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Capcom Pro Tour 2026 explained: Schedule, players, format and prize pool
The world’s biggest and best Street Fighter tournament returns with a record purse. From live-streams to players to watch, here’s all the info to help you get in fighting shape.
Hadouken! That’s the sound of the world’s best Street Fighter players battling it out in the Capcom Pro Tour. And it’s music to our ears. Sprinkle in a liberal helping of defiant Sonic Booms and victorious Shoryukens – not to mention a newly beefed up $2.1 million (€1.82 million) prize pot – and you’ve got yourself a tournament.
With the dust only just settling on this year’s Capcom Cup 12, held on March 13-15th in Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, our attention has turned to the Capcom Pro Tour 2026, 12 months of brutal takedowns, finishing moves and upsets building to next year’s Capcom Cup 13.
As well as legendary Red Bull players gearing up to return for the season, we’ll also be back with the Red Bull Gaming Sphere holding unique events in London, and, of course, Red Bull Kumite, our own top-level invitational of premier Capcom Cup talent.
With the new season kicking off with EVO Japan 2026 on Friday, May 1, 2026, and a new World Warrior region in the form of Chile, now’s the time to get up to speed with everything you need to know.
01
What is the Capcom Pro Tour?
Tsunehiro 'Gachikun' Kanamori was victorious in the Capcom Cup X final
© Marv Watson/Red Bull Content Pool
The Capcom Pro Tour (CPT) is the official global esports tournament circuit for Capcom's Street Fighter series. In other words, it’s literally a chance for the best brawlers in the world to get together and fight it out. Previously, the winning individual combatant and the winning team have each walked away with a cool $1 million in prize money. As mentioned above, the purse has received an upgrade ahead of the Capcom Cup 13, allowing for other podium players to share in the loot.
Not sure what Capcom CUP 13 is? Good question. If the Capcom Pro Tour is the season-long qualifiers, the Capcom Cup is essentially the Premier League final. This season’s tournament will take place in Japan in March 2027, with the 2025 season having wrapped up at Capcom Cup, held in March 2026. Simple, right?
A total of 8 players expected to qualify this season, with qualifying tournaments held in 25 regions worldwide.
02
What game will be played in the Capcom Pro Tour 2026?
Only the best Street Fighter 6 players will compete on the Capcom Pro Tour
© Marv Watson/Red Bull Content Pool
There’s only one game you need be concerned about in the CPT ’26 and that’s Street Fighter 6 (SF6), the newest version of the legendary bash-em-up, launched in June 2023. Like other Street Fighter iterations, the latest one features one-on-one knock-out matches. In group tournaments, players are divided into groups (e.g. 4 groups of 8), with the top finishers advancing.
Players can choose their fighters, of course, with characters like Akuma, Rashid, and Guile offering the chance to do high damage on your opponents. Legendary characters like Ryu (who debuted in the very first SF game), Ken, and Ed all remain popular avatar choices, too.
As for upgrades to the core game, SF6 has received new balance patches and new characters like Elena and M. Bison in DLC updates. The biggest update is the V-Rival AI mode, which simulates fighting styles and skill levels based on actual player data. Dynamic Control also helps new players bust out high-level moves with the help of more AI. It goes without saying that it’s disabled in the Capcom Pro Tour!
03
How the Capcom Pro Tour format works
Capcom Pro Tour events always draw huge crowds
© Marv Watson/Red Bull Content Pool
The Capcom Pro Tour features a 48-player tournament, kicking off with a Phase 1 Double Elimination group stage (best of 5), before heading into a Phase 2 Round Robin with remaining contenders divided into eight groups of six.
Players qualify through both online and offline ‘Premier’ events. The winners earn their spot at Capcom Cup 13 with the 2nd - 25th place runners-up all grabbing points. The six players with the highest total points at the end of the tour will also qualify for Capcom Cup 13 – a 16-player single-elimination final.
There’s also the World Warrior Program, which allows international players to qualify through regional online competitions. Usually, five open tournaments are held in each region. As previously mentioned, this year’s Tour will be bigger than ever, expanding to 25 territories, drawing in a wealth of new talent. The top eight finalists will make it to the Capcom Cup 13, as will the first-place finisher of events in the UK and Ireland, Japan, Asia and East Asia.
To make sure the competition really represents the very best of the best, the meanest, most brutal and most skilled fighters out there, the winning team from the SFL: World Championship and the Esports World Cup will also automatically qualify for the showdown to end all showdowns.
04
Key dates and events for the 2026 season
The carnage starts at EVO Japan 2026 on Friday, May 1, 2026 and continues throughout the year, with COMBO BREAKER (May 22-24), and EVO Las Vegas (June 26-28) 2026 also designated as qualifying events alongside the E Sports World Cup (6 July - 23 August) in Riyadh for this season. As per last season, the finale, Capcom Cup 13, will be held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, in early 2027.
Keep up to date with every match with the official schedule, just click here.
05
Top contenders for the Capcom Pro Tour
Masato 'Bonchan' Takahashi is a player to watch out for
© Suguru Saito/Red Bull Content Pool
Red Bull game athletes have a strong history at the Capcom Cup with Kanamori ‘Gachikun’ Tsunehiro claiming victory in 2018, and remaining a top competitor. Masato 'Bonchan' Takahashi is also a feared opponent in the world of the Capcom Pro Tour and is respected as one of the best Street Fighter players in the world.
Arslan 'ASH' Siddique – winner of the 2023 Tekken World Tour Finals – may also make an appearance, while Red Bull Kumite London 2021 winner Derek ‘iDom’ Ruffin may also make a return.
As for the Capcom CUP 12, key teams included the mighty: REJECT, G8S, VARREL, WBG/RB, DRX, FALCONS, and ZETA Division, with Japan’s REJECT ultimately taking the prize after a narrow defeat in the 2024 Street Fighter League: Pro-JP 2024 Grand Finals.
In the Capcom Cup 12 individual tournament, 21-year-old first-time fighter Sahara won the top spot, demonstrating overwhelming ability from the get-go. Both he and REJECT have automatically secured their spots for Capcom Cup 13.
06
Biggest upsets in Capcom Pro Tour history
There have been plenty of shocks in the history of the Capcom Cup
© Marv Watson/Red Bull Content Pool
If we’re talking big moments in the Capcom Pro Tour history, it doesn’t get much bigger than then unsponsored athlete Wang "UMA" Yuan-hao becoming the first $1 million winner in fight game history at the Capcom Cup X in 2024. Of course, this purse has become standard in the tournament, but two years ago, it was a mind-boggling win, making UMA the richest ESport athlete in history at the time. Equally surprising was Hong Kong’s Chris Wong’s (the favourite) near miss in the same finale, with his Luke crumbling against Wang’s Juri.
Then there was Kakeru vs. Blaz in the Capcom Cup 11 finale, an historic showdown in which the 15-year-old prodigy (!) Blaz made history as the youngest qualifier ever before ultimately bowing out to new champion Kakeru.
We’d also be remiss not to mention Gachikun’s ‘Underdog Run’ of 2018 in which the Red Bull stalwart faced his team-mate, Masato ‘Bonchan’ Takahashi, in the Top 8 before wiping the floor with Tokido and Fujimura, the season's two highest-ranked players, to claim overall victory. “As a competitor, I want to improve my gameplay,” Gachikun said in a post-match interview that captured the spirit of the Capcom Pro Tour. “If you have a passion, then you can aspire to be a better player and win big tournaments like me, and aspire to be better.”
07
How to watch the Capcom Pro Tour live
Inspired to get involved this year? You can watch the Capcom Pro Tour events and next year’s Capcom Cup 13 through official Twitch streams and the Capcom Fighters YouTube channels.
Fancy giving it a go as a player? Click here to register
