This audio is generated by AI, so pronunciation and expressions may not be fully accurate. The narration is only in English.
"This event started around 6½ years ago in early 2018," says event organizer Jonathan Metoyer. "We had already been running local streams and English mirror streams for fighting game events in Japan. Through work and events, we became connected with the Red Bull team, and when they built this place, we thought that it would be cool to run a regular event in the Red Bull Gaming Sphere."
Metoyer (who streams and commentates competitions under the moniker "Majin Obama") and Andrew "Jiyuna" Fidelis are the co-organizers of Tatakai Tuesday, but there's also a fluctuating team of five to six individuals that help set up devices, fill in if a new player needs an opponent and run official tournaments—all volunteers motivated by growing up overseas where fighting games were a communal experience.
"We came from an environment where people used to meet up, play games, talk (trash) and drink after," says Metoyer. "There would also be major competitions for fighting games, and these were typically held offline. At Tatakai Tuesday, we also do a small tournament which starts at 8 p.m.—this is purely to replicate a sense of pressure you'd feel in competitive space."
Tatakai Tuesday is also a response to the failing business of gaming arcades in Japan, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic years. Metoyer says that many gaming companies are taking their newest titles straight to console, bypassing the ritual of developing an arcade version. But Tatakai Tuesday is bringing that arcade experience back: All equipment including monitors, computers and fight sticks belong to the Red Bull team and are available for anyone to use as long as care is taken and everything is stowed away responsibly after.
Weekly sessions start from 6 p.m. every Tuesday and are completely free. No registration is required—simply turn up and play.
What does a typical night at Tatakai Tuesday look like? On the rainy night in early October that I attended, the crowd was majority, but not completely, male across a seemingly wide age range. According to the regulars, there's usually a group of Japanese girls who come to have fun, older salarymen who bask in the nostalgia of games they used to play as kids and traveling gamers passing through Tokyo and looking to connect with locals.
According to Metoyer, some attendees are prospective professional gamers who want to hone their abilities. Far from the general misconception, fighting games aren't just about mashing buttons faster than your opponent. Rather, Metoyer explains, it's about understanding the tools you have within a confined system and how best to apply them. Rules and abilities naturally differ from game to game: The Tekken series, for example, is a 3D-fighting game that lets players shift from background to foreground planes, thus allowing for more complex movement.
And like with traditional athletes, the quality of your competition can determine how quickly your skills can improve.
"One major difference between other genres in the esports space and (one-on-one) competitions like fighting games is that training turns into quests for personal growth," says Metoyer. "Everyone is trying to have the same quest, and that's what makes it cool. To hit my goal, the people around me need to be good, too. I'm motivated to make you better so you can make me better."
Much of what Metoyer says is reminiscent of my time in martial arts—just like sparring in Muay Thai or kickboxing, you need to grow alongside your training partners, lest you end up struggling to fight people more experienced than you.
Similarly, when a sport is inherently built around camaraderie, that's when community can truly shine. Metoyer recalls one of Tatakai Tuesday's proudest moments—supporting then 8-year-old professional player Tsuyoshi on his path playing Dragon Ball FighterZ. Thanks to the community, they were able to crowdfund Tsuyoshi's trip to Las Vegas with his father so the child prodigy could compete at the Evo 2019 gaming tournament.
Metoyer says he's thinking of other ways to continue to build community spirit through fighting games. One of those is to develop an eikaiwa (English conversation school) that specializes in the kind of conversation and vocabulary Japanese players might need when competing in fighting game tournaments overseas.
"The program would be about teaching domestic (Japanese) players the basics, like how to talk to people or how to ask for a match. This would go a long way in helping them when they participate in overseas tournaments."
Events like Tatakai Tuesday and the effort that Metoyer, Fidelis and their team have put into it are emblematic of how far community spirit can foster spaces for subculture, and even become a force of change for those following the path of a pro fighting gamer.
"Show up and play the game—that's the only check we do," Metoyer says. "Keep turning up and participate. Play people worse than you and people better than you. Fail and watch yourself fail, (then) understand why you failed. Put yourself out there, succeed and understand why you succeeded."
