For those of us who grew up in the late 1990s and early Noughties, going to an arcade gaming parlour to play racing and fighting games was a fun pastime. The ring of the arena, bike throttles revving, intro music to popular games like Smash, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter, coins being dropped into slots, and kids cheering on their friends, are sounds that continue to evoke nostalgia .
Gaming parlours of late have become more sophisticated with the advent of technology. They often lack the charm of the old parlours, as do the games.
While it is possible to download an arcade game off the Internet for a hit of nostalgia, it is not satiated due to the lack of an ambience. This is where the Versus Festival comes into play. A day-long celebration of gaming, art, and anime, the festival aims at expanding the fighting game tournament culture in India. Fighting games are a genre of video games where players directly control characters who engage in hand-to-hand combat against one another.
FIFA | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Adhithya Mahesh, senior member IndianFGC, and the founder of Versus Festival says, “The fighting games community is pretty old. We’ve been playing since 2007-08. But In the last five years, we started noticing that there are a lot of sub communities popping up.”
The festival aims at providing a platform to sub-communities that have a similar DNA such as cosplayers, communities celebrating art, food, and culture of South East Asia, and anime communities. Founded and presented by esports banner Daijoubu, the Versus Festival is being organised by artist community Sunshine House, indie music community Circle of Love, The Chennai Scene, Indian FGC (fighting game community) and SSB India (Super Smash Bros community).
Gamers use desktop computer keyboards at the Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, Germany | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“We (gaming communities) conduct weekly meets and plays, and it was during these meetings that we discovered that the Tamil Nadu Government is actively trying to back these kinds of efforts. Right now, one of our biggest backers is the ESAT federation of Tamil Nadu,” he says. The Electronic Sports Authority of Tamil Nadu is an apex body of esports that recognises gaming seriously, ever since the Asian Games added this as a category with games like Dota, League of Legends and more.
“The identity of the festival is hybrid. Many micro communities like the cosplaying, artist and the quizzing communities are coming together. For example, there is going to be a group of people who play this obscure Japanese card game and I cannot even pronounce the name.” he says, adding that The Board Room, one of Chennai’s earliest boarding game cafés, will be participating as well.
While the festival places its core focus on electronic sports with fighting games at the centre of it all, it is also open for the audience to explore niche interests which might not have been presented on mainstream platforms before.
Visitors visiting stall and experiencing the visual effects, video gaming and 3d animation | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K
“When you buy a ticket for the Versus Festival, you will be able to compete in two tournaments. One is for Street Fighter 6 and the other is for Smash, and both these tournaments will be live-streamed.” he says. This edition of the festival, despite being the first of its kind, will see competitors from six different states and a few international participants from the West Asia and Bangladesh as well. The tournament winners will receive cash prizes up to ₹1 lakh.
Apart from this, the festival also features a free arcade gaming zone, panel discussions, food, art, and shopping stalls. Also on the agenda are workshops for prop-making by Adithya Ashok, an anime themed art workshop by Derek D’Souza, and even a sushi making class which might see the festival collaborate with chefs and Japanese food enthusiasts.
The Versus Festival will be held at the IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai on May 19 from 10am to 9pm. Tickets are available on skillboxes.com at ₹763. For more information on event schedule and registrations for workshops, log on to theversusfestival on Instagram.
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