It’s been a great year for fighting game events. Not only did Evo 2024 — the biggest fighting game tournament in the world — wrap up after breaking records, but we’ve seen growth across the genre, and across the globe. It feels like more attention than ever is on a historically niche style of game, as well as the culture of high level play surrounding it.

However, while much of this growth and success has been reaped and sown by grassroots tournaments and community initiatives, a constant presence year-round has been the Esports World Cup. This event — entirely funded by the Saudi Arabian government — is seemingly throwing heaps of cash at any competitive gaming scene with a pulse. This includes Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6, the tournaments for which have drawn in many of the world’s best players thanks to prize pools exceeding many other established events.

This initiative has been identified as sportswashing by many critics and concerned groups, the practice of using sports (and yes, esports) to better a countries reputation. This is not the first time Saudi Arabia — a country with a poor human rights record and reprehensible treatment towards LGBTQIA+ groups — has invested in such a venture. It has previously gone on big spending sprees across F1, football, golf, and even wrestling.

The fighting game community has, over years of open tournaments across the world, tried its best to be welcoming to people of all backgrounds. It’s a cultural cornerstone, one that stems from arcade culture where anyone could walk up and throw in a quarter. It’s also a message I believe to be true. Having travelled to my fair share of fighting game events big and small, you can see proof of this inclusive culture in the sheer diversity across the ethnicity, sexuality, and gender of attendees from the Tekken tournament at your local bar, to a packed-out convention centre.

But there’s a clash here, seemingly where the community and its culture are rubbing up against the business side of running big events. It goes beyond players taking a plane trip to Saudi Arabia. Across big tournaments this year including Evo Japan, CEO, and more Esports World Cup advertisements were ever-present. And Sony — one of the co-owners of Evo — are a strategic partner of the Esports World Cup. Is it any wonder that the Esports World Cup and Qiddiya — a Saudi Arabian city aiming to be a major tech and entertainment hub in the region — had a major presence at Evo this year?

With Evo announcing the Evo International events in Nice, France and Singapore the path to an increased number of official Evo events across the globe has been secured. Yet, the leap to an Evo event in Qiddiya didn’t happen, at least not yet. So, what’s the deal here? To find out, I sat down and talked to Rick “The Hadou” Thiher, general manager of Evo. In our conversation I asked him about Evo potentially showing up in Saudi Arabia, his concerns around sportswashing, and culture clashes between the Saudi government and the wider FGC.

(Want to read more about Evo’s push across the globe? You can read our other interview with Rick Thiher here on the event’s world warrior ambitions).

VG247: Given the current ecosystem around competitive gaming, not just fighting games, Saudi Arabia is currently spending a lot of money and a lot of time getting involved in different video game events. This is true for fighting game events too! Were there discussions about Evo playing a bigger part in Saudi Arabia?

Thiher: So, with us committing to doing global events, we are respectfully taking conversations with potential partners worldwide. We need to thoughtfully explore all the opportunities to achieve that goal. But our focus since this announcement has been on the locations we’ve announced. There are no plans to expand the roadmap beyond this today. I don’t know if we have the bandwidth or the team scale to do so. So this is what we’re working on, and we’d like to focus on this show to start.

VG247: This year at Evo one of the major sponsors / partners was Qiddiya Esports, and there were Esports World Cup advertisements across several games at the show. How big a part do you foresee this Saudi Government esports initiative playing a part in Evo’s future?

Thiher: I think Evo is open to partnerships that are additive to the event experience. Qiddiya and the other partners made the scale of the events in Tokyo and Las Vegas possible. Qiddiya specifically unlocked fan-centric experiences like meet-and-greets, exhibitions, and watch parties at the legends lounge. With that level of fan engagement being what they’ve stated they want to level up, and the level of engagement at those booths at both shows this year, I’d anticipate that’s how we’ll see them continue to invest in the community. When we talk about the future, Evo’s focus continues to be on producing valuable experiences for the FGC. As our brand is supposed to be creating and sustaining fighting game fandoms. So, it’s always my earnest hope that any emerging presence in the FGC is inspired to be here and take part in that, and engage in those opportunities. So far that’s how Qiddiya was present for us at Evo this year, and again how I anticipate, they could be in the future.

VG247: It’s quite a controversial point, the intentions of the Saudi Arabian government in esports right now. Among many, it’s accepted that this is part of a sportswashing initiative like we’ve seen with golf, F1, football, even wrestling! Do you have any concerns about that, about the wider FGC being a part of that? I know that in your previous work at Combo breaker you’ve by all accounts created a safe space for LGBTQIA+ groups that are currently expressing concerns about this matter.

Thiher: I think there has to be a hope that when great investments are made, that they’re being made with an understanding and appreciation of the history, community, and culture of what is being invested into. The FGC is bigger than any brand, event, or individual in it, but we’ve been gathered together by the simple truth that the spirit of competitive fighting games is that anyone can show up and compete, and Evo has been proudly showcasing the diversity of that truth for decades. I believe in that simple truth. So, I look at this as something where I take that hope, and take that belief, that fighting games have proven through that truth to be a path for a disparate world to find connection and understanding, and approach it from that perspective.

VG247: So your hope is through involvement that cultural differences between the Western FGC for example and Saudi Arabia will take a back seat behind the FGC’s own culture and priorities?

Thiher: I think if you’re going to expect to be involved in the culture, you need to become part of the culture. I think the potential for that kind of change is rooted in being present in the culture, it’s in the relationships that become the inspiration and backbone for it. That needs to be why anyone is here.

VG247: Do you have any thoughts on the impact that has already happened? We’re seeing pro players, big name players such as SonicFox who won the Mortal Kombat championship at Evo, speak to press and say they’ve never felt more humiliated because they’re still a free agent in large part due to their sexuality. In this ecosystem they feel like they can’t take these career opportunities, because of the presence of the esports world cup. So sure at Evo everyone might be welcome – but it seems like this growing presence may be strong-arming an opposing perspective.

Thiher: I think any time you’re exploring a global capacity, you’re in an environment where things don’t always align immediately, or don’t always align on the onset. So again, when we talk about my belief that complex change is rooted in presence, I’m seeing more conversation right now that I’ve ever seen at any point in my entire life. People are engaging in those conversations, not just in the big social environment, but actually one-on-one. You wind up with those one-on-one conversations leading to, again what I hope to be, relationships that get us to a point where everyone is able to engage in the way that I believe fighting games are supposed to be engaged with. As a person working in this space, this needs to be something that I believe is the long term outcome of the culture, because I want to be at a point where anywhere in the world everyone is excited to play fighting games, can relate to each other through playing fighting games, and shares that same belief in a simple truth that I hold.

VG247: One final question on this topic – you’ve mentioned that the size and scale of Evo this year as well as Evo Japan wouldn’t be possible without partners including Qiddiya and Saudi Arabia. The country is spending big as part of its Vision 2030 initiative. This financial expansion into other markets – esports is a part of that! But that money has limits, and if their goal is to expand into profitable ventures, support of events like Evo might last for five years, or one year, who knows! Would you consider them a stable partner in the same vein as you would Chipotle or one of the bigger corporate partners we’ve seen in recent years?

Thiher: I think at the moment the FGC has been blessed to see several stable partners and community invested partners over the years like Sony, Red Bull, and most recently Chipotle. This is still a new partnership, but all signs today show that Qiddiya wants to engage our community in the same way. They were present in Tokyo, and they were present in Las Vegas, so I anticipate we can continue to engage the shows that way.

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Thiher’s hopes are almost certainly shared among many who find themselves caught in an awkward position, stuck between years of established culture and business. For now at least, there’s enough separation for FGC community members to remain true their values, and there are people willing to stay true to them. The end goal of Saudi government investment is clear, at least to me. If Chipotle is selling burritos, and Vitrix is selling arcade sticks, Qiddiya esports and the Esports World Cup is trying to sell the country to people. They want people to travel there for their esports events.

And while it may be easy to speak to the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation at Evo, to stay true to values in the heart of America, it’s doubtlessly a lot harder to do the same within Saudi Arabian borders. Whether that a bridge that should be crossed then, or if a stand should be made right now, is in the hands of fighting game players.

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