Lubbock, Texas · Hub City · Running brackets since 2019
West Texas Fighting Game Community
West Texas Showdown runs every Wednesday at Mad Hatter's — Strive, Tekken 8, Marvel Tokon and a rotating bonus game. The Crow's Nest runs every Sunday at Stormcrow Games, all casual, any game you bring. Both are free.
Two weeklies · both free
The Weeklies
Wednesday is brackets. Sunday is casuals. Both free.
Bonus Game Schedule
One extra bracket every Wednesday on top of the three mains. Games with five or fewer entrants run round robin.
Don't miss a bracket
Get The Wednesday Reminder
One message, Wednesday at 5 PM: tonight's bonus game, the start.gg link, and a reminder that registration closes at 5:55. Sunday reminders for The Crow's Nest too, if you want them. No spam, no newsletter, unsubscribe with one word.
Email or a browser notification. Text messaging needs a registered sender, so it is not offered.
Subscribe once and every Wednesday and Sunday lands in your phone calendar automatically.
Or just live in the Discord — that's where brackets get posted, rides get arranged and sets get scheduled.
Regional majors
The Majors
Saturday · October 10, 2026 · Doors 10:00 AM · Runs to 10:00 PM
Lubbock Finale 2026
All of 2026 · 0 events on the books
The Year Ahead
Click any date for details and signup.
What's Next
Everything else on the bracket
The Monthly & More
Running something?
Put It On The Calendar
Posted automatically the moment brackets finish
Top 8
Click a card for that player's full set history.
Tracking every Showdown since August 2024
Scene Health
Five entrants or fewer runs round robin and comes off the stream. Click any point to see who was there.
Game by game
New Faces
Never entered a Showdown bracket before, ever. Checked against all 95 Showdowns since August 2024.
Welcome Back
Gone three months or more, then walked back in. Some of these were away for over a year.
Live from start.gg · seasons reset every January 1
The Standings
1 point for entering, plus 12 / 9 / 7 / 5 / 3 for top five. Resets every January 1.
Attendance Streaks
Consecutive Showdowns entered, counted across the entire series — not just this season. Showing up is the whole thing.
Closest rivalries
Chosen by the TOs, not by points
Player Of The Month
242 sets · Showdown #103–#109
Head To Head
Hand-picked · not a leaderboard
Local Legends
Support the people filming, editing and streaming this scene
Content Creators
Money matches · first-to-10s · grudge sets
Exhibitions
TikTok · Reels · Shorts
Featured Combos & Clips
Live every Wednesday from 7:00 PM CT
Watch Live
Games with five or fewer entrants come off the stream schedule.
FGL Events
Brackets go live here every Wednesday night. Tap through to watch.
Main stream
Top 8s and featured sets from all four brackets.
twitch.tv/fgleventsllc ↗ youtube.com/@FGLEventsLLC ↗No game is guaranteed a spot
If every bracket ends up round robin, we stream the most-entered game of the night and run as many matches as we can fit.
Match archive
Watch The VODs
Pulled straight from youtube.com/@FGLEventsLLC — . Every card opens the video.
Both weeklies are free. This is how they stay that way.
Support The Scene
Nothing here is required to play.
Donate
The Gear Fund
Both weeklies are free and we intend to keep them that way. What money comes in goes straight back into the room: setups and consoles, monitors, DLC and character passes so nobody is locked out of a bracket, cables and adapters, and the occasional pot bonus. Nothing here is required to play, ever.
Why we ask about Brook adapters
Any controller, any station
A Brook Wingman lets a Switch pad, an old PS4 stick, a hitbox, or basically anything else plug into a PS5 or a PC and just work. Without one, somebody shows up with the controller they have practiced on for years and cannot enter. With one, they play. That is the whole reason we care about them.
We do not have enough. If you want to help and would rather buy a thing than hand over cash, buying one and bringing it to a Wednesday is the single most useful donation there is — and it stays useful for years.
See the Brook Wingman XE2 →Not a sponsorship and not an affiliate link. We just use them and they solve the problem.
Merch
West Texas FGC
Bring a setup
A console or PC plus a monitor is the single most useful thing you can carry through the door. More stations means brackets finish before 11 and casuals never stop.
Lend a controller
Regulars already lend pads for the night. If you've got a spare PS5 pad or a stick gathering dust, tell a TO and someone new gets to play.
Film, clip, post
One phone pointed at top 8 is enough. Post it with "Lubbock, TX" in the caption, tag the Discord, and your name goes on the Creators page.
Run something
Want to TO a side bracket, a retro night or an online lobby? Say so in the Discord. Anything real goes straight onto the calendar and start.gg.
Start here · New player guide
Never Been To A Local?
You do not need to be good. You do not need to be a fighting game player at all.
This Is Where Legends Are Made
Some of the strongest players in the nation come out of this room. Every one of them started off as a newbie who wasn't very good at the game.
What actually makes this place work is that everybody here loves to learn. People will teach you, run matches with you, and break down what just happened to you. Walk in knowing nothing and you'll leave knowing something.
It's free, it's every Wednesday, and there is no version of you that's too new to show up.
No controller? Still come.
There are regulars who will happily lend you a pad for the night. Just ask — nobody gets turned away for showing up empty-handed.
We use Brook adapters so people can bring third-party, Switch and unconventional controllers.
Want to support us? We don't have many adapters yet. Lending or donating one to the community genuinely helps more than anything else you could give us.
What does it cost?
Nothing, either night. West Texas Showdown is a 100% free local — no venue fee, no entry fee. The Crow's Nest is free too. Donations are appreciated but never required, and nobody is treated differently for not giving one.
I don't have a controller.
Come anyway. Regulars will lend you one — just ask. We use Brook adapters so third-party, Switch and unconventional controllers work, though we don't have many yet. If you want to support the scene, lending or donating an adapter is the most useful thing you can do.
Am I too bad to enter?
No, and you don't have to be a fighting game player at all. Some of the strongest players in the nation started here as complete newbies. It's free, so the only thing you're risking is an hour — and people will actively teach you.
What do I bring?
Your controller or stick. Wireless works, and we have adapters for third-party and Switch controllers — but not many, so a modern pad like a PS5 controller is the safest bet. No turbo or macro controllers. Setups are provided, and bringing your own console or PC is always welcome.
What actually runs every week?
Wednesday: Guilty Gear Strive, Tekken 8 and Marvel Tokon, plus a rotating bonus game — four brackets a night. Sunday at The Crow's Nest is open format, so bring literally any fighting game and someone will play it with you.
When do I need to be there?
Wednesday: doors 6:30, brackets can start as early as 7:00, venue closes at 11:00. Registration closes five minutes before start, though you can sometimes still sign up in person after — ask a TO rather than assuming you missed it. Sunday runs 1 to 5 PM and there's no bracket to be late for.
How do I sign up?
Every bracket lives on start.gg. Tap any date on the calendar or the Sign Up button and it opens that night's page — make a free start.gg account, hit Register, pick your games. Registration closes at 6:55 PM Wednesday.
Where is it?
Wednesday is Mad Hatter's House of Games, 1507 Texas Ave downtown — through the front door and immediate left downstairs. Sunday is Stormcrow Games, 5102 60th St Suite A. Can't make it out? The Crow's Nest also runs an online lobby on Round1.
Read before you enter
House Rules
Code of Conduct
- No bigotry. Treat everyone with respect. No harassment, witch hunting, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, violence, threats of violence, inappropriate contact, hate speech or other personal misconduct will be tolerated at our events.
- No bullying or harassment of other members. Anything above "FGC trash talk" gets dealt with accordingly.
- No damaging or stealing property. Reported to local law enforcement, and a lifetime ban.
- No bad odors. Wash up and put on deodorant before you attend. We'll ask you to go home and clean up if you still want to play. Three warnings is a one-month ban, and local TOs get notified.
- Alert your TOs of any issues. If you see something against these rules or something that makes you feel unsafe, find a TO — they're listed at the bottom of the start.gg page. If it rises to a serious crime, contact law enforcement first. Your safety comes before the bracket.
Controllers
Wireless is fine. We support wireless controllers, and we keep adapters on hand for third-party, Switch and unconventional controllers.
But we don't have many adapters yet — so if you can, bring a modern controller like a PS5 pad. It saves everyone time between sets.
No controller at all? Regulars will lend you one. And if you'd like to support us, lending or donating a Brook adapter to the community is the single most useful thing you can give.
No turbo, no macros. Program and turbo functions are banned. In-game macros are fine — the dash button in Strive is acceptable, a macro that inputs two forwards is not. One button per input; you can't have two L1s. Get caught and it's a DQ for cheating; a DQ'd controller means you play on something else.
Bugs & glitches
Intentionally triggering a bug or glitch that stops the game from being played is a loss for the player who triggered it. Discovering one mid-tournament is not a loss. Repeating it in the same match is a loss unless it doesn't crash the game or break its rules — the Ruby Heart freeze glitch in MVC2 is a loss; infinites are a tactic, go learn the Iron Man combo.
Brackets, DQ & the 11 PM wall
5 entrants or fewer: round robin. 6 or more: double elimination.
DQ timers: 10 minutes on winners side, 5 minutes on losers. Message ahead if you're running late.
Round-robin games come off the stream schedule going forward — that's what keeps us out of the building by 11. No game is guaranteed a stream spot.
Top player conflict clause
We love seeing people improve, but when everyone's good at everything, brackets deadlock. If you're in two brackets and holding one up because of a deep run in the other — top 4 in one while the other waits on your round 1 — we'll DQ the held-up match to keep things moving.
Don't read that as "stop entering things" or "don't get better." Sometimes we just hit a bottleneck. Play what you enjoy.
Sunday is the casual one
The Crow's Nest at Stormcrow Games is casual-focused — no bracket, no seeding, no DQ timer. Bring any and all fighting games and play sets with whoever's around. Sets can be recorded up to a FT5.
There's an online lobby on Round1 running the same afternoon, so you can join from home if you can't make the drive.
Just here to play?
You don't have to enter anything. Bring a console or a PC, set up, and play whatever you want all night — other games are welcome for casuals, with the exception of anything deemed too risky for the venue.
Entry is free. Donations are appreciated and never required.
Where we play