The Glorious and Protracted Return of Evo 2022
When it came time to announce the slate of featured titles for Evolution Championship Series 2022, more succinctly known as Evo 2022, it was clear this would be a more special announcement stream than those before it. Evo is the biggest worldwide fighting game tournament around, but the 2022 occasion will mark its return to the grandest stage. Everything is opening back up following a long period of lockdowns and semi-lockdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning the tournament will be fully in person this year for the first time since 2019. It’s grand and welcome return to form, and under its new owners with Sony at that.
Their ideas for the stream (it starts 15 minutes in) were solid this year, but the execution was iffy. Instead of merely announcing the slate of nine games and showing trailers for each one, exhibition matches were provided for each game. It was a good way to show the casual audience and fighting game fans not familiar with specific games what they’ll be in for with the matches that occur over the summer, but this immensely dragged out the stream. It took a little more than two hours for them to finish, for an event I doubt many casuals tuned in for. The majority of watchers were fighting game fans who would have sought out matches for games they weren’t familiar with afterward. But again: The idea was solid.
The actual games in the lineup were largely predictable, though a few curve balls were thrown. Street Fighter V: Champion Edition is unsurprisingly part of it, in what could be the game’s final Evo appearance unless the recently-announced Street Fighter 6 is coming considerably later than expected. Guilty Gear Strive was also no surprise, in what will be the game’s first showcase on the big stage in our (optimistically) post-COVID times. The same will apply to The King of Fighters XV, released not even a month ago.
Tekken 7 and Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate are returning after their previous iterations were popular at prior Evo tournament. Whether the former will once again buck the usual trends by increasing its player registration number year-over-year remains to be seen, but the pandemic gap will be justifiably blamed if that doesn’t happen. (Not to mention the remaining developer support is coming slower than expected thanks to the pandemic.) Dragon Ball FighterZ didn’t draw a high number of entrants following its launch year in 2018, but the viewership for the finals likely explains why it’s back here. The game is barely being supported at this point, outside the lab coat version of Android 21 who barely counts as new content.
The surprises lied in the more niche fighting game choices. Melty Blood: Type Lumina is joining titles like Guilty Gear Strive and KOFXV in being showcased on the big stage for the first time, yes, but that’s a bigger deal here thanks to the Melty Blood franchise’s more niche status among the fighting game community. It’s a welcome spiritual successor to the Under Night In-Birth series previously featured at Evo. The same goes for Granblue Fantasy: Versus, a title that remarkably released just as COVID lockdowns started between February and March of 2020. The release period prevented any chance it had of succeeding on the tournament level, to no fault of the developers and publishers who hadn’t planned for that. There’s still a chance for it to rebound — if its showcase at Evo coincides with the announcement or release of rollback netplay. But I wouldn’t bet on that.
The biggest surprise was Skullgirls, not because it isn’t still being supported (after a decade, notably), but due to how often it was neglected in previous years. It will now return to the stage, a testament to how far fan support can go.
It’s no surprise that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate won’t be among the main games considering that Evo’s organizers saw fit to announce that simultaneously with the announcement stream a little over a week ago. Plenty of other titles didn’t make the cut, most to little surprise. Some were other niche-upon-niche ones like Them’s Fightin’ Herds (which might be released on every other platform soon), while it’s possible the organizers didn’t think the audience wanted to see a game like Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl as a main game.
I was personally hoping fighters recently rereleased like Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown and the soon-to-arrive Persona 4 Arena Ultimax port would be surprising additions, but it’s understandable that they didn’t make the cut for the main stage. Other titles previously featured at big tournaments aren’t returning either, like Soulcalibur 6 and Samurai Shodown (2019). Both had their time in the tournament limelight cut short thanks to the pandemic, though chances are publishers Bandai Namco and SNK aren’t fretting this too heavily considering their other titles (that’s Tekken 7 and KOFXV) will be featured. There’s a chance for them to be fixtures in smaller side tournaments.
It will be one of the biggest pleasures in recent memory to see Evo once again be held live from the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada from August 5th to the 7th. Let’s just hope nothing prevents this, like a badly-timed new COVID-19 variant that starts spreading like wildfire days or weeks before this is scheduled to begin. Let’s also hope I didn’t jinx anything by mentioning that possibility. I can’t help myself.
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
