Get ready for EVO with this great Fighting Game Community (FGC) documentary

‘Rise of the Fighting Game Community’

EVO 2016 is set to take place from July 15-17 in Vegas again this year, and man does it look great. There are already over 4,000 Street Fighter V entrants, which already broke records with its 3,000 entrants earlier this year. Pokken is also getting lots of play, as is Smash 4 (as it’s called at EVO) — the latter is the biggest Smash appearance at EVO ever. So yeah! Lots to be excited about.

To prep, you can give this documentary a go, called “FGC: Rise of the Fighting Game Community.” It actually came out earlier this year but is now available in full on YouTube, which you can watch below. It’s a passion project by Esteban Martinez (who shot and edited the entire film) and Jason Durso. If you like it, you can pick up the deluxe edition here.

It’s a great primer not only for the games, but to put names with faces for a few of the more popular community members (including Lord Knight, one of my personal favorite players). After watching it, I immediately went into Street Fighter V and started playing online. It’s infectious, and brought back a lot of great memories both watching and attending tournaments of my own.