What is VSaikyo? The vtuber Apex tournament going viral

VSaikyo is a Japanese Apex Legends tournament that only a select few streamers can participate in.

While it usually isn’t on the radar of Western fans, its fame is undeniable in Japan. VSaikyo has been running for four years now and has featured a vast cast of participants that vtuber fans might know. The tournament is hosted by ShibuyaHAL, a vtuber affiliated with TSM as a streamer. He’s been the sole organizer of this tournament for years now and has kept it running yearly without fail.

Seeing how successful it is, why is it that not a lot of people outside of Japan talk about it?

What is VSaikyo?

VSaikyo is an Apex Legends tournament hosted by streamer ShibuyaHAL that only vtubers based in Japan can join.

Only vtubers can participate in this tournament. Because of that, it’s a pretty huge deal in Japan. It’s a great way for vtubers to show off their skills while also having fun. It’s considered a show match on Liquipedia, but there are rewards for the top three teams. The rules of the tournament mirror the rules of the Apex Legends Global Series tournament. However, there are only five rounds and there’s no need for the last win. It’s just a best-of-five and the team with the highest points wins the whole tournament.

While the tournament only accepted vtubers from Japan for its first few iterations, this rule was broken when Team Snake Bite joined the fifth tournament. Team Snake Bite consists of Axel Syrios, Regis Altare, and Selen Tatsuki. Regis and Selen both live in North America during this time so there were latency issues during practice matches and the actual tournament.

Aside from Team Snake Bite, there’s also a legendary team that entered the tournament during VSaikyo 4. They were called STARTEND and the team consisted of Hoshimachi Suisei, Tokoyami Towa, and Minato Aqua. The team dominated scrims, which are also called practice matches, and they even got back-to-back wins. However, when the tournament came around, they fell short and placed 16th.

What’s even more impressive is that some of the teams that are participating in VSaikyo ask for guidance from Apex Legends coaches who are either current or former pros. A few big overseas players have appeared as coaches for teams. For example, during the fifth VSaikyo, Dan “rpr” Ušić coached Natsuiro Matsuri’s team while Brandon “oh Nocturnal” Singer coached the aforementioned Team Snake Bite. Crazy Raccoon players Park “Cpt” Won-jae, Na “Mondo” Dong-hoon, and uruka have also shown up to coach teams in VSaikyo.

The tournament also has pretty big sponsors like Galleria and Herman Miller. ShibuyaHAL also seems to finally start reaching out to foreign vtubers and streams for re-streams of the tournament. This is evident as Arya Kuroha, a vtuber from VSPO! EN, has received permission to host a watch party for the tournament.