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POSTED 03 / 24 / 26

Arc World Tour 2025/26 Recap

ARTICLE BY Cale Michael

The 2025-26 ARC World Tour Finals gave fighting game fans a full weekend of action and then some, crowning new champions for Guilty Gear -Strive-, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes, along with special announcements for multiple Arc System Works titles.

A new king rises in UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes

While it was the smallest bracket of the three main events, UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II didn’t disappoint with its high level action, a thrilling final showdown, and the rise of a new champion in Daniel "Jaca" Lobo.

Heading into the event, Senaru was one of the favorites due to his consistency in the game as a whole and the fact that he was defending his 2024 ARC World Tour title. Early on, his chances for a repeat win looked promising after besting Neffros’ Linne in the opening round and surviving an Eltnum ditto against OmniDeag. Once warmed up, Senaru took a clean 3-0 over Brazilian powerhouse Jaca, taking his spot in Grand Finals and looking poised to win yet another UNI2 major.

Jaca’s path to his first ARC World Tour victory was much less conventional. As sometimes happens when invites are tied to placements at major events, Jaca initially only earned his spot at this year’s championship after placing second at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2025 due to the winner, Neffros, already having received an invite with his victory at VSFighting XIII earlier in the season.

This unconventional path to an invite didn’t stop Jaca from taking a close set over MIYAGI Muteki and sweeping UNI veteran Oushuu-Hittou on his way to Winners Finals. However, he was then swiftly kicked down to the lower bracket by Senaru where he had to face another top Eltnum player in OmniDeag to try and earn his rematch.

Whatever adjustments Jaca made after his loss to Senaru seemed to work, as he ended up dropping just a single round to OmniDeag, taking Losers Finals 3-1. That momentum carried over into his rematch with Senaru, too, which followed the exact same pattern to force a bracket reset in Grand Finals that also led to an early 2-0 lead in the reset.

Senaru managed to bring the series back to 2-2 before eventually falling in one last masterful Orie performance from Jaca which secured him the title and $25,000.

"Keep playing this amazing game. I mean, it's the best fighting game there is hands down,” Jaca said after winning. “Brazil is the strongest region. I think I proved that today, and I’m hoping we get to see more of this region competing in the future.”

On top of crowning a new champion, the UNI2 team announced that a new character is in development for the game and is set to be released later this year. We only got a brief teaser trailer to go along with that announcement, but, considering the initial Season Pass ended with Izumi’s release last August, this is a big win for fans of the game who were hoping for new content and, potentially, future updates.

A dream finally achieved in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising

While the bracket for this year’s Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising finals might not look as competitive as some of the other games if you just look at results, it did end up with one of the game’s most consistent rising stars finally getting a championship under his belt.

Zangief_Dream is a name that many Granblue Fantasy Versus fans might not recognize if they didn’t tune into events in Asia during 2025, as he only really broke into the scene last year after appearing in the Cygames Cup Special 2025. From there, he quickly jumped into the limelight of the competitive scene in his first, and currently only, North American appearance at Slashback 2025, where he finished ninth.

Post Slashback, Zangief_Dream really put his name out there with a second place finish at Evo Japan 2025. From there, he never placed lower than third at any event, online or offline, he attended for the rest of the season. This includes a second place finish at Cygames Cup 2026, where he cemented himself atop the GBVSR global leaderboard ahead of the ARC World Tour Finals.

Since the GBVSR bracket was best of five from the start of the main event, we got to see all of the players show off their skills right away which led to all but one set throughout the entire tournament being a 3-1 or 3-0 finish. This includes all of Zangief_Dream’s matches.

The only solo Cagliostro in the entire bracket Mehen’d through gamera’s Ilsa and then faced off against Evo 2025 champion Kojicoco twice: once while the American player was piloting Beatrix in the upper bracket finals, and again after he swapped to Belial.

This was actually the second time this year that Zangief_Dream and Kojicoco faced off twice in the same event for a top placement. Both players matched up against each other in the opening round of the Cygames Cup 2026, where Kojicoco took the win 3-2 only to fall 2-3 when they met up again in the lower bracket finals.

In both of their meetings at the ARC World Tour Finals, Zangief_Dream walked away with a 3-1 victory and finally brought home a title after an incredible first full season on the circuit. This was also the first time a Cagliostro player finished in the top eight at an ARC World Tour Finals, let alone winning the entire thing.

During the finals for the game, Cygames confirmed that a Season 2.60 update for the game is in development, with no current release date slated.

With this reveal, the developers announced a new character will be coming to Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising in the future, along with a new stage, more costumes, a new system mechanic, adjustments to existing mechanics, character adjustments, and more.

Chaos takes the crown in Guilty Gear -Strive-

Flipping the Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising results on their head, Guilty Gear -Strive- only saw a single sweep during the entire finals bracket, with most series coming down to a final game up until one last final blast from Jack to win the whole thing.

Jack didn’t get a single easy win on his way to the finals, going the distance against MetallicCake’s I-No and tatuma’s Sol Badguy, with the latter being a slugfest up until the final hit that secured the Happy Chaos player a spot in Grand Finals.

Similarly, NitroNY also had to face off against MetallicCake and tatuma, though this would take place from a completely different perspective.

In his opening round, tatuma bested Nitro 3-2, knocking the FlyQuest player down into a matchup with Summit’s Chipp, which led to Nitro overwhelming the ninja. That set up a battle against MetallicCake, who had just bested Jack’s Paragon teammate Daru_I-No in a battle of the bands (I-No mirror), where the Leo player won 3-2. This set him up for a rematch against tatuma to see who would make it to the last dance.

Despite taking the first game, tatuma couldn’t control the pace of the rematch, leaving Nitro to take the series 3-1 after winning three straight rounds.

Grand Finals was a throwback all the way to CEO 2025, where Nitro knocked Jack out of the event in fourth place. This set even started off with a similar result in the opening series, with the Leo player coming back from an 0-2 deficit to force a bracket reset. However, Jack didn’t let his first loss of the event phase him, immediately hitting the gas on Lila Regen and cruising to a smooth 3-0 win without dropping another round. Surprisingly, despite the gunslinger’s dominance across GGST’s history, this is the first time Happy Chaos has won the ARC World Tour Finals.

“I never thought that when I started playing this game I would be anywhere close to up here. And look at me now,” Jack said after winning. “It could really be anybody who just puts in the time and effort to accomplish what they want to do in this game. So my message is, if you want to compete and try to get up here, then do it. I didn't think I'd be able to do it and I did it."

To follow up the incredible action, Arc System Works also dropped news on all of the updates fans have been waiting for since Evo 2025 last August, including a new lineup of DLC fighters, new changes, and an actual release date for the game’s upcoming update.

Guilty Gear -Strive- 2.0 will launch on April 9 alongside a fifth season of DLC that will include four new fighters dropping between now and Spring 2027. Jam Kuradoberi will finally join the roster first on April 9 alongside the new update, with Robo-Ky set to do the same later this Summer as part of Season Pass 5. A new stage, Cradled by the Four Beasts, will also drop on April 9.

For GGST 2.0, a new battle mechanic called Counter Blitz will be introduced, along with new special moves, a Haunted character color, new accessories and outfits for the roster, an updated Battle UI skin, and short stories to expand the game’s story. A “Blazing Pass” seasonal reward system will also be added in May.

As an added bonus for Guilty Gear fans in Korea and Brazil, a Korean and Brazilian Portuguese localization is now available on Steam.

The future of the ARC World Tour, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, and beyond

Throughout the ARC World Tour Finals, we got bits of news about what the future of the event circuit will look like heading into the 2026-27 season, which includes MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls joining the roster while Cygames takes Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising off into its own space. At least, from what we can tell at this time.

For the 2026-27 ARC World Tour, Guilty Gear -Strive- and MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls will be the main games on the circuit, meaning players can expect a lot of focus on major events after MARVEL Tōkon releases on Aug 6.

As part of this announcement, we also got the reveal of Peni Parker joining the MARVEL Tōkon roster as part of the now named “The Amazing Guardians” team, which features Spider-Man, Star-Lord, Ms. Marvel, and the newly showcased Peni. That leaves just three teams left to be fully revealed ahead of the game’s release.

The new stage, Knowhere, was also revealed and will be playable alongside Peni Parker in a new MARVEL Tōkon demo build at Evo Japan 2026.

Currently, it looks like these are the only two games that will be featured as part of the official ARC World Tour circuit for 2026-27, though details about what events will be listed as tour stops and other information is “coming soon.” That could include details about side tournaments, which might include titles like UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes, Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, or BlazBlue: Central Fiction, among others. During the event, Cygames announced that Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising will be featured on a new “GBVS World Tour” that will be kicking off with Evo Japan 2026, which begins on May 1, and will run through events in November. This will be part of Cygame’s “premier global tournament circuit,” culminating in a 24-player finals at the Cygames Cup, which will now feature a $100,000 grand prize.

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