakz, ImStillDaDaddy, Packz and Confz to name a few.
The UK qualifier will be streamed live on the Red Bull Esports Twitch channel on May 19th.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
