The list of sponsors for Capcom Pro Tour 2018 was officially announced one day before it officially started last week. However, Sony and Twitch, who were major sponsors in previous years, are noticeably absent from the list. As announced on its official site, there are three sponsors for this year’s Capcom Pro Tour, including Razer, Vertagear, and Victrix. All of these companies specialize in video game hardware and gaming peripherals.
Razer provides the official arcade stick for Capcom Pro Tour 2018 with its Razer Panthera while Victrix is the official headset partner with its high-end noise-canceling headset Victrix Pro AF. Vertagear is the official chair partner for the event, with a recent blog post that states “All players can feel at ease on our auto-lock casters that we introduced specifically for the FGC to keep competitors stable during intense play.”
Twitch is not exclusively broadcasting Capcom Pro Tour this year, which is probably due to the company not being an official sponsor this year. Now for the very first time since the Capcom Pro Tour started back in 2014, players can catch the action on Facebook and YouTube as well. Every broadcast can also now be watched directly from the official site itself. Players will now have the choice of tuning into four different channels for this year’s Capcom Pro Tour.
At the time of writing, no information has been revealed as to why Sony and Twitch are no longer sponsors of the Capcom Pro Tour. Although Street Fighter V was released on the PC, it remains a PS4 exclusive for consoles. That’s why it is surprising to see Sony’s absence. It could possibly be that whatever deal Sony had with Capcom for Street Fighter V has ended and Capcom is getting ready to prepare for potential partnerships with other companies in the future.
Capcom Pro Tour 2018 features Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, with a yearlong tournament circuit where players compete in order to claim one of the 32 qualification spots for the year-end Capcom Cup. Even with Sony and Twitch not being sponsors for this year’s edition, the prize pool still amounts to a total of $600,000.