Later this October, the largest grassroots Street Fighter III: Third Strike tournament of the year will take place in Hurst, Texas at Artcade DFW. It's called the Third Strike Open, and over 100 players will descend upon the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the event, including a number of strong Japanese players like the legendary Hugo Hayao and SHO, one of the best Yun players in the world.

Just a couple of months ago, Third Strike Open was in trouble, and so was Artcade, the center of Third Strike competition in the DFW area. A massive downpour led to severe roof damage, and left much of the facility flooded. The building that hosts Artcade, Central Arts of Hurst, isn't just a fighting game venue. It provides a whole host of services for artists of all ages and skill levels and serves as a performance venue for musicians. It just also happens to be the home of Superdash, a weekly where the DFW fighting game community can come together as one.

Daniel "StealTheShank" Baggett is a tournament organizer who has been working with the Central Arts community since 2018. Their community started to take off with the rise of DragonBall FighterZ, and as the years went on, Artcade became a hub for anime fighters. A strong scene also built up around retro fighters, particularly Street Fighter III: Third Strike, thanks to the Versus City cabinets they featured in their arcade.

"We don't really follow a lot of traditional arcade norms," StealTheShank said. "We're kind of grassroots. We're just like a bunch of homies that have a building. And we're very blessed to have a good property management owner that works with us to support FGC events."

It was a scene built thanks to contributions from the community. "Back in the day, the setups that we used to get were from people just bringing them and putting them on a table for us," StealTheShank said. "Luckily, we were able to raise money and I was able to buy some mobile carts for us to set up stations with PlayStation 5s and PCs. So we've been very blessed by the community. This venue is literally a testament to the love of fighting games and we would be nothing if it wasn't for other people giving."

The largest regular tournament currently held at Artcade is Superdash, which just held its anniversary event in September. A twice-monthly tournament series, Superdash currently hosts brackets for Street Fighter 6, Street fighter III: Third Strike and Dragonball FighterZ, but has also featured other games like Tekken 8 throughout the course of its history. There's also plenty of other cabinets and games available for bracket competitors and spectators alike to enjoy.

"What makes Superdash and the Artcade venue so special before all this roof damage is that we blend the retro arcade community and vibes and atmosphere with modern FGC, seamlessly" StealTheShank added. "Like, you walk into our venue and you see someone smacking an old American Mortal Kombat Two cabinet, and then there's these new 18-year-old players where it's their first time ever coming to an arcade or anything like this, and they're like, whoa, this is something special."

For StealTheShank, building that kind of culture is only growing more important as online play becomes a bigger and bigger part of modern fighting games. "This is preserving the arcade," StealTheShank said. "The arcade culture that was almost lost to COVID. I wish you could come through and see it for yourself, because it's something really special seeing young kids on Versus City cabs from Japan, looking over the side of the cabinets and going, 'Yeah, that was sick, bro.' It's a wonderful image."

It's also an opportunity to give back to the rest of the Hurst, Texas community outside of just the FGC. Artcade is just part of what Central Arts of Hurst offers. "I have worked as a volunteer for the children's art classes as an art teacher for I think five years now," StealTheShank said. "I'm literally just there so much that I just decided to start doing that." Those connections are a big part of why StealTheShank has become so attached to Central Arts. "A kid's parents will walk in, they'll be like, 'Oh, Daniel's here, let me say hi to Daniel," and a kid that hasn't seen me in a couple weeks, she'll run in the door and hug me. It's love, it's something beautiful. The kids are a really big factor in this," StealTheShank says.

"And we're training them up to be monsters in Third Strike, so that's amazing."

The flooding of the Central Arts space threatened all of that. But it was also an opportunity for the community to step up and show how much Artcade matters to them. A GoFundMe was set up, and the response from the FGC was overwhelming, and not just from DFW locals. Over $10,000 has been raised to help with repairs and replace damaged equipment, including one cabinet that the community has already managed to replace.

"If you look at the donations, they're from Japan, they're from Nepal, they're from Europe," StealTheShank said. "They're from our own attendees that really shouldn't be sending huge donations, and I know they can't afford it. I know they're eating ramen this month, but that's just how much they care about this place.

"I asked one of the guys that donated a really large amount, and I was like, 'How could you do that, man? Like, I gotta pay you back." And he's like, 'No, this is my favorite place in the entire earth. My wife knows how much I care about this place. I take time away from her just to support you guys because I genuinely love this place and it's changed my life.'"

"So that's what makes it all worth it," StealtheShank said.

Thankfully, with the community rallying behind Central Arts and Artcade, the future is looking bright despite the disaster that struck in late August. The venue isn't in the shape that it used to be, and the community is on the hunt for a new home. But thanks to donations and hard work from the community, the roof is repaired and the Third Strike Open will be taking place as planned in late October.

Third Strike Open isn't just huge for a grassroots event. With 108 players signed up, it'll be the biggest Street Fighter III bracket period since CEO's 139-player event in June according to Liquipedia. It also has six top Japanese players in attendance: Hayao, SHO, Yomoda, Heboryu, Manma and Mimora. The event will also include a 3-on-3 team tournament, and the whole bracket will be played on Japanese Candy Cab setups. The tournament will be streamed on StealTheShank's Twitch, and if you've been looking for some high level Third Strike action, you owe it to yourself to tune in. StealTheShank was also adamant during our conversation that "DFW is one of the strongest scenes" in Third Strike. October's Third Strike Open will be their chance to prove it.

The future of Artcade is still up in the air. But whatever happens, the way the community has come together has proven one thing about the future to StealTheShank. "The future is that Artcade goes on. You cannot kill us,"' he said. "We will survive." Wherever that happens to be. "We're looking at other venue spaces and with the insurance settlement and the donations that have come in, we're going to improve. Everything that happened at Central Arts Hurst and Artcade and Artcade that we had before, we're gonna just make it better and that's what the people deserve."

"The future of Artcade is that it will never die."

Third Strike Open will take place Friday, October 24th through Sunday, October 26th, with the main bracket taking place Saturday, October 25th. You can find more information at the Start.GG page and follow StealTheShank on Twitch to be ready for all the action. If you're interested in supporting Central Arts of Hurst, they are still accepting donations at their GoFundMe here.