Shacknews E6 2022: FGC panel with special guests Alex Jebailey & TheHadou

CEO and Dreamhack's Alex Jebailey and EVO and Combo Breaker's Rick "TheHadou" Thiher join us to talk about various topics of the FGC.

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As we continue to truck through the latter half of our Shacknews E6 2022 coverage, we have quite the treat for fighting game fans. This time around, we talk about the FGC, but the avid fighting game fans of Shacknews aren’t alone. We’re joined by top-tier tournament organizers and figures of the scene Alex Jebailey and Rick “TheHadou” Thiher. Join us as we chat about everything from creating fighting game events to the current state of the scene to the recent reveal of Street Fighter 6!

Our FGC panel is a part of our ongoing Shacknews E6 2022 coverage going on throughout the week. For this panel, Jebailey and TheHadou were kind enough to break from their schedules between events to come chat with us for a bit. You can see the panel in its entirety in the video embed above.

Fans may recognize Jebailey as the runner of events like CEO, CEOtaku, and Dreamhack, where TheHadou now runs Combo Breaker and is a general manager of EVO. Jebailey and Hadou just came off of Dreamhack Dallas and Combo Breaker respectively, so we break out the conversation of what it’s been like bringing physical events back after the COVID-19 pandemic threw everything into disarray. They share their experiences on what it was like working through that time, as well as the effort its taken to adapt to a “new normal” with attempting to keep competitors and attendees safe in their events.

We also chat about Jebailey and TheHadou’s roots and their personal take on what it takes to build up a fighting game scene the way they have. Of course, there was no way we’d leave Street Fighter 6 out of the conversation either with all of the reveals that have happened over the last week. Throughout the panel, Jebailey and TheHadou share interesting insight on both their passion as fans and the professional nature of the competitions and their positions in that ecosystem.

Be sure to check out the entire FGC panel above and find Jebailey and TheHadou on Twitter, as well as tuning in for plenty of further Shacknews E6 2022 content. We have more exclusive interviews, panels, trailers, and music coming throughout the week!

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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