It's my understanding that there isn't any money in it, at least not directly. Some of the fighters are involved because they hope to get rich and famous, but it's sort of in the same way that, e.g., baseball players used to get rich, if they were prominent enough, off endorsements and stuff rather than the actual pay they were getting to play the game. The World Championship Authority itself doesn't pay them to fight.

I'm pretty sure the Street Fighter Tournament itself isn't legal in all the countries it happens in, and that the US is one of the ones where it isn't. Sometimes the local authorities look the other way, but the law regards it as the same as bare-knuckle brawling in a bar parking lot. It's just really sophisticated bare-knuckle brawling in a bar parking lot. :) In "civilized" countries it tends to be a sort of underground thing, like warehouse parties - not legal, but usually ignored as long as they don't do it out in the street and scare the horses.

>I mean if its got all the background and organization for people to
>beat each other up in a sanctioned tourney with rules and regulations,
>with a cash prize and title at the end, why would that be so different
>from a normal job in an adoption case?

Well, it might not under those conditions, but I'm not sure. I mean, to the judicial system, these guys are probably considered a cut below those cage fighter people who clobber each other on pay-per-view. (Why a cut below? Because the Street Fighters don't even have a pay-per-view deal. :)

>Actually I've another
>question now, would a bank account be admissable as evidence that
>you're able to comfortably support a child?

Probably, yeah, if it's big enough. I don't think G's is quite at that level yet, but Zoner's might well be. (Someone in the house has probably made the joke by now that they'd have been better off getting married, which they could actually do in Massachusetts. :)

>Would
>writing down 'entertainer' or 'martial arts instructor' in the job
>description be considered a viable and good job to raise a teenager?

Possibly, but like I say, the Street Fighter community isn't really held in high esteem like Real Professional Athletes. It's a very iffy sort of grey area. G would probably be better off claiming that he's a courier, and that, for example, he just happened to be making a delivery to the floor manager at Siberian Steel Company Mill #538 (a Mr. S.P. Zangief) when an incident occurred.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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