Street Fighter had its biggest Evo ever this year, with a colossal 5,000 players entering the Street Fighter V tournament over the weekend – it was so massive that even sports network ESPN covered it live on television.
The Las Vegas event came to a close last night when Japanese R. Mika player Fuudo came up against South Korea's Infiltration in the grand finals and lost. Fuudo had played two matches up to that point in the top 8, actually knocking Infiltration into the losers bracket via the winners final.
However, many viewers, including ourselves, noticed that Fuudo changed to Mika's story costume after his first top eight match. According to Ryan Harvey – otherwise known as fubarduck – ESPN deemed Mika's default costume to be "too revealing" for its TV coverage, and so Fuudo was told to change Mika into an outfit that didn't show quite as much virtual skin.
It seems a bit crazy when we write it out like that, but we suppose that Mika's default costume is perhaps a little risque when it comes to the broader audience who may be watching the tournament on TV. Of course, this isn't the first time that Mika's made the headlines thanks to her design; there was a lot of controversy following Capcom's decision to bump her butt-slapping super animation just off camera before the full game released here in the West.
What do you make of this, then? Is Mika's default costume really that revealing? Give her your jacket in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com, via neogaf.com]
Comments 28
This is what happens when people playing video games are broadcast live on television.
Cartoon boobs and butts are too much for society- but BDSM porn is easily at anyone's finger tips.
It's OK to show violence on television, but a little T and A? Call up your senator!!!
It's a shame that the Japanese have to censor their games because of uptight $$$$s in the west.
Nobody wants to see a digital nip-slip.
But a guy character could wear next to nothing and no one would say anything.
Sensitive, progressive America at its finest. What I find most annoying about the whole thing is one of the biggest movies over here in recent years, which was loved by the 'wider audience' that condemns this stuff was essentially a rape fantasy. But some guys find digital skin ok and we can't have that. So damn sick of the stupidity but in fairness to ESPN, this isn't a new issue just heightened. I remember my mother was ok with me playing M rated games like Resident Evil or MK with blood and guts being all over the place and it was fine that I was having fun. Movies with constant murder, including some more brutal for women was ok. Even rear female nudity, however, and my dad was in the doghouse for allowing me to see such atrocities up until I was 15 or 16. I was mentally stable enough to not grow up a murderer but somehow a female butt would've turned me into a serial sex offender.
You can see on a billboard an underpants David Beckham and it's totally ok, but Miranda Kerr in a good and sexy lingerie, noo sir that's totaly inmoral and bad taste.
Good job no one picked Laura then, the suits would have fainted then.
@ROBALEXXX
Yup, objectification, even if she doesn't mind doing the ad.
Apparently it's completely fine when a male (Zangief) shows even more skin than a female.
Not cool with the racial stereotyping -Tasuki-
@Gamer83
Honestly, besides a few examples, I don't think most females are offended by such things at all (you mentioned 50 shades).
It's uptight dudes who love to wave the SJW flag that are killing it for everybody.
@sub12
I think it's an uptight society as a whole. America in particular has always been uptight, there's just more outlets now than ever to vent.
Rachel Nichols was triggered
I am more offended by her super cheap play style. So nice to see Nash triumph over that horrible abomination of "vortex" gameplay
Wouldn't the target audience for this be used to scantily clad gals in fighting games anyway? Bonkers!
Well the thread over at Neogaf sums it up. All the female designs are bad and good for ESPN.
It was probably a safety precaution in case anybody was watching the show on a 3D television.
What's really nutty about this is that the broadcast didn't even start until 10p (EST). They show full frontal nudity (of real humans!) on ElRey (as an example to show it's not just on "premium" channels) from 9p on.
This just in: women have breasts.
@Churchy lol
It was more probably of a precaution so they didn't get a stupid fine from the FCC. Because it falls under a sport event there is probably some sort of FCC rule that was put in place due to the whole Janet Jackson Nipplegate controversy.
I personally thought ESPN's involvement with EVO took away for other reasons. A huge delay of nothing after the Melee finals finished, the announcer taking over and treating it like it was UFC or boxing with excessive intros, and what was apparently a 20 second delay for Twitch from what was happening on ESPN. Given that and the whole "bloody murder is okay, but a little skin is a huge problem" mentality in the west these days, I'm not surprised this happened.
No such thing.
#PixelLivesMatter
It's time we gave pixels and polygons rights and stopped exploiting them for our personal gain. These particular polygons are less than 2 years old, this is sick.
@ASonic3582 Not so much "the west" as much as it is America. It's also not really just these days either, it's been like that for centuries. If anything, America is way better than it used to be now. Though while the "think of the children!" angle is fading away a bit, it's being replaced by "I am offended, as a womyn, by how much flesh this fictional character is showing - or even the viewing angle of said polygonal model."
@Bliquid Ah, so that's what I've been carrying around all these years.
Curse those penny sweets.
Anyone and everyone is offended by everything, but the thing I find most distasteful though is the constant hijacking of debates to purport an agenda by assuming that every single person that doesn’t share your view is a stereotype of a “Knuckle Dragging Teefbreefer” or opposingly a “douchey SJW”.
When you look at Maria in Silent Hill 2, she was a sexualised character, but there was, for me a narrative reason for this as it was the opposite of James’ wife and the representation of the seductive temptation to “let go of the truth/past” .
Chloe in Drakes Fortune was a good example of a sexy, assertive woman with an interesting character. Nobody moaned too much about her.
Yes women have breasts, No I don’t care if they are in video games covered or not, but I did PREFER it when Rhianna Pratchett wrote Lara Croft in Tomb Raider as a strong, yet rounded female protagonist and the character model became an attractive, athletic woman with more realistic proportions.
Some of the overtly sexual, underwhelming character stuff is a bit tiresome for me as a fan, because of the lack of “value” in it, nothing other than that. I just personally think it can be a bit cheap/rubbish to use comedy giant boobs in lieu of a compelling character or narrative. I’d feel the same if it were giant man meat flopping around on my screen. I feel it equally when a protagonist seems to be a male, around 30, with a bit of stubble and looks like a men's health cover model, but has no personality other than "too cool for school"; disinteresting.
I still one hundred percent think there is a right to make these characters and games though, however, since ESPN is owned by Disney, I think people have to understand how keen DISNEY as a corporation are to protect their “family fun” image, even if it seems heavy handed.
If they think that they will lose sales and corporate image by having cartoon women slapping their bums, then female cartoon bum slapping simply won’t air.
That’s all there is to it, nothing to do with the government given "right" to make these things, or whether 1 person in Spokane, IL is offended. It’s about profit and image for a private corporation.
@Bliquid
Yes, 80% majority owners since 1996.
They are a very, very image conscious company, which probably contributed greatly to the decision.
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