2016 was a historic year for the Capcom Pro Tour. With 72 tournaments across five continents, it was the largest and most diverse iteration of the circuit to date. Between Lee "Infiltration" Sewonoo's early dominance and Du "NuckleDu" Dang's unprecedented Capcom Cup win, there's no denying this was the most hype Capcom Pro Tour on record, but it was also the most complicated.

With five different leaderboards, a byzantine auto-qualification system and a near endless number of tournaments, there's a lot Capcom is looking to work on for the 2017 season. Their first target? Reducing the number of tournaments.

"Our main goal next year is to streamline the Capcom Pro Tour so it’s easier for both players and fans to follow along throughout the year," Capcom's director of digital media and esports Niedel "Haunts" Crisan told theScore esports. "This year, after EVO, it became more complicated to follow who had a chance to win and ultimately how Capcom Cup 2016 was shaping up.

"Additionally, we had over 70 events on the Pro Tour this year which we felt may have been a bit too much. Many players reported they were feeling exhausted this year due to how much travel was involved to stay in the running. We will still have a robust, global tour next year, but we’ll be paring down the amount of events on the circuit a bit."

Crisan says that Capcom is proud of the diversity of this year's circuit, as well as the success of the online ranking events, and they're looking to lean into both next year. CPT 2016 had two online ranking events in each of the four regions, giving online warriors a chance to test their skills against tournament pros.

However, it wasn't all perfect. While the online ranking tournaments did run smoothly, many players were concerned the the online tournaments, which often featured fewer pros in attendance, offered the same amount of points as ranking events. While Capcom didn't give theScore esports an update on the points structure for next season, Crisan said that streamlining the tour may include lowering the amount of auto-qualification spots — though he doesn't think they'll be gone entirely.

"We feel every year auto-qualification spots add a layer of unneeded complexity to the tour and we’ve been trying to find a good way to balance it over the past few seasons, but ultimately, we found the point system is the best indicator of skill and really serves the same purpose," Crisan said. "There are very few players who obtained auto-qualification spots who weren’t already at the top of the leaderboard.

"That said, we probably won’t be doing away with auto-qualification altogether. We are looking at what events these auto-spots make sense for, to ensure we get a well-rounded Capcom Cup at the end of the year. We will also ensure that players who do get first place Premier Events increase their chances of getting into Capcom Cup by a large degree."

Part of why Capcom is doing this, Crisan said, is thanks to the community's input. Everyone was confused about who had actually qualified for Capcom Cup, not least of whom was Ryan Hart, who qualified while he was on vacation in the Maldives.

Capcom has made a few quick changes to the Pro Tour ruleset, banning out the Kanzuki Beach and Skies of Honor stages soon after release. However, for the most part, Capcom's been slow to respond publicly regarding some of their rules. Many fans and pros were confused about whether already-qualified players could enter the last-chance qualifiers at the regional finals. That confusion is one of the reasons why there will be less tournaments next year, less auto-qualification, and more updates on the Capcom Cup website. These things can't happen immediately, Crisan says, but he wants the community to know that Capcom is listening.

"We generally feel the same way about how the tour shapes up and its ruleset as the fans do," Crisan said. "We pay close attention to what players and fans are saying, and we can’t always make immediate changes, but at the end of the day this is a circuit based on a community foundation so there is always going to be a lot of synergy there."

And one of the strengths of this year's pro tour was the diversity that the community brought to the table. Capcom held circuit events in countries that have never been represented on the Pro Tour, like Poland, Russia and Dominican Republic.

However, like the online events, international events weren't perfect. From controller interference during the Grand Finals of Treta 2016 to the stream cutting out during Grand Finals at Lockdown 2016, production value could certainly be improved at a few Pro Tour events next year. Either way though, Crisan and Capcom aren't cutting those regions out of the loop in 2017.

"For next year, we’ll have plenty of opportunities for players to compete no matter where they are located. At the end of the day, we want Capcom Cup to be a showcase of the best of the best when it comes to Street Fighter competition, so the players in each region — how hungry they are to represent their region — plays a big part in how things shake out as well."

Capcom Cup this year also featured the biggest prize pool in the tournament's history thanks to the community kicking in money through the Capcom Pro Tour DLC. It was limited compared to the kinds of pro-scene integration that games like Dota 2 have been able to achieve with their clients, but it was the first time Capcom had tried it.

While Crisan couldn't get specific if that'll be happening again, he did say that Capcom is looking to expand in that area, and that it would be a priority for Season 2. Otherwise though, Crisan says Capcom is happy with this year's Pro Tour, but there are always to improve it. For now, he's just satisfied that CPT 2016 did what it set out to do: bring the hype.

"We want a unified, engaged community of players which we definitely saw this year," Crisan said. "The Pro Tour creates a year-long narrative around Street Fighter V and gives players a reason to continue to play the game year-round. It also gives more of a reason for up-and-coming communities to continue to expand and bring the Street Fighter scene much closer together on a global scale.

"Top players travelling to these emerging communities and interacting with new players in those locations is something that I loved seeing this year."

Daniel Rosen is a news editor for theScore esports. He's hoping for Mike "Mayor of Earth" Haggar in Season 2. You can follow him on Twitter.