Fighting Games Fri-Saturday: The Games of Evo 2020
The Evolution Championship Series, officially shortened as Evo, never fails to provide entertaining fighting game matches on an annual basis. But the announcements of which games that will be among the main showcases has also become entertaining in its own right, because some fans get a little too excited and upset about whether their favorite games make the cut. The biggest such incident happened when Super Smash Bros. Melee was excluded from Evo 2019’s lineup, which some fans are still peeved about to this day, months after the event concluded. The reveal of the Evo 2020 lineup didn’t provide quite as much drama, but that’s not to say it didn’t provide any.
It’s no surprise that Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are returning. All three games remain popular in the fighting game community, and are still being supported by their developers and publishers — significantly so in Smash Ultimate’s case, which has a second season of downloadable content coming with a slate of unannounced characters and assorted content. The other titles were at least a little more surprising, and one was a genuine shock.
The reappearance of Dragon Ball FighterZ was uncertain, but not too surprising. The number of tournament entrants and stream watchers were down last year compared to its Evo 2018 debut, but they were still impressive. The grand finals featuring SonicFox and GO1 (pronounced “Go-Ichi”), the same two players who made it to the finals in 2018, attracted several watchers. Bandai Namco confirmed that Ultra Instinct Goku is coming to the game as DLC, but we’ll find out if his arrival will be the first of several characters as part of a third DLC season at the conclusion of the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals 2019-2020 this weekend.
Granblue Fantasy: Versus being one of the main games isn’t too surprising, either, since it just released in Japan and will release in western territories next month. Developer Cygames sponsored Evo in 2018, and clearly wanted one of their own games there, so their wish will be granted. Under Night In-Birth fans were overjoyed when their hard work to get one of the installments on the main stage at Evo paid off last year. Now, they’re happy that the newest game, Under Night In-Birth EXE:Late[cl-r] (don’t ask me how to pronounce that), will be there this year. It will release worldwide at the end of the month.
Samurai Shodown returning was a slightly bigger surprise than the above games, since it hasn’t received quite as much attention as it did when it released last summer (about a month before Evo 2019). But it’s still a popular showcase and fun to watch. The most surprising returning game is Soulcalibur VI, which received so few entrants at Evo 2019 that its tournament was resolved within the event’s first day. There’s a good chance that Bandai Namco’s sponsorship is the reason why it’s returned.
The biggest shock was the ninth game: A Marvel vs. Capcom 2 8-man invitational. As the name implies, this won’t be a full tournament with a slew of entrants, but an invitational that will involve eight of the best MvC2 players taking part in what’s called the “2ournament of Champions.” Regardless of what you think of it, it’s remarkable that a 20-year-old game will be returning to the main stage after so long.
SCVI’s reappearance is especially surprising considering the games that won’t return. By far the biggest omission is Mortal Kombat 11, the best-selling non-Smash Bros. fighter on the market. (Yes, Smash Bros. is a fighting game, stop.) The game drew a good amount of tournament entrants at Evo 2019, many of whom registered late, and was popular among stream watchers. Combine that with the recent arrival of new characters that would be entertaining on the main stage like the Joker and Spawn (if players used them), and it’s mystifying that this game has been excluded. Evo’s organizers have a good working relationship with developer NetherRealm Studios, so its absence is tough to parse.
It’s less surprising that Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle won’t return, since it had the lowest number of entrants at Evo 2019. But it was still given a bigger stage than SCVI thanks to how fast its matches were. Its final bouts were trusted to end on time on Sunday, Evo’s final day, when several announcements are made.
There was no way everyone’s favorite fighting games would be among the centerpieces at the event, but at least most of them will be on the main stage. Keep in mind that many titles that didn’t make it, including those listed above and other recent releases like Dead or Alive 6, will be featured in mostly-streamed side tournaments. The matches for each should at least be entertaining (along with the side drama they come with), and the same goes for the rush of announcements that will mostly happen on the final day.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
