Olympic Esports Week exhibition features one of the earliest Street Fighter 6 competitions

Street Fighter is a cornerstone of the fighting game community. The first game in the series launched all the way back in 1987, and new games have come out regularly since then. The longevity of the series has helped foster communities all over the world.

These communities love to dive straight into the action whenever Capcom, the developer and publisher of the iconic fighting game, launches a new Street Fighter title. We're about to witness a small part of that as players from Japan, England and Thailand descend on Singapore on 25 June for an exhibition match at the the inaugural Olympic Esports Week.

This will be one of the earliest international Street Fighter 6 tournaments as the game only launched worldwide on 2 June. It's a launch that players have been looking forward to for months.

"I started playing Street Fighter in Street Fighter IV in 2009," said Thai Street Fighter player Thum "MindRPG" Homchuen. "I saw an arcade machine in the shopping mall so I tried it, and I like it very much. After that I bought the game on PS3 and have continued playing since then."

Players such as Homchuen and Kim-Philippe "The4Philzz" Badiabio have been competing in Street Fighter for years. They've grown used to the grind of learning to compete in a new game every handful of years. The challenge rarely gets any easier, though.

"Currently, I have been finding Street Fighter 6 [to be] very chaotic in terms of how the game is played. Many things have changed and are now completely different from the previous game," Badiabio said. "It is only the first season of the game, so I am sure that many adjustments will be made in the future. I do believe that currently, some mechanics in the game are overwhelmingly strong, which is making the skill gap between the elite players and the above average players a lot smaller."

Street Fighter 6 features a number of new moves and features, with the biggest one being the Drive Meter. The Drive Meter is a gauge that gives players the ability to use a number of new, powerful moves by draining the meter. They'll need to think tactically, though. Use too many of these special moves and you'll become vulnerable to an enemy attack.

The Olympic Esports Week exhibition players have been experimenting with Street Fighter 6 since the day it came out. While they have fought on big stages before – Badiabio is a Street Fighter League EU champion – they never imagined they'd be playing on an Olympic stage.

"I hope my plays could encourage and inspire people who watch it," Homchuen said. "Especially people in my country to start playing fighting games."

Watch the Olympic Esports Week Street Fighter 6 exhibition matches on 25 June at 13:45 (Singapore time). All the thrilling finals action will be streamed globally on Olympics.com and Olympics social channels.