Combo Breaker, an annual fighting games festival that takes place over the Memorial Day weekend in the Chicago area, has been “mortally injured by tariffs” according to the event’s General Manager and Director Rick Thiher.
In a post to BlueSky, Thiher wrote, “Of all the ways CB could bleed out over the years, mortally injured by tariffs is an absurd surprise.”
READ: Sweet Baby Inc. Infected 'South of Midnight' Fails To Hit 1500 Concurrent Players On Release Day
When one individual responded saying his post sounded “foreboding,” Thiher replied, “The event has discussed at length that our sustainability is rooted in an annual merchandise line. Merchandise coming in right now has 49-104% markups. There’s no sales potential in shirts with an MSRP of 90 USD, so the line is likely burned expenses. Very bad reality to be in.”
In another response to an individual stating, “RIP Combo Breaker,” Thiher stated, “Just for clarity: RIP is premature.”
To that point, the event, which allows attendees to compete in open-bracket tournaments, has a cosplay contests, an artists alley, and other special events, is expected to take place between May 23-25th at the Schaumburg Convention Center.
This year’s event will see tournaments in 24 games including Tekken 8, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Street Fighter II Turbo, Mortal Kombat 1, Guilty Gear Strive, The King of Fighters XV, Dragonball FighterZ, Killer Instinct, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and more.
Online registration for the tournaments is open until May 5, 2025.
Thiher’s comments come in the wake of President Donald Trump enacting a 10% on all countries and he would “impose an individualized reciprocal higher tariff on the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits.”
His administration recently increased tariffs on China to 104% with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announcing they went into effect early this morning, “It was a mistake for China to retaliate. … When America is punched, [President Trump] punches back harder. That's why there will be 104% tariffs going into effect on China tonight at midnight."
What do you make of Thiher’s comments?
Reminder how cucked and woke the "fighting game community" truly is.
There used to be a clothing line for fighting gamers that did all of its own screenprinting, made enough money to sponsor players to go to tournaments and wear their merch. This doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem.