Last night, a stream was held to announce the main tournaments in this year’s EVO 2015 fighting game championships, and the results may surprise you. While Skullgirls still doesn’t get its shot (a man can dream can’t he) several new titles are going to be played for the first time ever.
9 different titles have been selected for the competition. Returning favorites like Ultra Street Fighter IV were pretty much a given. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is also returning to the lineup, regardless of the fact that all support for the game has been discontinued by Capcom. These two games will be the headliners of the tournament, as per usual.
Nintendo, oddly enough, is making the next biggest showing at the tournament. Not only will the new Super Smash Bros. for Wii U be played on the big stage, but Super Smash Bros. Melee will also have a headlining tournament. In fact, Super Smash Bros. Melee is the only classic fighting game being played at the tournament. The next oldest game is Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 .
Several releases from last year have made the cut. Killer Instinct Season 2 will have a headlining tournament, as will Persona 4 Arena Ultimax , and Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- . No Blazblue will be played, even though we are on the verge of the release of Blazblue Chronophantasma Extend . Both Persona 4 Ultimax and Guilty Gear are Arc System Works games, and adding a third, Blazblue , to the roster would weigh the tournament toward a particular style.
What’s particularly interesting is the fact that several games that haven’t been released have been added to the roster. EVO used to have a policy about not adding very recent releases to their roster, for fear that either A, there wouldn’t be a community, or B, there wouldn’t be enough time to learn the game. But this year both Mortal Kombat X and Tekken 7 will be joining the roster, and neither have been released yet. Competitors will only have a few short months to practice both before competing in the largest fighting game tournament in the world. In fact, Tekken 7 will have to be played on arcade machines because it’s home version won’t be out by the time the tournament is held.
To review, this is the full list of accepted tournaments, not including side tournaments.
- Ultra Street Fighter IV
- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
- Guilty Gear XRD -SIGN-
- Killer Instinct
- Mortal Kombat X
- Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
- Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Tekken 7
How do you feel about the lineup? Which games did you want to see get in? Will you be tuning in to EVO this year?
EVO will take place from July 17 th to July 19 th at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. It will be streamed live on Twitch.TV.