The thrillingly-named Super Battle Opera (a.k.a. “Tougeki, the 5th Arcadia Cup Tournament”) is Japans de facto national fighting game championships. It should come as no surprise that the birthplace of the modern fighting game is also home to many of the greatest players in the world (including Ohnuki, Kurahashi, and the now-infamous Daigo Umehara), and so the competition is always fierce.

The Super Battle Opera competitors (“SBO”) are mostly Japanese nationals that qualify in arcades across the country, but the event also reserves spots for select teams of foreign players. This U.S. players have a long history of close combat with a number of high-profile Japanese players at international competitions like EVO, and as a result, SBO has granted multiple U.S. teams entry into the tournament. This years U.S. teams are being chosen at arcades in Providence, RI, Houston, TX, and Los Angeles, CA.

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Despite a decline in America, acades have remained quite popular in Japan. They still hold their major competitions on arcade hardware, and Tougeki is no exception. Beyond being great hotbeds for competition, Japanese arcades are a stark contrast to many American arcades, since they are actually clean, offer working controls, and are safe places to just hang out. Their hardware is also fairly different than U.S. standards. They use “head-to-head” cabinets, where the players sit across from one another rather than side to side, and each enjoys his own monitor and set of controls.

The joysticks themselves are also different, featuring a much shorter shaft attached to a ball mechanism (“lollipop” style) as opposed to the taller American sticks with with a more balloon-shaped grip. American machines also often feature round optical bases (referred to braodly as “360s” for the 360 degree range of motion), whereas the Japanese standard is an 8-direction analog controller with a square base that has distinct corners. Though the Japanese standard is perhaps less technologically advanced, many top player find the setup to be more responsive than the American.

Finally, Japanese buttons are usually convex rather than the concave American buttons, and are splayed to fit the natural position of a right hand instead of lined up in neat rows. Foreign competitors at SBO are given the option to play on either Japanese control panels or their local standard (Korean setups, for instance, are different than both the U.S. and Japanese configurations).

This past weekend was the Los Angeles qualifier for Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition. It was held at the Family Fun arcade, and although entrants were limited to U.S. residents (since the reserved spots are designated by country), players came from as far as Hawaii to compete for the spots (winning teams also receive hotel and airfare to Japan). Reports described the level of play as extremely high, with a tense and close-fought matches from the beginning of the event on through the finals. The match footage has not yet been released, but here are some pictures of the action and of the winning teams (pictures courtesy of Thomas Shin and John Choi):

Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Won by the team of Ricky Ortiz, Michael Fauson, and Ken Inoue)

Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition (Won by the team of Alex Wolfe and Graham Wolfe (brothers))

A few crowd shots, featuring some famous faces.