Do you have what it takes to complete a Pocky K.O.? Capcom and Ezaki Gilco have partnered to create the Pocky K.O. challenge campaign for players worldwide in Street Fighter V. The premise is simple, all a player needs to do is wait for their health total to look like a piece of Pocky, and then K.O. their opponent. It may sound ridiculous, but some of the world’s best fighters will be doing their best to complete the challenge.
As if defeating a worthy opponent was not difficult enough, now players need to first attempt to gauge their health to appear visually proportionate to the chocolate-to-stick ratio of a Pocky stick. Check out the video below to see just how easy the challenge may seem in principle, and how absurdly difficult it will be to put into practice.
Capcom and Pocky are celebrating the announcement with a limited release of Street Fighter V: Pocky EDITION, which will have its own debut and special exhibition match at CAPCOM CUP 2019 from December 13-15 in Los Angeles, California. Some of the highest ranked esports players will be in attendance, all doing their best to win the Pocky K.O. Challenge.
The Pocky EDITION will have a new user interface exclusive to the challenge to give players a visual indication of when they have the correct amount of health available. Audiences will be able to watch the action on Twitch and YouTube.
Players can get in on the action themselves by submitting their best video captures and screenshots to the Pocky K.O. checker on the official website to see if they have completed the challenge. By sharing those video captures or screenshots to Twitter with the hashtag #PockyKO, uploads will be automatically entered into a jury pool where the top eleven will be featured on the big screen at CAPCOM CUP 2019.
To celebrate the collaboration, Pocky will also be releasing limited-edition Street Fighter V Pocky packages available online and through retail locations.
Now, the real question is whether this kind of collaboration will be a one-time affair, or if we are witnessing the next generation of ad placement. Maybe games in the future will feature victory poses that default to corporate sponsorship, with Guile grabbing a BigMac, and non-sponsored poses will be microtransaction DLC. The future is terrifying!