Equipment failures happen all the time in sports: bats break, tennis racket strings snap, shoes fly off in basketball. Play is stopped and the situation is fixed. But it seems a lot more calamitous when it's a video game, particularly the final of the biggest fighting game tournament in the world.
Momochi, facing Gamerbee in the grand final of EVO 2015's Ultra Street Fighter 4 tournament got what must be every fighter's worst nightmare: a disconnection notice just as the second round began, with Momochi leading 1-0.
EVO 2015 rules stipulate that if an equipment failure occurs while a game is in progress, the fighter with the malfunction must forfeit that round. Correction: Gamerbee accepted the forfeit of that round. An earlier version of this story said he hadn't.
Unfortunately for Gamerbee — who had been on a tremendous, crowd-pleasing run — his sportsmanship didn't get a karmic reward. Momochi took the final 3-2.
You can see all of the results of EVO 2015's nine main tournaments and 15 side tournaments and exhibitions here, via EventHubs.
