Anime-themed Fighting Game Tournament CEOtaku Cancelled For 2025, Future Uncertain

CEO organizers announced on Twitter that CEOtaku is cancelled this year. CEOtaku is a fighting game tournament centered around 2D anime fighting games handled by the people who also manage one of the biggest fighting game tournaments in the U.S., CEO.

The Twitter post mentioned that it’s in the best interest of the team to cancel the event and return in the future “when the time is right.” This wording shows a possibility that it might be going into a hiatus. The statement also said that CEO will host “a ton of our CEOtaku Anime titles this year,” essentially trying their best to dampen the blow by losing CEOtaku this year.

CEOtaku started in 2015 after noticing that Florida has a lot of anime conventions and seeing Evo 2015 have a side-event called “ANIMEvo” dedicated to anime fighting games. Since then, the tournament has been an annual event similar to CEO.

In September 2023, Tong, the head of Tournament Operations in CEO, posted on Twitter regarding the addition of Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 to CEOtaku 2023’s list of games. He mentioned that CEO lost money that year and that CEOtaku is not paying the bills to keep it going. The backlash came from tournament goers thinking that Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 have no place in an event centered around anime fighting games.

CEO is happening on June 13-15, and will return to Orlando. The event has been a mainstay of the Capcom Pro Tour, which means that whoever wins here will qualify for the Capcom Cup immediately.