Compete with the Best Gamers, Win Swag! -by Citi Gaming @Anime NYC 2026
Back to: Anime NYC 2026 Main Page (Aug 2026)
Group: City Gaming
Interviewer (FL): First L00k
Interviewee (CoB): Andy (a.k.a. City of Brass)
At Anime NYC’s gaming area, Citi Gaming holds 3 days of competitions and the yearly Defend the North game event. Prizes include medals, swag (cool looking t-shirts, cups and such) and photoshoots taken by pros.
Around 2 dozen numbered stations are set up at tables with monitors, a selection of games and seats for 2 players to compete against. Best of all, it’s free to sign up for play!
FL: What do we have here? Please tell us about yourself.
CoB: My name is Andy, AKA City of Brass – and this is Citi Gaming. We’re a grassroots event that hosts video game tournaments and we rent [out] gaming equipment. We do this both locally for the east coast and the south as well.
FL: It looks like you’re holding some kind of competition? What kind of games are you hosting?
CoB: So for Anime NYC, we’re doing tournaments on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’re hosting a total of 11 games. And across those games we have the newest and best fighting games such as Marvel Tokon. We also have Avatar The Last Airbender, Tekken, Street Fighter. We also have Guilty Gear Strive, Dragon Ball Z. So it’s a big mixture of traditional fighting games and anime games alike that everyone knows and loves.
FL: Are these games free or how much is it to play? Setting up all this gear couldn’t have been cheap.
CoB: It’s free to play to get your foot in the door and be familiar with the fighting game community. The best players win medals as the prize and awesome pictures with our great photographers. (There’s a photo area with yellow backdrop, lights, gear and photographers).
Everything here is free. We want to show love and support for gaming and that’s why this is a great help that Anime NYC has us here.
FL: I see a table with t-shirts, cups and other swag. What is that for?
CoB: We have an annual event called Defend the North. That’s where we have our traditional fighting game event every year. It’s always based in New York typically. We have a great showing of top tier players and a lot of star talent that comes from all over.
The reason why I created the event was because I think New York has the best when it comes to fighting game players. So instead of the best going out to other places to find good competition, I thought – how about WE have an event where everyone comes HERE to play the best? So it’s a three-day event and I’ve run it for about 12 years now.
FL: Where can we find out more?
CoB: We have a website citiGaming.com and we’re on social media – Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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More Info:
https://citigaming.com
https://www.defendthenorth.com
Social Media:
facebook.com/citigamingnortheast
instagram.com/citigaming
twitch.tv/citi_gaming
twitter.com/citigaming
youtube.com/@citi_gaming
Event: Anime NYC 2026 (Aug 2026)
