Pixels and power ups
Relive arcade nostalgia at the Versus Festival, a day-long extravaganza with esports tournaments, art, anime, and workshops
or those of us who grew up in the late 1990s and early Noughties, going to an arcade gaming parlour to play racing and ghting games was a fun pastime.
Gaming parlours of late have become more sophisticated with the advent of technology. The parlours often lack the charm of the old parlours, as do the games.
This is where the Versus Festival comes into play. A day-long celebration of gaming, art, and anime, the festival aims at expanding the ghting game tournament culture in India. Fighting games are a genre of video games where players directly control characters who engage in hand-to-hand combat against one another.
Adhithya Mahesh, senior member IndianFGC, and the founder of Versus Festival says, “The ghting games community is pretty old. We’ve been playing since 2007-08. But in the last ve years, we started noticing that there are a lot of sub communities popping up.”
The festival aims at providing a
Fplatform to sub-communities that have a similar DNA such as cosplay and anime enthusiasts. Founded and presented by esports banner Daijoubu, the Versus Festival is being organised by artist community Sunshine House, indie music community Circle of Love, The Chennai Scene, Indian FGC ( ghting game community) and SSB India (Super Smash Bros community).
“We (gaming communities) conduct weekly meets and plays, and it was during these meetings that we discovered that the Tamil Nadu Government is actively trying to back these kinds of eorts. One of our biggest backers is the ESAT federation of Tamil Nadu,” he says. The Electronic Sports Authority of Tamil Nadu is an apex body of esports that recognises gaming seriously, ever since the Asian Games added this as a category.
“Many micro communities like the cosplaying, artists and the quizzing communities are coming together. For example, there is going to be a group of people who play this obscure Japanese card game,” he says, adding that The Board Room, one of Chennai’s earliest boarding game cafés, will be participating as well.
“When you buy a ticket for the Versus Festival, you will be able to compete in two tournaments. One is for Street Fighter 6 and the other is for Smash,” he says.
This edition of the festival will see competitors from six dierent states and a few international participants from West Asia and Bangladesh as well. The tournament winners will receive cash prizes up to ₹1 lakh.
Apart from this, the festival also features a free arcade gaming zone, panel discussions, quizzes, food, art, and shopping stalls. Also on the agenda are workshops for prop-making by Adithya Ashok, an anime-themed art workshop by Derek D’Souza, and even a sushi making class.
The festival will feature a free arcade gaming zone, panel discussions, quizzes, food, art, and shopping stalls
The Versus Festival will be held at the IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai on May 19 from 10am to 9pm. Tickets are on skillboxes.com at ₹763. Find them on Instagram @theversusfestival