“Cannes is famous for the film festival, but in March the city rolls out the red carpet for stars of a different sort. The fighting game elite descend upon the South of France for the biggest tournament in this part of the world. The best of Korea, USA, Mexico, Sweden, France, Japan, Singapore, Italy and UK, to name a few, have come to battle for the gold. While the matches are world class, for some it’s more the hotel sessions that what make the trip especially memorable.”
That’s what I wrote in the book. Now let’s go back, go into a bit more detail, pull up some more memories, and deliver the full size pics.
Here’s the view from the apartments. Not bad for spring!
It all went down February 28th to March 2nd 2014. The address was Palais des Festivals et des congrès de Cannes, La Croisette, 06400 Cannes, Cannes, France. The ivgc website is now dead, along with the brackets. This is when I point to the sign, “go to an event before it’s gone”.
These were the days of KOFXIII, where the community agreed that xbox was the best platform to run the game. You can see Nic from EH checking on scores.
Here’s Rickyo and MrQuarate commentating as Tahar and Salim play.
It’s interesting to look back at the development of the FGC and if you didn’t know, the organisers of IVGC did World Game Cup before that and went on to produce Cannes Winter Clash, and then Ultimate Fighting Arena. I remember the huge salon space, and the start of what seemed to a promising partnership between the town of Cannes and the FGC. Events are always good for business, and hundreds of people book hotels and eat at restaurants. The space was shared with an anime event and other types of gaming. It was a good time.
Cannes is a beach town and is in Nice, France. This is not exactly where EVO France takes place, but close enough. In the summer, the place is heaving, so it’s much better, and certainly less hot, to visit off season. For the visitors, especially the Parisians, staying in the local aparthotels was like going to Las Vegas, in that there were dozens of rooms with gamers ready to play, all for free. Dedication was at a high, people brought monitors and consoles by train or by car, even by plane. This is where we started doing the side events, like the Orochinagi Cup and the ‘First to Divekick’ matches.
I remember certain players going to sleep at a reasonable time and certain players staying up to do Money Matches, only to turn up late for their brackets the following morning… there was that discussion about pro player privilege, as tournaments were held up and these players were not DQ’d… Do you remember which players were famous for doing that?
Different rooms were full of players, it must have been a nightmare for normal holiday-goers. But it was such fun!
The rivalry this year between the French and English re-ignited with Street Fighter 3vs3. The French succesfully took revenge in the 3v3 after last year’s loss. Sweden’s Popi showed that defeating Infiltration was not a one time fluke and joined a top 8 that was full of international flavour including Dieminion (USA) and Xian (Singapore).
Speaking of International, IVGC managed to secure the KOF legend, Bala, who certainly did his job, winning pretty much everything KOF related. Many came to the hotel to see him play and chat with everyone about KOF all over the world!
In one of the rooms, Imstilldaddy was getting down to some money matches. He lost a few so had to go down to the ATM. Now the ATM was directly in view from our hotel room, and people started taunting those who went down there, as it was obvious why. So, ISDD heard someone taunting him and shouted back that he was coming up to get them. This caused some sniggering but then there was the fact that he was certainly coming back, which sent a chill down my spine. These players didn’t know ISDD was not someone to fuck about, or perhaps they just wanted to play with fire.
I was busy watching matches but I clearly remember when ISDD stormed back into the room, demanding to know who taunted him. He was pissed! It was that kind of moment where your chin would disappear into your neck and your eyes widened. Of course, as there was no screen to hide behind, the trolls were silent. ISDD was furious, asking players randomly if it was them! “Was it you? Was it you???” I was sitting there drinking my cup of tea, watching everyone give each other the side eye (apart from those fixed on their own matches). The atmosphere was between absolute fear and the impulse to burst out laughing. It was like a teacher interrogating the kids to find out who drew a rude word on the board. Anyway, ISDD exhaled, got back to his matches and the room breathed a sigh of relief. I was happy to see ISDD getting into KOF, and he was a Saiki player. Fast forward to 2026, he plays COTW and I remember him saying ‘now this is a real game, none of that comeback bull—-‘.
There are also some quick interviews here with ISDD, Problem X and Roatse https://orochinagi.com/2014/03/ivgc-interviews-part-1-problem-x-roatse-supa-imstilldadaddy
Back to the room, the taunting of people at the ATM continued!
I think this was the time Ryan Hart sold me a Tritton headset, as he had won too many! Tritton was actually acquired by MadCatz in 2010 and then sold off in 2018.
At the event space, Bala was jet lagged and fell asleep against my leg. I had to stop people taking a photo, geez.
Here’s Supa and Salim. Look at all these KOF communities! Man… lots of these disappeared, and I think the covid pandemic really hurt the scene. Well, there was also life and personal stuff going on for many.
Here, Supa bumps into Problem X. The apartments were actually a short bus ride away from the venue, so it was funny to meet players on the bus, especially when they are from your own country. Small world!
Having a chat on one of the last buses was funny, not so funny for those who didn’t look at the timetable, but a 20 minute walk was not so bad.
One of the side events run in our room was the ON Cup, so even after a day’s slugest, there was more action. And there you have it, Frionel was the champion, with some BIG prize money (enough to buy a kebab, I think)! While it was low budget, the tournament was highly charged with the room packed out with spectators (sometimes).
Indeed, Will2pac and Luffy were playing KOF13 seriously and Steeeve became known for his Yuri.
Now for the following two photos I remember asking them to look serious, yeah that never works. lol
The Brits! For some of them it was a new experience, travelling to play video games. Little did they know it would become even more expensive and more difficult in the decade ahead.
There are also some quick interviews here with ISDD, Problem X and Roatse https://orochinagi.com/2014/03/ivgc-interviews-part-1-problem-x-roatse-supa-imstilldadaddy
Frenxi cooked this pasta and I don’t ever want to ask the Italians what they really thought of it, I mean, it was good for something quickly whipped up, using stuff we bought from Monoprix! Anyway, it is always nice to have a meal together! You’ll see that after many events the players drift off into different directions, some even eat by themselves as they don’t want to talk. IVGC was probably one of the last times we cooked together. After this, it was a case of groups splintering and randomly wandering off to the eateries or restaurants.
The Belgians!
Sean is posing while who knows what’s going on at the back, but probably someone just lost!! It was always lively, especially between the factions, there was a history of battles between Salim, Youssef and Frionel that go back a long way. Tahar was always impressive with his physique!
I wonder what Bala was doing here, something mischievous for sure!
The 5v5 ‘Other countries’ Team! I was a leftover, since team UK was full up. Tch. But hey, we won, kek. Bubblan, Martin, Xian, Bala and somehow Gunsmith were your 5v5 champions. These were the days where video game companies were throwing discs at us, I won a bunch of physical promo copies of Tales of Something or other and stuff that you couldn’t really re-sell as the packaging wasn’t the same as retail…
Shamanovitch & Xian. Shaman went on to make his own fighting game, which was a huge task.
The Italians!
I can’t even LARP as a spectator. Figbool has gone to his safe space. Bubblan was probably wondering why he joined this silly team.
Official Videos are at: https://www.youtube.com/@Gameslines/videos where you can still find the SF4 tournament, Marvel and more.
The Bala and Frionel Kumite videos are here (Kumite is when one player stays on and tries to rack up a win streak)
The ON Cup featuring Bubblan, Salim and Frionel are here – click me
There are many stream rips you can find https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=IVGC+2014
There are also some quick interviews here with ISDD, Problem X and Roatse https://orochinagi.com/2014/03/ivgc-interviews-part-1-problem-x-roatse-supa-imstilldadaddy
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