Evo 2016: A Guide to the 9 Games of Evo

The bad news is that we have to wait six long months for the Evolution Championship Series. The good news is that we at least know what the battlefield will look like as we now know the nine games that will make up the three-day event. The show will take place July 15-17 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Formerly called the Battle by the Bay, this will be the fifteenth official Evo tournament. Looking at the list of games they’ll be using this year, “Evolution” is a pretty apt description due to how nearly every game is updated by either a sequel, an upgrade, or extended DLC. The one game to get completely replaced is a bizarre anime fighting game that’s replaced by another completely bizarre anime fighting game.

Here’s what’s on tap for Evo 2016:

And there we are. Over the three days, thousands of fighting game players from around the world will be playing these nine games on various feeds, whittling down the numbers until it's clear who’s the best via double elimination tournaments. Of the nine, Street Fighter V, Guilty Gear Xrd –Revelator–, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mortal Kombat X, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will do their finals on the big stage Sunday.

So let’s take a closer look at what we have to look forward to...

STREET FIGHTER V

In 2009, Evo started to phase out the ever-so-popular Street Fighter III: Third Strike for the brand new Street Fighter IV. In the years that followed, Street Fighter IVwould be upgraded again and again as Super Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, and Ultra Street Fighter IV. These re-releases were always the main event, culminating in a crazy and dramatic final in 2015 where Yusuke Momochi defeated beloved underdog Bruce Hsiang (GamerBee).

But now Street Fighter IV has to be retired completely to make way for Capcom’s new fighter. No phasing out like with Third Strike. It’s just gone. After all, Sony is a big financial backer of the game and it can’t have the new share the spotlight with the old. Street Fighter V gets center stage, for better or worse.

The game has yet to be released officially as of this writing, instead coming out in just a few weeks. Due to extensive beta testing, many players around the world already have a taste for it, but by July, it will certainly be deeply ingrained into the fighting game community. We’ll see how the rather minimal roster and new engine revolving around V-Skills and V-Triggers will work out when tested in such a major public exhibition.

What’s worth noting is that Capcom’s gone out of its way to work past the classic setup of coming out with updated game after updated game. If Street Fighter V is still being played at Evo three years from now—and it most certainly will be—it won’t be Super Street Fighter V or anything like that. They’re simply going to be updating the core game with more and more DLC and balance patches. Part of that means a regularl trickling of new characters every two months or so. Not only will the default sixteen be playable, but expect the first two DLC characters to be usable as well.

GUILTY GEAR XRD –REVELATOR–

The first installment of Guilty Gear Xrd, which is an absolutely beautiful game if you haven’t played it, made its debut last year and did pretty well for itself. While Kenichi Ogawa won the finals against Nage, the thing everyone remembers the most is when Ogawa lost a round against Ryuichi Shigeno (Woshige) and Woshige made the mistake of doing a victory lap...not realizing until it was too late that there was still one more round left.

Even Sportscenterhad to get in on the act by featuring the clip. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

–Revelator– is an update of the game that’s currently released in Japanese arcades. It features some balance patches and a handful of new characters. In terms of home releases, Japan gets it in late May while the US will have it in early June. Just enough time for people to get more of a handle on it.

At the very least, this one should be a treat to watch.

ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3

There always has to be a Marvelgame at Evo. It’s practically the law, much to Capcom’s chagrin. See, despite Capcom being such a big cog in the event, they no longer have the license with Marvel and can’t actually sell the game. Therefore, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is almost meaningless to them. It’s like going to the family reunion and seeing the son you disowned.

Sucks for them, because the game’s kinetic three-on-three tag style probably won’t be stepping down for a long, long time.

The first Marvel vs. Capcom 3 made its debut at 2011’s event and Ultimatereplaced it in 2012. It’s been one of the more successful tournaments and despite its lack of update, don’t expect any different in 2016. Especially if unique teams keep making it far, such as last year’s winner Nicolas Gonzalez (KaneBlueRiver), whose Hulk/Sentinel/Haggar team was completely unexpected. In fact, going by all the winners over the years, there’s been very few characters who appeared on more than one team.

Let’s keep that going.

POKKEN TOURNAMENT

Last year gave us the last gasp of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. It was ridiculous and fun to watch, if hard to follow, but it was never going to last another year. Its replacement will make or break itself in its debut, either becoming the new hotness or being relegated to a passing novelty.

The game is a Pokemonfighter, based on using the creatures in a 3D battlefield, much like Tekken, albeit with emphasis on more gimmicky special moves than martial arts know-how. Assist characters are available to spruce up the miniscule cast and add variety to the strategy. As it stands right now, it’s available to play in Japanese arcades, but it’ll be hitting the Wii U in March.

It’ll be a bit raw, but it’ll be interesting to see if it takes to the audience.

SUPER SMASH BROS. WII U

Speaking of Wii U fighters, last year’s Smash 4 is making a reappearance. Last year saw Gonzalo Barrios (ZeRo) defeat Ramin Delshad (Mr. R) after Sheik more or less dominated the tournament. While it didn’t set the world on fire, the game was a bit easier to watch than its elderly brother. At least in my opinion. Mainly because the rounds are half as short. Smash 4rounds have two character stocks while Melee does four stocks.

The big change this time around is the use of DLC. While new characters were available last year, Evo had banned them due to their newness. Now we’ll have not only the guys who didn’t make the cut last year (such as Street Fighter’s Ryu), but we’ll have other new names like Cloud and Bayonetta.

SUPER SMASH BROS. MELEE

Despite some major reluctance on Nintendo’s part, Melee was re-added to the Evo roster in 2013 due to a charity auction that raised nearly $95,000. It ended up getting huge support, both in terms of players showing up and viewers watching it online, so it has since become an Evo staple. All this despite the game being from 2001.

Even with Smash 4 around, Meleestill reigns supreme due to its insane fanbase. After all, Meleeis the one that still gets a Sunday slot. Last year saw Adam Lindgren (Armada) defeat Juan Debiedma (Hungrybox) in the grand finals. While we’ll see the fighter last at least another year, and probably many more after that, there are those who find it to be a bit tiring to watch, both because of how much time the Top 8 seems to take every year and how infamous the game is for having such limiting rules when in a competitive setting.

Still, don’t be surprised if Meleeis around next year and Smash 4 isn’t.

KILLER INSTINCT

Killer Instinct first appeared at Evo in 2014 and was...not too successful. It was one of the lesser games on the card, partially due to the lack of players who wanted anything to do with an Xbox One exclusive, as well as the game’s tiny roster of eight. Luckily, Killer Instincthas based itself on season-based DLC updates that introduce more and more characters, not too different from what Street Fighter Vplans to do.

In 2015, the game was improved and had a much bigger roster. It was at least big enough to get the show on the main stage on Sunday, where Jonathan Deleon (Rico Suave) took down Neilimen Alicea (Gutter Magic) in the finals. It was definitely a more exciting Top 8 than the previous year.

The third season of the game will be released in March, featuring four new characters (including Rash from Battletoadsbecause why not). It won’t be enough of a shot in the arm to get them a high-profile Sunday spot again, but hitting three years in a row is nothing to sneeze at.

MORTAL KOMBAT X

Mortal Kombat X debuted at 2015’s show and did all right for itself. As expected by anyone who follows the game, Dominique McLean (SonicFox) walked away with the title after crushing Denom Jones (A F0xy Grampa). Honestly, you shouldn’t expect much different this year due to the way the guy keeps racking up tournament wins on this game.

Last year, Evo took place during the middle of the first wave of DLC character releases. That limited who was playable unfortunately, meaning that guys like Predator and Tremor were off the table. By the time we get to this year's Evo, the release of Kombat Pack 2 will be long over, so we’ll have the full roster of 33 fighters, including new guys like Bo’ Rai Cho and the Alien.

This will almost surely be the game’s final stop as a tournament that gets the big Sunday spot. I can all but guarantee that it’ll appear as a minor part of next year’s show followed by being replaced by Injustice 2 the year after. With the way NetherRealm Studios schedules its releases, it’s practically clockwork at this point.

TEKKEN 7: FATED RETRIBUTION

Haha, and of course we have Tekken 7’s update. Tekken 7 was kind of a big deal last year because it was only available in Japanese arcades at the time. It was still a really fun tournament to watch, ending with Nakayama Daichi (Nobi) defeating Akihiro Abe (Ao), with a huge variety of characters being used throughout.

Problem is, things haven’t changed too much. Tekken 7 still doesn’t have a console release. It’s slated sometime in 2016, but probably not until the end of the year. Meanwhile, although the game has had a very limited US arcade release, Japan has been getting ready for its updated version, Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. Not only does it feature the return of series staple Nina Williams, but it also has Street Fighter’s Akuma.

If you haven’t noticed, Akuma is in two Evo 2016 games...and neither one is a Street Fighter title! In fact, there are more games with Pikachu playable than Akuma! Crazy.

Anyway, July can’t come fast enough. As always, Evo should be a load of fun and completely exhausting to watch. We’re also sure to get a bunch of announcements and stuff, like on the Tekkenhome release, more Street Fighter V DLC, and stuff on the next King of Fightersgame.

Gavin Jasper would’ve rather seen Akuma playable in Pokken, crushing Pikachu beneath his heel. Follow Gavin on Twitter!