2025 was an amazing year for the Fighting Game community in the UK with major events in multiple titles and big wins on the biggest stages all over the world and 2026 is already starting off strong with more news to come as the year goes on.

Major Events in the UK

Announced back in October, the UK’s biggest fighting game event is back in Birmingham again this year for it’s 14th event. Electronic Dojo announced that VSFighting is set to take place from the 24th to 26th of July and we can expect to hear more news about included games and full schedule later in the year.

Dreamhack returns to the UK after 10 years, this time taking over the NEC arena in Birmingham with major tournaments for Call of Duty as part of the CDL and Dota 2 for ESL One as part of the ESL Pro Tour. More news is still expected to come about other esports tournaments taking place at Dreamhack, with many people hoping for for a fighting game title to be part of the line-up. Recently it was announced that Alex Jebaily, Founder of the CEO Gaming Major, was leaving his postion at ESL FACEIT Group after managing over 30 Dreamhack events where he was in charge of the Dreamhack Fighters Brand and Esports World Cup.

The final tease of a major event for 2026 comes from the owner of Albion Games Cafe in Norwich, with a new event coming to the city. Creator of the Albion tournament series, G-P, has been hounded every year about a sequel to Albion 4 – a tournament held in Arsenal’s Emirates stadium in the Summer of 2019 that previously held the record for the biggest Super Smash Brothers tournament in Europe. Previous Albion events have had a focus on community and the grassroots aspect of Super Smash Brothers tournaments, so many expect any future events to follow suit.

Finale Events and LCQs

A number of world tour events come to a close in early 2026 – including Capcom Pro Tour, Tekken World Tour and ARC World Tour with some UK players earning spots in the Finale.

Capcom Cup 12 takes place from 11th March 2026 to 14th March 2026 in Tokyo, Japan with a complete prizepool of $1,282,000. 46 of the 48 participants have been decided, with the final two spots to be decided during the last remaining World Warrior events in Japan on the 11th January and 8th February. With no LCQ for the event, MOUZ‘s EndingWalker will be the sole representative for the UK at the finale for the Capcom Pro Tour 2025.

The Tekken World Tour Finale will take place over 3 days from January 30th to February 1st in Malmo, Sweden with a prize pool of $300,000. 35 of the 36 participants have already been decided, with the final spot up for grabs during the LCQ on the 31st January. Currently, the UK has 2 players qualified through the Global Leaderboard being Mirage Esports’ Gosain and Edddyy who is currently unsigned. Also representing Mirage Esports is Fergus from Ireland.

The final finale event to have UK representation is the Guilty Gear -STRIVE- tournament at the ARC World Tour Finals. ONi Global’s Tiger_Pop secured their spot in the finale by winning the Guilty Gear -STIVE- bracket at EVO France. The ARC World Tour finale is set to take place in Goyang, South Korea from March 20th to 22nd with details of a prizepool and LCQ still to come.

Other News and Announcements

An announcement last year from British Esports is set to come fruition, with a multi-million pound Esports Arena set to open alongside the National Esports Performance Campus in early 2026. Currently there has not been an update on the arena since the announcement in July 2025.

The Esports Nations Cup is set to take place in Riyadh in November 2026, with plans underway for the UK to compete in as many tournaments as possible at the event. There will be 16 tournaments at the event, each for a different game however not a single game has been officially announce. SNK is a sponsor for the event, so it is more than likely that Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will be part of the event.