Proposed new logo design for Team Sleepy

Victor "Spooky" Fontanez shocked the Fighting Game Community this past Friday during "Day 0" of Winter Brawl by revealing that his media and competitive gaming conglomerate, "Team Spooky", would be rebranding itself as "Team Sleepy".
"I was inspired after watching Chris "ChrisG" Gonzalez body all of New York week in and week out with his Morrigan/Doom/Vergil team, so I began taking short naps while the matches played out", said Mr. Fontanez in a brief interview which was cut short when he abruptly began snoring and appeared to have fallen asleep. FGCNN reporters attempted to touch Mr. Fontanez's laptop in an attempt to rouse him from his slumber, at which point he suddenly regained consciousness and added, "I bust my ass day in and day out and I don't get to take breaks, so I figure I should try to get some Z's in during the streams. Besides, Marvel is getting boring and Vortex Fighter is enough to put anyone under these days. That's where the idea for 'Team Sleepy' came from".
Mr. Fontanez made the introduction, ironically, during a series of Team Tournaments on the inaugural day of the Winter Brawl stream. Mr. Fontanez started off the stream with his trademark introduction: "What's up guys, this is--" and nodded off, lightly snoring while the stream went on unattended. Spooky's team mates, Min "TS|Min" An and Arturo "Sabin" Sanchez could also been seen taking naps during their match against Team Korea in the Super Street Fighter IV Team Tournament, with Mr. An losing to Avermedia's Kelvin Jeon after opting to go for a siesta, and Mr. Sanchez pulling off a win when he unexpectedly awoke during a critical point in the match and made an amazing read. "I don't even know what happened, I was half-asleep dreaming about Kamui when I woke up and just pressed some buttons, but it worked out in the end", said a dazed Mr. Sanchez. Shorty thereafter, Mr. Sanchez was observed falling asleep in the spectator's area, mumbling something about subscribing to his Youtube channel.
As the face of "Team Sleepy", Mr. Fontanez is also considering changing his handle(internet alias) to "Sleepy" as part of the rebranding effort. "Taking a nap is one of the few moments of peace for me lately, and we're rebranding the team, so maybe I should change my name to be consistent". Mr. Fontanez curled into a ball on the ground next to a FGCNN correspondent and began purring softly, apparently having fallen asleep.
In addition to the rebranding. Mr. Fontanez also intends to expand his programming offerings into areas such as sleep observation. Mr. Fontanez plans to set up a webcam in his room and stream himself sleeping, which he says "will give the skulls a deeper connection to myself as a person and the brand. I want Team Sleepy to be a family". Mr. Fontanez admits that such a stream may violate Twitch.tv's Terms of Service, but FGCNN Analysists suspect this will not be an issue, as Twitch is known to enforce their Terms of Service to suit their best interests.



Will "Team Sleepy" help Mr. Fontanez and his company cross over into the mainstream? Is Mr. Fontanez overworked, underpaid, and drowning in sleep debt? Will Mr. Fontanez regret the change now that Mr. Gonzalez has relocated to California? Let us know in the comments below!

LAS VEGAS -- As Evolution Champion Series (EVO2K), the world's largest and most profitable fighting game tournament, inches ever closer, hungry and impoverished gamers eagerly wait to learn the lineup of games which will be announced on iPlaywinner's podcast "The Fray". Once-a-year fighting game fans are sure to rejoice over the prospect of sync-watching a lineup of games they may have played once with a few friends while drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon.  The announcement, originally scheduled to take place on February 6th, was delayed by Joey "MrWizard" Cuellar after a tragic betting disaster involving the Denver Broncos and the subsequent McRib binge which left him digestively incapacitated. In light of this unexpected catastrophe, FGCNN's Strategy Team has contacted its most trusted sources to bring you the most comprehensive and probable list of games that you can expect to see at EVO2K this year.


INCLUDED: Killer Instinct
FGCNN analysts consider Killer Instinct a no-brainer. With Amazon's recent purchase of Double Helix, Microsoft will be desperate to maintain customer confidence in their new system's flagship fighting franchise, and with desperation comes prime opportunity for related event organizers to squeeze promotional capital from these deep-pocketed companies. Mad Catz's joystick department could also use help clearing their warehouses which are full of Killer Instinct Fight Sticks.




INCLUDED: Street Fighter X Tekken
This next game on the roster will certainly be Capcom's beloved Street Fighter X Tekken, which, despite its bad press and nonexistent tournament scene, will serve as a great vehicle to change Capcom's mind about leaving their game unplayable online for their PC audience. As a bonus, FGCNN notes that there are plenty of Street Fighter X Tekken Sticks that Mad Catz has available at a discount.




INCLUDED: Injustice: Gods Among Us
Past experience has shown that Netherrealm Studios have never shied away from shelling out the cash money for a prominent spot in EVO2K's lineup. Netherrealm Studios has also teamed up with Mad Catz to produce a tournament-caliber fighting joystick, which is available for purchase now. FGCNN admits that the entire staff fell asleep during the top 8 of last year's tournament, but also remarked their relief at the possibility of not seeing Superman mirrors.




NOT INCLUDED: KOF XIII
With no free t-shirt to bait EVO2K entrants, FGCNN's data shows that KOF XIII's numbers are sure to collapse. Other studies show that players in the Asian region are reacting negatively to being super-free to Latin America and may not attend. Possible replacements include Soul Calibur V, which has a tournament joystick avaiable courtesy of our friends at Mad Catz.




INCLUDED: Super Smash Bros (any version)
The Fighting Game Community has continually voiced the concern that the Smash Brothers series is not a fighting game; however, given their strong showing at Apex and their incredible donation performance last year, the EVO2K staff would be wise to appease Nintendo in any way possible, despite Nintendo's past disdain for its own community and lack of a Mad Catz joystick.




WILDCARD: BlazBlue: Chrono Trigger
While not a complete shoe-in, FGCNN suggests that Square Enix's popularity in the Japanese Role-Playing Game realm maybe entice a brand new audience to attend and compete in EVO, and possibly purchase a BlazBlue joystick from the excess pile at Mad Catz's HQ. FGCNN's sources inform us that excess piles of BlazBlue joystick boxes at the Mad Catz warehouses look remarkably similar to piles of Walter White's cash in Breaking Bad.



How accurate are our staff's predictions? Can the FGC maintain it's hype amidst lack of new games? Will this Evolution Championship Series be the best yet? Will the Seahawks win the Super Bowl next year? Let us know in the comments!

As the Fighting Game Community is recovering from the startling revelation that Loren "Fanatiq" Riley no longer has a functioning coupon code to pelt live stream viewers with, the community has been blind-sided yet again by divisive infighting and yet another influential sponsor unexpectedly dropping top players from its roster.
Emmanuel "CDJr" Brito, an outspoken member of the Top Players Party known for dropping more games than Andre "Omgitzandre" Howard drops combos, took to the Twitter airwaves this afternoon and lashed out against "Original Gangsters" and the alleged "Illuminati" and demanded that they step aside and allow the Fighting Game Community to grow beyond "ballroom[s] at a hotel" and enter the grown-up world of convention centers. "It's time to let big companies take over so they can push our games even more. Cause [in my opinion] shit WILL stay the same unless that happens.", an enraged Mr. Brito said via his Twitter account. "I honesty cant believe [Maxter]EMP_Maxter [Brito] got payed (sic) more for getting 3rd in [Major League Gaming] than [Ho Kun] Xian did forgetting first IN SF4 at Evo.", he added, going on to say that Street Fighter IV at a Major League Gaming (MLG) event would "double the payout Evo has plus different states all tournaments [...] venue 100x bigger, free raffles, free food drink". FGCNN analysts were quick to note that the Evolution Fighting Game Championships do not have "free food drink" nor do they have "different states all tournaments", which would imply that Mr. Brito is on to something, or on something.
Fighting Game Community Critics were quick to step in and fire back at Mr. Brito, such as James "jchensor" Chen, retired lifetime 0-2 player and noted Cammy apologist, who was quick to call Mr. Brito "confused". "I want [the Fighting Game Community] to be successful like eSports, I just wanna do it OUR way.", Mr. Chen said via his Twitter account, going on to say that "building it up yourself is a lot better than relying on someone else to do it for you.". It is unclear what Mr. Chen is doing to build up the Fighting Game Community beyond stating incorrect "facts" during broadcasts of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and constantly being baited by clowns into social media arguments.
Mr. Chen went on to say that "going eSports" would lead to community contributors/content producers such as Team Spooky, iPlayWinner, BossLogic, LevelUp, Seth Mussey and the like to no longer be able to earn pennies on the dollar from "CPM", or online ad money for working 12+ hour days with little to no recognition from top players. "MLG doesn't need them.", said Mr. Chen, noting that MLG and other "eSports" leagues would simply pay their own production teams or hire freelance contractors rather than do something intelligent like hire from within the community, such as when MLG contracted or hired Fighting Game Community members such as Ryan "fubarduck" Harvey, Min "TS Min" An, Eric "Juicebox" Albino, and Arturo "Sabin" Sanchez, among others in 2012. " Mr. Chen went on to say that if the Fighting Game Community grows itself organically without the assistance of "corporate" leadership such as MLG, the community will "have our own organizers, TOs, coaches, commentators, analysts, article writers [...] The FGC players can make it a CAREER. That's what I want. I'm looking VERY long term." FGCNN analysts are quick to note that Mr. Chen is approaching forty years of age.
Amidst all of the unproductive and poisonous infighting on social media outlets, Mad Catz poured fuel on the fire by announcing that they are dropping two of their sponsored players from their roster. Ghim Kee Eng, better known as "Gackt", and Ho Kun Xian, better known as "Xian", were unceremoniously dropped by Mad Catz 3 days ago according to Mark "MarkMan" Julio's Twitter account. "We have removed the profiles of [Mr. Xian] & [Mr. Eng] from [the Mad Catz website] & wish them the best in the future! We owe [Mr. Xian and Mr. Eng] so much for their hard work & representation. I'm sure they will do great in their next venture!" Mad Catz dropping the 2013 Evolution Fighting Game Series Champion for Super Street Fighter IV on the heels of Performance Designed Products (PDP) announcing that they were disbanding the "Team Afterglow Elite" gaming team has led some members of the Fighting Game Community, such as Mr. Brito, to call for reform in community leadership in order to produce more opportunities for advancement and monetary gain. FGCNN Financial Analysts recommends that perhaps Mr. Brito, and everyone else in the Fighting Game Community should remember that they are playing video games, and they should perhaps seek gainful employment from an individual or business with an actual plan and sustainable revenue stream.
Are the "Original Gangsters" and the "Illuminati" holding back the Fighting Game Community from advancing? Will Mr. Chen succeed in his dream to get paid a living wage to make factually inaccurate statements about games he doesn't play? Will Mr. Brito finally turn in the McDonalds application he has been sitting on for so long and play video games for fun again? Will everyone remember that we're all just playing video games and forget about trying to make a living off of this stuff? Let us know in the comments below!

THE INTERNET -- Another company has opted to release it's reigns on the FGC. Performance Designed Products, better known to the fighting game community as PDP, has discontinued their Team Afterglow Elite Program.

Whether or not this is detrimental to the FGC is up for interpretation, as many have expressed disinterest in hearing about discount codes on fighting game streams, and believe that the dissolution of this team may lead to less of that.

Rumors are circulating that Chris G will join fighters Ricky Ortiz and Justin Wong on Team EG after his move to California. Others also speculate that Fanatiq will join Team Target in order to earn funds to refill his paypal account.

THE USA -- Fighting Gamers and Tournament Organizers alike are up in arms following the discovery of serious and intermittent input latency while using CronusMAX™adapters during tournament play. Leaders in the community have suspected suspected these malfunctions to exist previously, but this marks the first time that criticism for this particular device has been virtually unanimous. Several players at the recent fighting game tournament Defend the North confirmed not only latency but random pausing in their matches while using this popular device.

Players have also reported that the device damages your XBOX 360, leaving them unable to recognize controllers plugged into the USB ports. FGCNN experts note that an XBOX 360 with this affliction is less worthless than a PS3 with only Divekick installed on it.

Several tournament organizers have since banned the use of these adapters during tournament play.
FGCNN experts note that these problems may surface when using the adapter on the XBOX One, and that the potentially-harmful situation could have been avoided had Microsoft included controller backward-compatibility in their console.

CronusMAX was unavailable for comment; however, a Microsoft spokesperson did reach out to let us know that these malfunctions have nothing to do with their generally unreliable hardware.

UPDATE: The CronusMAX team has released a statement on a popular gaming forum which confirms the issues discussed in this article, which then goes on to claim that their team is not the original Cronus device developers, and that the current batch of devices were purchased in bulk from the original manufacturer. Since the recent fallout, they have updated the available firmware on their devices, but also note that it is still possible to utilize button macros and other usable forms of cheating, therefore rendering it completely illegal for tournaments. Cronus also notes that a possible "Tournament Edition" adapter may be released with a new name, equipped with firmware which lacks cheating functions.

A prominent Fighting Game Community Tournament Organizer and Streamer is under fire for daring to run tournaments of titles that consistently draw a low number of entrants as opposed to allowing those scenes and games to die the swift deaths they deserve.
A number of community personalities and observers, including fighting game luminary Darry Huskey, have made tongue-in-cheek remarks on social media outlets and message boards alleging titles such as Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate are "dead games" and that no one should run tournaments for them, despite the fact that they regularly draw a small handful of players to events such as Wednesday Night Fights and The Runback.

Alex "Calipower" Valle, Founder of Level|Up Productions, took these comments personally, knowing that labeling these titles as 'dead and gone' affects the amount of money he can spend in the VIP room he frequents at the local strip club on weekends, stating "we have pretty good turnouts for every game [...] I'm really tired of people bringing down the FGC with their cry baby agendas. It's time to do something about it to make the scene better!". FGCNN analysts have been unable to determine what exactly it is that Mr. Valle plans to do to "make the scene better", but remark that his bizarre, passive-aggressive tweeting about FGC cliques and his praising of Filipino Champ have already been a huge boon to the scene.
Meanwhile, players of these under-represented titles are confused at the commotion, quietly mumbling to themselves that maybe these people should shut up and actually play fighting games instead of bitching on social media about other people enjoying their games. Some observers believe that such behavior is contributing to killing games that community pundits don't even care about to begin with, making the scene smaller and potentially restricting growth. "Look, I just want to see tits bounce and mash reversals", an anonymous Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate player was quoted as saying at Wednesday Night Fights this past Wednesday. "I don't really care what some old guy or hipsters from Norcal think about my game, I just want to play".
Mr. Valle expanded on his initial criticisms via Twitter, adding that "NorCal players [are] vocal assholes" who "seem to bring everything down for them." Fighting Game Community members from Northern California could not be reached for comment, as they were likely ironically playing dead games such as Tekken Tag Tournament 2, BlazBlue: Chronophantasma and The King of Fighters XIII.
Is Mr. Valle running twenty games at SoCal Regionals 2014 in order to finally purchase an adult-size bed for his child-sized room? Is the Northern California Fighting Game Community full of snooty, hipster assholes? Should the Fighting Game Community as a whole continue destroying itself from within so it can be stuck playing a game like Street Fighter IV for another ten years? Let us know what you think and blow it up in the comments below!

With recent revelations that several mediocre Fighting Game Community players were allegedly involved in significant financial missteps, some observers and community members are beginning to ask if the Fighting Game Community is in the midst of a global financial crisis. FGCNN's Financial Strategists have compiled a helpful list of tips to avoid parting ways with your hard-earned cash.

1. Resist the urge to lend money to a fighting game player. 
In one such incident, Richel Hernandez, a self-described "close friend" of Peter "Flash Metroid" Susini, allegedly loaned approximately $7,000 to Mr. Susini in March of 2013 because of a "family emergency", with an alleged verbal agreement to repay the funds within 1-2 weeks as detailed in a now-deleted Facebook post. Mr. Hernandez further alleges that he has not been repaid as of the time of the Facebook post, with Mr. Susini claiming he is unable to pay due to several reasons, including having misplaced all forms of identification, not having a Social Security Number, and being a fraudulent "Street Fighter IV" player that "left" the community when his lack of skill was exposed by competent players. FGCNN legal experts have deduced from the Facebook posting that Mr. Hernandez likely did not have a contractural agreement of terms with Mr. Susini, and may experience some difficulty retrieving his funds in civil court, though this is probably a total waste of time as Mr. Susini's bank account is likely as empty as promises to deliver the cash payouts owed to VxG competitors.
2. Avoid lending money to a fighting game player. Mr. Susini is not the only Fighting Game Community personality involved in a recent money lending scandal, as Brandon "HAV" Tizol is alleged to have failed to repay a $2000 loan to Chris "DJHuoshen" Miller. Mr. Miller, who describes Mr. Tizol as "someone I had known for more than a year" made a personal loan to Mr. Tizol in July of 2012, with a verbal agreement that the funds would be repaid in October of that same year. The two men later agreed to extend the deadline to November, following a scheduling conflict, at which point Mr. Tizol is alleged to have disappeared into thin air; Mr. Miller attempted to serve Mr. Tizol with legal summons, but Mr. Tizol could not be found at home, where he is generally known to be. FGCNN experts aren't sure who either of these men are, but it is assumed they are slightly more relevant than Mr. Susini.

3. Avoid giving money to a fighting game player. Members of the Top Players Party are also alleged to have engaged in predatory financial practices through scams referred to as "donation drives". In a "donation drive", a Top Player will make promises of providing a service or some form of entertainment to members of a live streaming audience in exchange for "donations" of cash. One alleged donation drive occurred in 2013, when Michael "Yipes" Mendoza solicited the community for donations in order to upgrade his live streaming equipment with the promise that he would provide hours of entertainment for viewers to enjoy. Mr. Mendoza's donation goal was allegedly met and the equipment was purchased, yet Mr. Mendoza has not consistently performed a live stream in nearly six months. Mr. Mendoza was not asked to comment on why he has failed to deliver on his promises to provide a live stream, but audiences continue to express their undying adoration for the popular media icon and would likely throw more money at him if he asked them for it. It is unknown if his Chief Legal and Exploitation Expert, Triforce Johnson, is aware of this fact.

Even more revealing is a recent study which concludes that a person's fiscal trustworthiness is inversely proportionate to the amount of time spent as an avid FGC member. FGCNN recommends not to lend large amounts of money to close friends, not to lend large amounts of money to people you've known for little more than a year, and also not falling prey to "donation drive" scams, as the recipients generally will not follow through on their promises. However, by following our 3 helpful tips, you can avoid most of these situations entirely.

Have you ever encountered an issue with recovering lent funds? Are all FGC players unable to honor their financial obligations? Let us know in the comments below!