The Canada Cup is an annual fighting game event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Launched as the Calgary Cup in 2009, the event, organized by Lap Chi Duong, has been a major Street Fighter tournament and is part of the Capcom Pro Tour.
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Description
Property manager and granite shop owner Lap Chi Duong organizes the Canada Cup fighting game event once a year. The Street Fighter tournament held at the Canada Cup has been a Premier Event of the Capcom Pro Tour since 2015. David "Atari" Bibona noted in 2014 the Canada Cup is the biggest gathering of high-level Super Street Fighter II Turbo players, in part due to its international focus, allowing American players to compete with Japanese competitors, where Super Street Fighter II Turbo has a more active scene.
Motherboard described the Canada Cup in 2016 as the "largest and most prestigious fighting game tournament in the country."
History
The Canada Cup started in 2009 as the Calgary Cup, held in Calgary rather than Toronto. The tournament was rebranded as the Canada Cup the following year as top Street Fighter players like Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong flew in to compete in the competition. In 2011, Duong decided to charge Twitch.tv viewers of the tournaments $8.95 USD for commercial-free, high-definition livestreams, which became a running gag among the fighting game community. Duong moved the tournament to Toronto in 2012, though he had difficulty convincing sponsors and finding support. Duong stated in an interview with Motherboard that he had contacted 200 unique sponsors at the time, and only one responded positively: Mad Catz. The Cup moved back to Calgary for one year in 2014, which Duong noted as the first year it did not operate at a loss.
2015
In 2015, the Canada Cup became the final Premier Event of the Capcom Pro Tour season. The winner of its Super Street Fighter IV tournament automatically qualified for the 2015 Capcom Cup. 13 of the top 23 players in the Capcom Pro Tour rankings competed in the competition, and The Daily Dot described the Canada Cup as the "deepest tournaments of the season". The tournament was eventually won by Tokido, defeating Fuudo in the finale by playing Akuma with a solid ground game.
2016
Canada Cup 2016 hosted 14 tournaments. Duong invited high-level Super Smash Bros. players Armada, Hungrybox, and Mang0 through a publicity stunt, donating a large amount of money to their Twitch.tv streams in order to contact them. The Canada Cup was again the final Street Fighter tournament of the Capcom Pro Tour, and became the first Premier Event in two years to have an American champion: Du "NuckleDu" Dang.