2025 Retrospective
Wait, it's all Ohio?
• Jan. 11, 2026
2025 was a whirlwind of a year, arguably our biggest year in terms of accomplishments. Numbers went up, new projects were launched, some players rose to insane levels of excellence. We have much to talk about.
Metrics
- 13k unique users on the site last year (up from 7.1k)
- 124k matches in the stats system (up from 93k)
- 1.5k tournaments in the stats system (up from 1.2k)
- 5.7k people in the stats system (up from 5k)
- 1.1k people in the Ohio FGC Discord (up from 800)
- 1.1k people following the Ohio FGC Bluesky (up from 800)
- 1.1k people following the Ohio FGC X
- 182 subscribers on the Ohio FGC Youtube (up from 100)
- 300 followers on the Ohio FGC Twitch (up from 100)
Metric wise, we're doing great. We didn't play quite as many fighting games as we did last year, but it was still an incredible amount. I think that's to be expected when there hasn't been a hot new game in a couple of years now. Last year I started making a dedicated effort in growing the social media/content channels and I think we've started off really strong.
Beyond the Numbers
Raw numbers are cool, but they don't usually tell the whole story. In addition to the raw growth, we did the following:
- Released an Ohio FGC Jersey
- Released an Ohio FGC Mousepad
- Started a new online tournament series, Ohio Online
- Streamed semi regularly
- Built a team and participated in the MidSouth Fight Series for SF6
- The Ohio FGC Discord became approved to be a community server
- Ohio Lock 2
If you want to support the costs associated with the website and allow us to do more cool things, consider buying a jersey or a mousepad. I really like the mousepad, personally.
Player Accomplishments
Kshuewhatdamoo won CEO and EVO for Strive
Insane work from Kshue. Squall and the rest of the Ohio team also put in crazy work to secure 1st and 2nd for the team league. Ohio has been getting stronger for a while now and it's awesome to see it pay off.
What's on the horizon?
A couple months back I ran a poll asking if people would be interested in having dedicated nights in the Ohio FGC Discord for specific games. The answer was yes. So those will get started real soon. If you want a certain game to be played, let me know.
I also have some new features for the website I've been thinking about, mostly around the stats. Those are a secret for now though.
The next Ohio Online is on Feb 8th! Make sure to prereg.
What we need to talk about
If I may be blunt for a moment, I need help. My time has been so preoccupied by everything that we've been doing that I don't have time to be a competitor anymore. Nor do I feel like I can walk away when I'm eventually ready without a lot of projects dying. It's not a great spot to be in. That's how burnout happens.
I'm not saying I'm feeling burnt out. But I believe that if I don't get assistance from the community, I will end up there. The amount of time I currently put into Ohio FGC related things roughly equates a part time job.
A lot of the associated responsibilities/projects I have shouldn't necessarily fall on the TO's either, they do more than enough work running their own scenes. The road to a healthier, more self sustaining scene at our level, I believe, stems from more involvement from community members.
So what does the Ohio FGC need help with?
Most of the cool projects I build I do so with the desire to eventually hand them off to someone who wants the responsibility and opportunity. Unfortunately, that hasn't really happened. There's a handful of places where members of the community can pitch in.
| Position | Responsibilities | Skills Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Tournament Importer | Round up weekly start.gg brackets for the scene and import them to the website | None |
| Social Media Manager | Answer DM's from people, share weekly event images from the website, grow the accounts | Professionalism |
| Streamer | Stream on the Ohio FGC account periodically | Don't make me regret giving you the stream key |
| Website Developer | Help build out features on the website and do maintenance work | You don't need to be an expert programmer, but you need basic programming skills. I can teach the rest. Perfect opportunity if you're trying to get real world experience |
If there are members of the community willing to fill these roles, it would be an insane weight taken off of my back. If you are interested and want to talk about any of the roles, hit me up.
That's about it. Thank you to anyone who made it this far. I hope this doesn't come across as doom and gloom because it's not. I am extremely proud of everything this state's FGC has accomplished in 2025. We are now 3 for 3 of these retros where I get to say that the scene is the healthiest and biggest it has ever been. I just want to make sure it can stay that way whether I'm around or not, sustainably.
