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With its presence in the eSports world quickly climbing, Capcom seems to be taking extra measures to ensuring its place among the competitive gaming cosmos. Yesterday, the Japanese gaming giant announced that “sponsors [they] deem inappropriate” will, from there on out, be prohibited from competing in future Capcom Pro Tour Tournaments for its competitive fighting games.
Though Capcom didn’t list any names, the only major sponsor that is associated with any “inappropriate” acts in recent Capcom tournaments is a team named Team YP. Team YP’s players – which included Street Fighter players Valentin “Valmaster” Petit and Anton “Filipinoman” Herrera – will still be allowed to compete, albeit without the Team YP branding.
The original ruling actually came six days ago, wherein Capcom laid out the following edict in its Capcom Pro Tour Rules set:
Capcom will not allow Players to participate in any Tournament if sponsored by adult content sponsors, such as a publisher of pornographic websites, or any other sponsor Capcom deems inappropriate at its sole discretion. Players who are sponsored by alcoholic beverages, cigarettes or vaping (e-cigarette) products will not be precluded from competing in a Tournament.
And what is Team YP, you might ask?
It’s the eSports branch of adult content (pornography) website YouPorn, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at Team YP’s official website. In fact, more than little digging on the Internet brings up no connection between the two (yes, even on YouPorn’s official website; we saved you the trouble of having to go there), beyond what has been reported on in other new stories and eSports databases. The most work-safe way of doing so is to simply look at the team’s entry on the ever-reputable Team Liquid Wiki.
It should be noted that Team YP does absolutely zero promotion for YouPorn itself. It’s kind of like an in-joke snicker, really, except that they’re serious about competing.
Team YP, meanwhile, was rather disappointed with Capcom’s ruling. They stated that they will continue to strive for equality of representation within competitive gaming.
A quick scan through the twitter feeds of both accounts reveals that fighting game fans are generally displeased with Capcom’s ruling as well. Some point out that Capcom is practicing hypocrisy by banning a team with loose connections to a pornography site, while allowing teams with close ties to alcohol and cigarette products to continue competing. Others point out that Capcom is operating according to current cultural climates, where a connection to porn can lead to devastating criticism in the realm of the press. Feel free to discuss this aspect of the story in the comments section.
This isn’t the first time Team YP has been shunned by eSports institutions, either. Back in April, ESL blocked any association with Team YP on similar grounds as Capcom’s own. Fan responses were also, unsurprisingly, similar.
Whether Capcom will rescind its statement in the future remains to be seen. Valmaster and Filipinoman will, thankfully, still be able to compete. The biggest question, however, is this: what will happen if or when an eSports institution welcomes Team YP with open arms?