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Last night, after classes, I had a chance to attend Capcom's first Chicago Fight Club.
When I arrived, there was a huge mob standing in the dark outside and it looked like some real fights could go down. Since I didn't arrive until 8:30PM, I have no idea what happened, but the line had been destroyed and it turned into this big mass standing around. I was not looking forward to the wait. Then a bouncer announced that singe women and men paired with women would be allowed in. Fortunately, I brought a woman (take that nerds) and got whisked into the VIP line (the bouncers wore CIA style suits). Some people had been there since 8 AM and I was in within 5 minutes (I missed the SWAG though).
Inside was pretty amazing, it was a large warehouse with 14 two-player game stations set up. Each station had an LCD monitor that was missing its frame so it looked like the images were popping out of thin air. Also, there was one PS3 with either two Fightsticks or two PS3 pads (I got stuck playing on pad) at each station. Capcom's staff were all walking around talking to the players, taking pictures, and passing out things (I met Seth Killian, and the producer of Final Fight Double Impact gave me a Final Fight token)
and there were designated areas for zombie makeup (left overs from the Dead Rising 2 event in California), beer, and the DJ (playing cool Street Fighter mixes). In the middle of the back wall there was a huge screen with a pretty poor quality projection of the game playing (nothing could match up to those monitors). In the middle of the warehouse there was a place with Pizza (I almost got trampled standing there when the food arrived), drinks, and napkins, but no garbage cans (I left my mess on a box–sorry Capcom!).
The atmosphere inside was pretty amazing, people were friendly, sweaty, and excited. I watched one woman play and scream every time that she was hit; she almost won her match, but got knocked out at the literal last second. I played one match (lame preview coming soon) and lost, but enjoyed the game. Sadly, when I left an hour and some change later, there was still a huge line waiting to get in. Should have brought ladies with them…
Here are some more images.
(Those monitors were super nice)
(Women, never leave home, or school, without them)
(Yeah, that's Seth Killian in the middle)
(Who's playing? Maybe it was a recording)
(I got this for having a nice shirt)