The Sento Showdown: How a Mortal Kombat Tournament Seeks to Raise Accessibility Awareness
Fighting games are a community in nature, with the broader fighting game community (FGC) and its many pockets emerging around various games creating and participating in regular events based on your favorite games. To do. From Super Smash Bros. to Mortal Kombat to Street Fighter, players of all skill levels come together to compete, teach and celebrate your favorite fighting games from time to time. As the FGC promotes the growth and support of both professional and casual members in all disciplines, it is not surprising that events for players with disabilities will also be formed.
The popularity of fighting games among players with disabilities has evolved with a wider range of accessibility moves.Control remapping, difficulty setting, and even upcoming Street Fighter 6 Various control modes All tools that can reduce or even remove barriers that prevent people with disabilities from playing properly to enable easier movements and combos. These comprehensive design techniques and accessible features were directly responsible for creating the public bath showdown, a Mortal Kombat tournament dedicated to blind / low vision players. Showdown founder Carlos Vasquez talks to IGN to return to the origins of the tournament, recall its evolution and continued excellence within the FGC, and look forward to the accessibility of fighting games and the inclusion of people with disabilities. I explained.
The public bath confrontation recently held the third season.
The beginning of the public bath confrontation
Basquez is no stranger to the highly competitive scene. He participated in the Evolution Championship Series in 2013 and in 2019 with Combo Breaker, a collection of community-based shows and events. After the 2013 performance, he had the opportunity to share accessibility concerns with multiple developers at NetherRealm Studios, and these exchanges added key accessibility features to Injustice. Blind / low vision players have the ability to enable audio cues based on their position on the stage, especially when near interactive objects. Starting in 2013, this option will continue to appear in all NetherRealm Studios games.
Still, it wasn’t the accessibility and popularity of Mortal Kombat that was the decisive factor in creating the showdown, but the desire to connect with members of the community spurred its beginnings.
“When the pandemic began, we were almost deadlocked. [The Sento Showdown] It was a way to stay competitive at the time, “says Basquez. “The officially started method is [general FGC] Members of the community tweeted from the ideas I personally discussed, as I heard them. The tweet was like, “I wish I had a tournament for blind players.” The tweet was essentially an explosion, I commented, and I was like, “Hey, we can do something about it.”
Despite participating in professional and local offline tournaments, Basquez never hosted or hosted his own event. Thankfully, with the help of some friends and the motivation and interest from the Blind / Low Vision FGC, the confrontation was slowly formed. In those early hurdles, Basquez first states that he and some others need to study how to properly set up the tournament structure and cast the match.
“I started learning how to organize brackets, run tournaments, and run live streams in progress. It’s pretty good to learn all these new things and know how much effort it takes to organize them. It was an experience. It looks very simple online, “he said. “Behind the scenes, there was someone who offered me a prize, so I took the opportunity to keep the ball rolling.”
“”
Vasquez needed to determine the most accessible platform for its competitors, in addition to the logistics of creating and hosting online tournaments. Before the release of the current generation console Xbox system-wide accessibility It further promoted the needs of blind / low vision players. Magnification, narration, and text-to-speech are just a few of the features that visually impaired players use in their games without blind assistance. This level of independence provided by the Xbox platform also allows players to participate without the need for additional accommodation.
The reality of the showdown
The general sense of friendship within the FGC meant that Basquez received immediate support from both healthy and disabled people. Since he and several other confrontation organizers have been competitors for many years, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Tekken fan-based members have actively encouraged the establishment of this type of tournament. With such a wide range of support systems from so many player bases, Vasquez and others within FGC show newcomers that not all fighting games require complex input or mastery of detailed mechanics. I chose Mortal Kombat for this.
“In the case of Mortal Kombat, it’s about special movement combinations, and even combo executions,” he said. “It’s very easy compared to other fighting games. Of course, the more competitive the environment, the harder it is to compete. For example, Mortal Kombat has game-specific mechanics such as perfect blocking and wave dashing. This allows you to move around the screen quickly. Such a small thing was actually started by people at the time. It made it easier to run the tournament. “
The public bath confrontation takes pride in bringing fierce competitive behavior not only to healthy people but also to people with disabilities. And the overall quality of the match attracted the attention of prominent FGC members as well as the developers themselves. But even before the match took place, Basquez explained that interest in the showdown was already there.
“The first year we hosted it, [NetherRealm Studios] When we ran the Top 8, it actually went live, “he said. “So they were watching and before we went live, they went live on their own Twitch stream, casually playing games and talking to fans. I live on my stream. When they went to, they almost [raided] Then our stream. “
FGC has shown support through donations of impressive prizes such as MK11, Xbox One, and Fight Stick, as well as views. And Nether Realm Studios wasn’t the only big company to promote early events. In the second year, Xbox connected with Vasquez to broadcast the tournament to hundreds of followers. Xbox is not only the console of choice for system-wide accessibility, but also supports players with disabilities by emphasizing their competitiveness.
“”
“The second year was a very special year because I was able to get in touch with Xbox. The top eight were streamed on the official Xbox Twitch,” he said. “They were impressed with the gameplay and the overall hype we brought. Even some producers talked about how they enjoyed the Grand Finals to settle.”
In this year’s showdown, which aired on Vasquez’s Twitch channel a few weeks ago, Mortal Kombat 11 Kitana, Custom hit box fight stick with Braille embossed sento showdown logo, PS5, And a $ 530 prize pool. All prizes were donated through members of various organizations or FGCs who wanted to support the third year confrontation. Basquez is excited about next year’s tournament, but is still concerned about the continued support of the community and what that means for the continuation of the showdown.
The future of confrontation
Despite the number of viewers and community rewards for the sento showdown, and the clear success so far, Basquez isn’t convinced of its lifespan in the end. Unlike large tournaments like Evo and Combo Breaker, Showdown is still a grassroots event, emphasizing visually impaired / low vision impaired players. Today, the cost of supporting a tournament each year outweighs support and exposure. Public baths survive only thanks to donations from the community that allow them to award valuable prizes, but there is no guarantee of them each year. Without that help, there would be no adequate reward for high levels of competition. Ironically, because we use bracket websites such as Start.gg and Challenge.com, tournaments currently need the help of visible allies, but events such as showdowns have improved that space. I hope to do that. good.
“The more you do these things, the more you will start to realize that you need to make your website easier to access with screen readers.” So the solution we’ve just done is to witness an ally that is part of a team of volunteers running brackets behind the scenes using the official website, but accessible Word with any layout I’ve also created a document As it progresses, the bracket looks like this: “
This level of accessibility awareness is also important in breaking down negative stereotypes about players with disabilities. Despite the need for additional accommodation to create and participate in confrontations, Basquez not only respects players with disabilities, but also competes in tournaments with healthy people. I want to remember that. And that is ultimately Showdown’s greatest mission. Show the need and aspirations of an accessible tournament, and show that players with disabilities can and deserve to compete with healthy people.
“The main thing we want to do is to note that just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you need to relieve it,” he said. “Some of us play against visible players outside the blind FGC. We play against top-level players, often against them on toes. I was surprised for the first time. I think it’s the body, and it feels like “Oh, what’s going on now?”, But when I play with it, there is a mentality that “You have a disability, but I don’t.” I’m only worried if my personality is better than yours. “
“”
What started as a response to a tweet has since evolved into an FGC event that promotes inclusiveness and accessibility. The public bath showdown not only brings a high level of action, but also shows that not only the spectators but also the athletes may have access to the event. The future of the showdown may be fluid, but Basquez hopes that the work already done on it will help continue to push the industry and the entire FGC towards raising people with disabilities alongside healthy people. I want it.
“My hope is to remain in the history of video games as a platform that has done its best to promote accessibility, people’s participation, and community-based settings that don’t necessarily know about fighting games. I hope it is remembered. “
