This Is It! bids proper farewell to Arcade-in-a-Box

Over the weekend, players gathered from around the state to Tucson in order to pay their respects to Ed Farias as he bid adieu to his establishment, Arcade-in-a-Box. The arcade, proclaimed one of the last retro arcades in the city, was celebrated over the weekend in style with a massive five-tournament event.

Players new and old participated in the competitions with a sense of community and fun that made the arcade such a staple for gamers in the past. Indeed the event served as a reminder to Farias of the good times he had running Arcade-in-a-Box during its seven-year run, but also an affirmation of his decision to leave the arcade.

Ed Farias says goodbye to Arcade-in-a-Box with ‘This Is It!’ event

Courtesy Arcade-in-a-Box.

As the days of online competition progress, more and more small arcade venues are struggling to get the same pull of players they used to. Sadly, Tucson’s own Arcade-in-a-Box has suffered the same plight, leading the owner and founder Ed Farias, to say goodbye to the arcade this November.

Arcade-in-a-Box is one of Tucson’s biggest gamer arcade hangouts that officially got started by Farias in 2005. Since then, the venue has hosted scores of fighting game tournaments, seen the creation of the popular web series Retro Rumble, and helped groom top level Street Fighter IV players such as Latif, second-place SSFIV: AE winner at EVO 2011.

Truly, Arcade-in-a-Box is an Arizona arcade with history behind it and Farias described the decision to step away from the venue as a difficult one. In an email interview, Farias explained that after multiple attempts to pull players in, he decided to celebrate the arcade’s ending with the This is It! event, rather than try to bolster up followers in attempts to “save” it:

DEVASTATION 2011 Re-Cap

Did you happen to miss DEVASTATION last weekend? Well The Pause Button‘s got you covered with our video recap complete with several awesome interviews and funny asides we caught at the event. Check it out below!

Fight Nights and Finales

With summer coming to a close and the absolute craziness that was had at this years’ EVO, it’s understandable that gamers in Arizona will be clamoring to get in as much tournament play as they can. Luckily there are tons of events happening in August, with a double dose this week from the DEVASTATION crew.

On Friday the team will be hosting their Fight Night event (previously pushed back from July 22) at the Microsoft Store in Scottsdale. The event will have three main tournaments for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Tekken 6, with casual setups for Mortal Kombat, Blazblue: Continuum Shift II, Soul Calibur IV, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.