This weekend, competitors from across Australia will gather in the nation's capital for the ACT's first-ever Fighting Game Community major. Named after the bus operator that services the city, The Action is the first FGC major tournament of the year in Australia and is showing to be a formidable event with over 300 registered attendees.
The Action features 18 different video game events and is being presented by the Australian National University's Fighting Game Club and Stick Addiction. The tournament will take place on the ANU campus between the 20-22 of January.
The Action is Australia's biggest FGC tournament since Phantom in July 2022, which saw an all-time high for Australian FGC viewership, with the Twitch stream of the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate event amassing over 200,000 views.
The event's attendance may seem low in comparison to last year's FGC tournament majors Battle Arena Melbourne and Phantom which had 1045 and 576 entrants respectively but it's an impressive showing for the ACT's first FGC major and hopefully shows a positive future for the territory's future esports competitions.
Out of all of the events running at The Action, the highest calibre of players will be featured in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Melee events.
Oceania's top Ultimate player Kanga Esports' JDizzle is notably absent from the event but MOD Gaming's extra and DD, who were respectively ranked 3rd and 4th in the region's 2022 OrionRank, will be in attendance. They both placed highly at the biggest Australian tournaments of 2022, BAM and Phantom, so it'll be exciting to see which one manages to take the top spot in this tournament.
Melee singles will feature quite a few top-level players in the OCE region but the easy favourite to take the tournament is Joshman.
Feels so insane to see myself finally ranked after so many years of wanting it, but it's real.
— Joshman (@LilTrickshot) August 11, 2022
Ranked 15th best player in the world!!! 🤠
Cannot wait to go back and push even further, I miss competing more than anything 🤼 pic.twitter.com/AIRHiKIMCu
Joshman has been on an international tear these last few years, travelling to the USA frequently to pick up some top player wins, although he has yet to win a major tournament himself. The Melee Panda Global Rankings of summer 2022 placed Joshman all the way up as the 15th-best player in the world, with the soon-to-be-released 2023 SSBMRank likely to be placing him at about the same position.
Joshman's presence at the tournament will likely boost its overall viewership due to his overwhelmingly positive acceptance into the global melee scene, recently culminating in him being made the subject of a 30-minute documentary by Akshon Esports.
The player has also been gaining a dedicated international following after repeated appearances with internet celebrities such as YouTube live streamer Ludwig, who won the Content Creator of the Year category at The Game Awards last year.
The Action will be an exciting venture into esports for the ACT and will be a great opportunity to see which players to look out for throughout 2023.
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