The Street Fighter 6 wifi wars have begun

The Street Fighter 6 community is attacking each other online after it was revealed that a wifi indicator would appear next to players entering an online lobby. Armed with this information, the debate surrounding the merits of wired versus wireless connections has once again sprung up.

It’s a debate that’s been going on for years, thanks to the importance of stable connections in the genre when networking code wasn’t as good as it is now. Back then, the wireless connection made it impossible to play. In street fighter 6, the netcode is good enough that wifi fighters can play well, but the stigma remains.

“This is discrimination at the highest level,” Write Pemo on Twitter, in response to the tournament organizer, saying wifi players would be kicked out of his SF6 tournament. “Are you just going to alienate people and play with other people? I know what you old baby boomers think about technology. The router is in my room and I have fiber optic internet. This isn’t the 90s, we don’t Wires/cables are needed.”

Posts such as these have surfaced in various online fighting game spaces, including Reddit and Notorious Twitter account ScrubquotesXFor years, those who died on the hill where the router was located found themselves the target of ridicule. You can understand why – wifi used to ruin online matches all the time – not that this wave of Street Fighter fans will know.

But on the other side of this debate is a new generation of wifi defenders.Different and more convincing than those who claim to have OK Wifi. It turns out that, for many people, online matches across continents work well over wifi – largely due to the huge improvements made to Street Fighter 6’s networking code. It’s fast becoming popular opinion that Ethernet cables are the weapon of the dark ages. It’s a new age, old man. You can unplug that cable.

The fact remains that a wired connection is always better than a wireless connection. this is the truth. However, when differences start to have an insignificant effect on your game (unless you’re actually playing Basikens at a German holiday home), how do you take years of grueling campaigning out of the minds of online fans? How many would-be tournament players will be left out in the cold, and how will that affect the longevity of the game?

Or is everyone just falling for the old trick of justifying suboptimal settings? With the release of Street Fighter VI this week, the casualties of this newfound wifi war will only increase.

Is your setup wired or wireless? Let us know below! For more Street Fighter VI content, check out our page on Capcom’s president, who has high hopes for Street Fighter VI sales.