Stephen “Sajam” Lyon is running a tight ship with his signature Sajam Slam tournament series that has become a staple of the fighting game content circuit, and his fifth iteration of the event is bigger than ever.
In another run with Street Fighter 6, in partnership with Capcom and Evo, the next Sajam Slam will feature an expanded roster of eight teams, each featuring a professional Street Fighter player coaching four content creators new or inexperienced with the game. With 32 players looking to learn Street Fighter and earn a trip to Evo, Sajam and the team had a lot of work to do when it came to shaving down the entries and picking the most compelling mix of names to fill out the roster.
For Sajam Slam 5, the number of teams was increased from six to eight, meaning there are a total of eight coaches and 32 players competing in the event.
Related Article: The FGC Is Getting a Rom-Com Anime Featuring Street Fighter
Sajam Slam is independent tournament series hosted and produced by Sajam that features teams of content creators being coached by pro fighting game players. At the end of a designated training period, teams will compete against each other for several days across a round robin segment and full seeded bracket.
Since this is a team event, every member of a team competes in a first-to-two sets every match, with the overall matches being first-to-three. During round robin matches, the coaches also tend to get involved in the action too.
From there, the teams are seeded into a double elimination bracket based on their performances, thought his format will likely changed at least a bit since there are more teams this time around.
Prizing for the event varies, though most of the time it involves paid travel to an event like Evo or TwitchCon to participate in additional competition or content. The previous Sajam Slam had the top two teams flying out to Japan in order to compete in the Reject Fight Night x Sajam Slam International Championship after Evo Japan 2025, and something similar should happen for Sajam Slam 5 and travel to Evo 2025.
We don’t have an actual start time for Sajam Slam 5 yet, but Sajam did note that the action would start “next week” during CEO and players have already started training. The entire thing will be streamed with commentary and interviews on Sajam’s Twitch channel, with every creator playing also streaming their own perspective with comms from their team.
Related Article: Street Fighter 6 Season 3 Tier List: Best Characters in the Elena Patch
Despite being a content creator-only event, Sajam Slam actually has a massive impact on the competitive scene for many fighting games, not just the ones played during the tournament.
By bringing in inexperienced content creators to play a fighting game while also being coached by a pro player, Sajam Slam helps those players improve rapidly and experience some of the highest highs the FGC can offer. During their training sessions and the event itself, they are also live streaming their perspective to their individual audiences, potentially introducing thousands of new eyes to games like Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8.
For many competitors, Sajam Slam ending isn’t the final time they will boot up a fighting game either. Some creators like LilyPichu have become avid fighting games players on and off stream, even attending events like Evo and further using their influence to hype up the FGC by proxy. I personally saw at least a dozen big non-FGC creators hanging out at Evo 2024, and that number will likely increase this year.
Getting big creators into fighting games while streaming their early progress lets their viewers see how to learn themselves, and opens the door for entirely new audiences to potentially pick up the sticks.
Beyond the games, Sajam Slam teams also allow creators to network with each other naturally and can lead to other collaborations. For example, even after their run in one of the Tekken 8 events, Dokibird has streamed with members of Team Brawlpro in other games and tournaments.
Read more on Sports Illustrated
