The Capcom Cup is a yearly fighting game competition that focuses on the Street Fighter series. The first event took place in 2013 and included three main games: Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition version 2012, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Street Fighter X Tekken version 2013. Each game had 8 players who qualified for the tournament. In 2014, the Capcom Cup only included Ultra Street Fighter IV, with 16 qualified players. In 2015, the tournament expanded to have 32 players, and later grew to 48 players starting with the 2022–23 edition. Players qualify for the Capcom Cup through a series of events called the Capcom Pro Tour. These events include well-known fighting game competitions such as Evolution Championship Series and DreamHack.

History

In 2013, Capcom started the Capcom Cup right after EVO 2013. Ho "Xian" Kun Xian received a special invitation. Capcom set dates for qualifiers to choose the seven other players. A poll was used to select players for the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament. The players chosen were Nemo, Justin Wong, KaneBlueRiver, IFC Yipes, Abegen, NYChrisG, Filipino Champ, and MarlinPie. For the Street Fighter X Tekken tournament, special invites were given to Infiltration, Justin Wong, Alex Valle, and NuckleDu. The other four players were chosen through two tournaments on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.

Capcom Cup 2013 took place at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, California on December 14, 2013. There was an issue about EVO 2013 champion Job "Flocker" Figueroa not being included in the player list. Capcom arranged a First-To-Five exhibition match between Flocker and the Capcom Cup 2013 champion. NYChrisG, the winner of the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament, defeated Flocker. Two exhibition matches were also held for an early version of Ultra Street Fighter IV. The first match was between Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez-Frangie and Alex Valle. The second match was between Infiltration and Filipino Champ.

In 2014, Twitch and Capcom created the Capcom Pro Tour for Ultra Street Fighter IV. Ten players automatically qualified for the tournament, and six others earned points. The Pro Tour used a point system with four levels. Tier 3 included six online tournaments, which had the lowest earnings. Tier 2 featured international tournaments with players from specific regions. Tier 1 had nine Premier Tournaments. A player could qualify by winning a tournament or being the top unqualified player. The Evolution Tier included the Evolution Championship Series, which gave players four times the points of a Premier Tournament and an automatic spot in the Capcom Cup. Tier 3 was removed from the 2015 Pro Tour.

Capcom Cup 2014 was the final event of the 2014 Pro Tour. It took place at The Warfield in San Francisco, California on December 13, 2014. A Brazilian player named Eric "ChuChu" Moreira Silva qualified by earning most of his points in online tournaments. Momochi had a strong performance, defeating Snake Eyez, losing to Ryan Hart, and then dominating the rest of the tournament. Two exhibition matches were held for Ultra Street Fighter IV Omega Mode. The main match was Alex Valle vs. Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez. The secondary match was Kelvin Jeon vs. Hooman "Hoodaman" Ghahremani. Capcom also showed the first match of Street Fighter V, with Twitch’s Mike Ross using Ryu against Capcom’s Peter "Combofiend" Rosas using Chun-Li.

Capcom Cup 2015 was announced by Yoshinori Ono at Capcom Cup 2014. The tournament used the same rules as the previous year. A partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment gave the 2015 Pro Tour a total prize pool of $500,000. The tournament size doubled from 16 to 32 players. One spot was reserved for 2014’s champion, Yusuke Momochi. In May 2015, Capcom added a rule: if the top four players in a Premier event had already qualified, the automatic spot would be removed, and a new slot would be added to the leaderboards.

Capcom Cup 2015 was held on December 6 at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, during the PlayStation Experience conference.

Capcom Cup 2016 was scheduled for December 2016. Thirty-two players would qualify by winning one of eleven Global Premier Events, Evo 2016, regional events, or by earning high points on the leaderboards. Street Fighter V was released before the 2016 Pro Tour and replaced Ultra Street Fighter IV.

Capcom Cup 2016 took place on December 2–3, 2016. The top 32 to top 8 matches were held on December 2 at the esports Arena in Santa Ana, California. The top 8 matches were held on December 3 at the Anaheim Convention Center during PlayStation Experience. NuckleDu won the tournament by defeating Ricki Ortiz in the final.

Capcom removed automatic qualification spots in the 2017 Pro Tour to simplify the system. Confusion about Global and Regional Leaderboards during 2016 led to this change. Capcom’s Neidel "Haunts" Crisan noted in November 2016 that the 2017 season might have fewer events than 2016.

Saúl Antonio Mena "MenaRD" from the Dominican Republic, who was 17 years old, won Capcom Cup 2017. He defeated Tokido from Japan with a score of 3-1. Along the way, he beat well-known players like Daigo The Beast, Nemo, Itazan, and Xian, the previous champion.

Capcom Cup 2018 was held at the Esports Arena in Las Vegas from December 14–16. A "Last Chance Qualifier" event filled the final spot in the 32-player bracket. The first prize was $250,000. Kanamori "Gachikun" Tsunehiro won the tournament by defeating Hiromiki "Itabashi Zangief" Kumada in the grand finals. Top-seeded players like Taniguchi "Tokido" Hajime, the Evo 2017 champion, were eliminated early.

Capcom Cup 2019 was held at The Novo in Los Angeles, California from December 13–15, 2019. Like 2018, it began with a Last Chance Qualifier. Derek "iDom" Ruffin won the tournament by defeating Victor "Punk" Woodley in the grand finals.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused all offline events for the 2020 and 2021 Pro Tours to be canceled. Events were held online, and the Capcom Cups were replaced by online Season Final tournaments.

Capcom Cup IX returned in 2023 as the culmination of the 2022 Pro Tour. It took place at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles from February 14–19, 2023. The first prize was $120,000. Saul Leonardo "MenaRD" Mena II won the tournament.

Capcom Cup X, held in 2024, was the first to use Street Fighter 6. It took place at Avalon Hollywood from February 21–25, 2024. A Last Chance Qualifier filled the final spot in the 48-player bracket. The prize pool was over $2,000,000. Wang "UMA" Yuan-hao won the tournament with a prize of $1,000,000, the largest in fighting game history.

Capcom Cup 11 is scheduled for 2025 and will be held at Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan. The first prize will remain at $1,000,0