Capcom Pro Tour Cracks Down on Hitbox and Other Leverless Controllers in New Street Fighter 6 Ruleset

Capcom is known for pushing some unusual rules before the Capcom Pro Tour season begins. Right now, the CPT is considering a change in the rules of the tournament season for Street Fighter 6 that some users might find controversial. This change will essentially crack down on fighting game controllers and input devices that don’t have a lever or are more colloquially known as “the Stick.” This is done to maintain fairness for all players.

See, here’s the problem. Fighting game controllers that are leverless, like Hitbox and other controllers like it, allow players to seamlessly perform inputs that users with fight sticks would have issues performing. Complex motions such as Charge inputs (where you hold down one direction before moving the stick to another direction and performing an input) become much easier thanks to leverless controllers like it.

The new Capcom Pro Tour ruleset change has maintained studies and reviewed the advances that the fighting game community has made thanks to the adoption of leverless controllers. While not outright banning the controllers, Capcom has made a few adjustments to the controller usage rules to ensure the highest level of fairness. This new rule allows all leverless controllers to operate at a universal standard for Street Fighter 6’s tournament season.

This new rule change will force players to either reject or maintain dual direction inputs (so, for example, if you hold up and down or left and right at the same time, you won’t be able to perform a motion input in the opposite direction). Thus, whatever controller can register an input when two directionals are pressed will have to be adapted to this new rule. Since this is a change that will radically affect how players play the game in the Capcom Pro Tour season, the announcement has been made in advance to the official full ruleset, which will be published at a later date.

Here’s a statement from Capcom regarding their philosophy of controller use in the CPT:

Capcom does not discourage players from choosing or customizing their preferred controller. Capcom recognizes that there are circumstances in which players are compelled to do so due to their environment, physical characteristics, personality, or other compelling reasons. However, this diversity is allowed only to the extent that fairness is ensured.

Additionally, Capcom has also stated that keyboards are allowed only if the platform used in the tournament is Steam. Furthermore, the keyboards will also have to adhere to the rules in the same manner as controllers, so no n-key rollover shenanigans are allowed. Keyboards must also be plugged alongside a controller since two keyboards are not able to be connected to the same PC at the same time.

Of course, Capcom Pro Tour participants are also encouraged to obtain an alternative controller if they are found to be breaking the rules or having a malfunction. If the player cannot prepare the controller within 5 minutes of the instruction, the tournament organizer may suggest that the player play the game with an alternative controller prepared by the tournament organizer. Either that or forfeit the match entirely. Finally, players will have to perform a button check to make sure the alternative controller isn’t malfunctioning.

For now, Capcom Pro Tour 2023 will be the only tournament set that will use this new ruleset. Any other TOs that adopt this new ruleset can do so of their own volition.