News

Red Bull Street Fighter tourney is coming to SA & the winner gets R170 000

Luis Monzon

15th May 2023

The Red Bull Kumite Street Fighter 6 tournament is going to be held in Pretoria, South Africa.
Red Bull says 15 of the best players in the world will be invited to attend, and a 16th player will earn their spot locally.
First place at the tournament will net you over R170 000, with each member of the top 16 earning over $1 000 just for placing.

It’s time for South Africa’s FGC to put up or shut up as Red Bull is bringing its Kumite fighting game tournament to the nation’s capital of Pretoria. The two-day tournament, taking place on 1st and 2nd July 2023, is set to bring together the world’s best players for the first Street Fighter tournament since the release of the highly anticipated Street Fighter 6.

Since Street Fighter 6 only launches internationally on 2nd June, gamers around the world will only have one month to hone their skills in time for the Red Bull Kumite.

Red Bull will bring 16 of the best Street Fighter players, most from across the globe to the University of Pretoria Sports Centre to test themselves against local homegrown talent. According to a press release sent to us, 15 players will be invited directly, with one additional player qualifying through a Last Chance Qualifier.

This 16th spot will be vied for locally, so one local player will get the chance to go up against the world’s best Street Fighter 6 players. The players who will be participating in the standout tournament will be announced in the coming weeks.

The first place prize for this year’s Kumite in South Africa is ~R170 000 ($9 000), with ~R95 000 ($5 000), and 3rd and 4th place is ~R76 000 ($4 000) each.

You can win ~R57 000 ($3 000) if you place anywhere between 5th and 8th place, and ~R38 000 ($2 000) if you place 9th to 16th.

More than 1 000 fans can attend the live finals in person, where the competitors will be enclosed inside a cage until the final victor is found. If you can’t grab tickets in time for the event, fear not, for Red Bull will stream it globally too on Twitch and YouTube.

Originally held in Paris from 2015 to 2018, the competition was moved to Japan in 2019 as a nod to ‘the spiritual home to Street Fighter’. In 2021, Red Bull Kumite occurred in London and Las Vegas before arriving in South Africa in 2023.

“Red Bull Kumite coming to South Africa is massive!” said Red Bull Hit the Streets 2022 champion Jabhi ‘JabhiM’ Mabuza.

“For years, Africans couldn’t travel to showcase their skills to the world due to visa issues and money; now the world is coming to us. Our local players will be very happy to play in an internal tournament for the very first time with international commentary. I am very excited to see how my brothers and sisters react to the news and to see their faces when they play in the tournament at the last-chance qualifiers.”

Prospective players can sign up for their chance to participate in Red Bull Kumite South Africa here from 12 May, 17:00. Tickets will be on sale from 17:00 on the 12th May and can be purchased at Computicket.