An Epic Fighting Game Festival Is Hitting Australia This Weekend

This weekend Melbourne is playing host to one of the largest fighting festivals Australia has ever seen.

Starting today and running through the weekend at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, BAM9 is the 9th annual esports Battle Arena Melbourne (BAM) festival, run by the passionate fighting game community Couch Warriors.

BAM9's streaming schedule.
BAM9’s streaming schedule.
Featuring tournaments across Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros (Melee, Wii U) Dead or Alive and many more, it is no surprise the fighting centric festival has over a 1000 gamers and pros alike signed up for tournaments.

Speaking of pros, Australia’s and a number of the world’s best fighting players are making their to Melbourne, including world famous players such as Daigo, Infiltration, Xian and many more.

The festival will feature the first ever Australian Capcom Pro Tour Premier event, a major event for the global circuit, with over $20,000 in the prize pool for the Street Fighter V tournament alone.

If you’re a Tekken fan, you should definitely be making you way down for the event as they’ll be a Tekken 7 tournament on and setups for anyone to play on. I may add weeks before the game is out.

And of course there will be some huge tournaments across two stages for Super Smash Bros 4 and Melee.

Along with the numerous tournaments on, there will be cosplay events, artist alleys, signings with professional players and an after party on the Sunday night.

This is an incredible event, one which if I lived in Melbourne I’d be going to without hesitation. If you’re a fighting game fan, this is a must attend. Or if you’re new to fighters or want to become more involved in the fighting community, then this would be the perfect start.

For more info on the event check out Couch Warriors and there is even a Facebook event.