Evo 2017: A Guide to the 9 Games of Evo

With the show half a year away, it's time to find out the landscape for the Evolution Championship Series, the big three-day event that's like the Olympics for one-on-one fighting games. The show will take place July 14-16 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Formerly called the Battle by the Bay, this will be the sixteenth official Evo tournament. While the previous year was mostly upgrades of games from the year before, this one's a bit of a shakeup. Despite some returns and a couple upgrades, there are at least three games dropped completely and for the first time ever, Evo might not have a Marvel vs. Capcom game.

Might not.

Here’s what’s on tap for Evo 2017:

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. Eight of them are established while the other will be voted on via charity donations. The voted game, BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Street Fighter V will take the grand stage on Sunday to showcase their Top 8s.

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

STREET FIGHTER V

First Year: 2016
Game Type: 1-on-1, best of 3 rounds

Even though it was its first year, Street Fighter V was easily the marquee game in 2016. How marquee? The Top 8 was showcased on ESPN2! Even now that’s just surreal to look back at. It ended with Infiltration (Seon-woo Lee) using Charlie Nash to defeat Fuudo (Keita Ai)’s Rainbow Mika.

But it’s a different ballgame this year. Street Fighter V has been updated a bit and will be even more by the time Evo comes along. A series of DLC characters have been added and we’re currently in the middle of the second wave. Right now there’s Akuma in play, but by July there should be maybe three more.

GUILTY GEAR XRD REV 2

First Year: 2017
Replacing: Guilty Gear Xrd: -Revelator-
Game Type: 1-on-1, best of 3 rounds.

The absolutely beautiful Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- was introduced to Evo back in 2015 and made enough of an impact that its follow-up Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator- replaced it a year later, ending in a finals where Machaboo (Masahiro Tominaga) used Sin to defeat Omito Hashimoto, who was using Johnny. It was a feast for the eyes and this year shouldn’t be any different.

Rev 2 is the upcoming upgrade to the series, which not only alters the balance, but will give us a handful of new and returning characters. One of the new characters is a ninja businessman, so yeah. That rules.

SUPER SMASH BROS. WII U

First Year: 2015
Game Type: 1-on-1, 2 lives

Smash 4 is making a third appearance. Last year saw Ally (Elliot Carroza-Oyarc) defeat Kamemushi (Takuto Ono) using Mario. 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.

While both Smashgames have been able to co-exist for the past couple of years, this time there's a bit of friction from the fanbases...

SUPER SMASH BROS. MELEE

First Year: 2007
Game Type: 1-on-1, four lives

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 gets a lot of play due to its insane fanbase. Last year had Jigglypuff user Hungrybox (Juan Debiedma) win the championship after defeating Armada (Adam Lindgren). This year, some of the Meleefans feel a bit insulted by the fact that the more recent incarnation gets the big Sunday showcase on the main stage while Meleeis going to finish things off on Saturday.

Personally, I'm happy that I no longer need to take a 4 hour nap on Evo's Sunday.

TEKKEN 7

First Year: 2015
Game Type: 1-on-1, best of 3 rounds.
Tekken 7 will be released on consoles a mere month before Evo 2017 and yet the game has been part of the event since 2015. It was the damnedest thing where it was out in the Japanese arcades, so they just used the Japanese arcades in the Evo tournament. They did it again in 2016 with the upgrade Tekken 7: Fated Retribution, won by Saint (Jin-woo Choi)’s Jack-7 after Knee (Jae-min Bae) couldn’t find an answer for him with any of his various characters.

Having a game that wasn’t widely available in the US felt rather awkward and cheap, but this time things will be a bit fairer.

KING OF FIGHTERS XIV

First Year: 2017
Game Type: 3-on-3, elimination

King of Fighters took a powder from Evo after King of Fighters XIIIlost its luster. The series seemed to be dead and footage of the new 3D take was originally met with laughter. As it turned out, King of Fighters XIV is a fantastic entry in the franchise and has been enjoyed by many fighting game fans. Having more eyes on the game can only help its future and hopefully it has enough juice to muster a return in 2018.

INJUSTICE 2

First Year: 2017
Game Type: 1-on-1, two life bars

When Injustice: Gods Among Us was part of Evo, it wasn't met with much excitement. Mainly because the first year was filled with a bunch of people playing as the overpowered Superman. Things were better in the second year, but the damage was done and there was no real spark to be found. It was quickly replaced by Mortal Kombat X, but now Mortal Kombat tags back out for its superhero counterpart.

Injustice 2 will be out in May, giving its Evo appearance a bit of rawness. The sequel is introducing an armor-based customization system, but expect to see that disabled for the big tournament.

BLAZBLUE: CENTRAL FICTION

First Year: 2017
Game Type: 1-on-1, best of 3 rounds

Arc Systems Works' other fighting series will be sharing the Evo stage with its sibling Guilty Gear for the first time ever. BlazBluefirst came onto the Evo scene in 2011 with its installment BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II. In 2014, the update BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma had a show-stealing finals, but vanished afterwards. Now the crazy anime fighting game, which shows just how far the beauty of hand-drawn graphics can go, is back with its fourth iteration.

PLAYER'S CHOICE

So this is where it gets interesting. There are nine choices for the final spot at Evo and the way to choose is to donate to Make-a-Wish while voting. Whichever game gets the most money wins.

Mortal Kombat XL, Killer Instinct, Pokken Tournament, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 are all games that appeared last year and are in danger of being cut loose. This is craziest for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, as there has yet to be an Evo without one entry in that series.

Outside of the tried and true Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the other choices are odd ones. Nidhoggis a well-animated, yet primitive-looking sword-fighting game. ARMSis an upcoming stretchy-armed boxing game coming out for the Nintendo Switch. Then there's Windjammers, a sports game being rereleased onto the PlayStation 4. Hey, not EVERYTHING has to be a fighting game at Evo.

As of this writing, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3is in the lead with Pokken Tournament in second place. Killer Instinct still might be able to pull it off, but don't expect any miracles for the other choices.

Gavin Jasper will be okay as long as Pokken doesn't get voted. Last year was enough. Follow Gavin on Twitter!