The World Fighting Game Championships in all but name. Since 2000, the Evolution Championship Series has been the most prominent fighting game tournament event. It features the best players from all over the world.
Not sure if anyone has posted this already because I don't want to read any comments as I'll risk finding out who won, but this this video has the whole of SF4 top 8:
Evo was fantastic this year. SFXT was a joke obv, and AE was boring, but everything else was amazing.
As someone who plays Dormamu, FC had me so fucking jealous with his Dormamu play, and the marvel finals were super hype. Soul calibur was actually really exciting too. KOF was suprise hit of the night though. I have never played that game, and even not really understanding a lot of what was going on, I was blown away by how awesome it was to watch those two go at it. So fucking exciting. I only caught it because it ran late into when marvel was supposed to start too, so glad that it did.
International play makes these tournaments great. Who would have thought a M.O.D.O.K. player would crack top 8 in UMVC3? Who would have picked Infiltration to go so far in SFIVAE2012? Even better, it makes for crazy matches like Dieminion vs. Fuudo. EVO is such a wonderful tournament.
KOF finals: Didn't see that coming at all. Damn it was good.
The crowd: The moments of crowd participation were just amazing. From doing Vega wall dive noises in ST to shouting Bionic Arm! in MVC. The Mexican chanting, although suspect at times underlined their passion. Maybe the hypest of all was the "KOF!" chant. Despite having seen their hero Bala go down they knew they had just witnessed a truely classic set between two genuine warriors, and an underappreciated game I had never actually seen before yesterday; getting massive love.
Individual Matches:
Daigo Vs. Gamerbee was probably my favourite match of the tournament. Daigo on the verge so many times just saying; NO, not today. Its a shame he couldn't replicate that on Sunday.
Filipino Champ Vs. Chris G: Despite the initial nervousness and execution errors I think this was probably the highest level Marvel match played thus far. It was two people at the very top of their game, Fedderer/Nadal type stuff with both desperately trying to out counter one another, having spent countless hundreds of hours practising not just the game in general, but also for this specific match and how to beat one another.
Commentary: The commentators do so many long hours of hard unpaid work and without their knowledge and enthusiasm the matches would just seem dull and lifeless. The highlights were probably Ultrachen on ST duty because they clearly love that game more than is strictly speaking healthy, and Yipes who is just such an entertaining, charismatic personality I was sad to see MVC finish just because that meant no more Yipes. And you can never have too much Yipes.
International competition: Seeing how diverse the representation was in the final stages with USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, Mexico, etc in the mix was really a sign of how far EVO has come. And the story of the Cafe ID team that did so well in KOF was really heartwarming. CafeID was not sponsoring them at all. They had spent years saving up just out of love for the competition. Because that's what EVO is all about.
Well, that and Kapparyu, floefaces and EMP/Kerrigansbutthole. :)
While this wasn't as good as last years Evo, my "highlights" were:
The fact that so many big names didn't place in top 8. I think everyone had different top eights in their heads for each game. Fuudo not making top 8 AE, Kayane not making top 8 SCV, etc etc.
Tira winning SCV, that was shocking. Everyone kinda felt she was low tier after nerfs, but wow, a Tira player won SCV.
Bala not winning KOF that was a pleasant surprise, he's been dominating the game and to see him go down was crazy. But the titan has fallen.
UMVC was bananas. I couldn't breath, my heart was racing. It was nuts. Very happy ChrisG didn't win, although i wanted to see him cry! maybe next year.
AE was anticlimatic, it really was. It felt like all the players had the blood sucked right out of them, they were zombies. and Daigo, what a let down...
And Congrats to PerfectLegend for being the only previous Evo winner to maintain his title, I was so sure CDJr was gonna take it, but PL defended his title, it exactly what the commentators said, it was surprising to everyone how he literally went under the radar after his win, and when he went back he didn't do anygood, but here he is winning Evo defending his title.
And the award for best cosplayer goes to Spiderman and his bulge, although that was not as good as last years man Kitana. lol
...oh, and of course Kayo Police saying Alex Valle is the hottest fgc player, classic. I would've pegged Gootecks or LI Joe. Wonder how he feels about that lol
I'm sad I missed Top 8 AE. But due to data caps and bullshit, I couldn't stream monster as hard as I wanted to this year. But it was awesome that the GB chat was open and I got to watch with some GB Duders.
But what I did see... just SO MUCH HYPE! KOF, to me, was the hypest final. Hellpockets on the mic and Mexico going hard and CafeID... WOW. THAT is why I love the FGC.
@OneManX: Unfortunately, it was just a prerecorded segment that was played during a break, she said she like buff guys and then said she thought Alex was the hottest when asked. And they were like Alex Jebailey? And she was like no, and then they were like Alex Valle!?!? lol
i truly wished there was more of Kayo police, her commentary with Aris long ago was still one of the funniest/best Evo moments in all Evo history.
Just looking there, I see the EVO thread last year had almost double the replies. I think thats just beacause Dave opened up the chatroom to everyone this year which was a really nice gesture. I would have been all over it, but I too was worried about the dreaded data limit.
@thegoldencat7: I can confirm that Dave opening the chat had a significant effect on the viewer and reply count that this thread was getting, I'm confident that we would've surpassed last year's thread otherwise.
Though I much preferred hanging out in the chat and seeing hundreds of Giant Bomb user's perception of the FGC change from all the damaging Cross Assault Incident articles. I saw one or two trolling the chat and the forums with ignorance but otherwise it's been a great success.
I was so happy to see a chat running. I was going to be watching anyway, so when I found out GB had a chat going I went in there during SCV and never left. Seriously had so much fun with everyone, and like FLStyle said, it was cool seeing people not even into fighting games really feeling it.
@FLStyle: And thank you good sir for making the thread.
Yeah it was a shame that got so much publicity when positive stories like the sucessful donation drives for the disabled players BrolyLegs and Osamu were largely ignored.
It would be great to see more GB interest in future. EVO may be over, but theres still a good few majors left this year.
I was sick yesterday, so I didn't really have much to do other than watch the finals for 8-9 hours straight while slowly sipping gatorade and hoping I wouldn't die. And man. SFxT is boring. That game is fine and dandy when I'm playing with a friend, but as a competitive game it has too many problems to be fun to watch. Same with MK, though the real issue I had with that was the abysmal commentary. Thus, KOF XIII and UMvC 3 were probably the highlights. KOF for some serious Duo Lon beasting at the hands of MadKOF and MVC 3 for having that one team with MODOK/Yipes commentating.
I haven't played much KOF/SNK fighters in general, but the finals with Bala/Mad KOF were easily my highlight of the whole damn weekend. Ridiculous hype! The crowd and the commentators were so excited ("I AM THE GREAT EQUALIZER!"), and it was just a great forty minutes of back and forth, loaded with great moments - that Takuma comeback that Bala pulled off near the end was ridiculous- until it just couldn't go on any more. Fantastic.
So sadface. I had a family emergency last night that pulled me away right when the UMvC3 top 8 was starting. Thankfully everyone is ok, but man, why last night of all nights?
Still, was hype as fuck and a lot of fun hanging out with all you other monsters in the GB chat. I can't wait for next year. Now I need to find the Marvel top 8 on YouTube so I can see what I missed.
@FLStyle: MK should've been commentated by Tom Brady!!! It was good, but it could've been better! Unfortunately, I think the whole MLG, EMP, FGC, forbidded him from commentating at Evo...
Anyways, did anyone here anything about ChrisG and the alleged Dormammu assist change that Fchamp made? or did that come and go already? was that even true?
@TheFreeMan: Best match all night in my opinion! Horsehead!
@StarvingGamer: Like you said, at least everyone is ok, enjoy the Marvel hype! Don't watch the video below yet, it has Marvel in it (but really I just posted it for Jaha cooking salt).
@Bestostero: Sounds about right, I did hear about the FChamp assist change, haven't watched it since to confirm it though
I'm really glad to see people hype about KOF. I discovered the series in the early 00's when my friend brought over a portable hard drive with an emulator and KOF 98. I've been tracking down and buying all the games ever since. They really nailed it with 13, so it's awesome to see it finally get its time to shine a bit. Definitely my highlight of EVO.
@FluxWaveZ: Ahhh they stuck with the Power Rangers voice actor, he didn't change his voice much from Adachi. That may make watching Persona 4 The Animation dub awkward.
Most of these comments have been poo pooing the AE top 8 cause they lacked the big names, but I thought they were great. And gratz to Inflitration for dominating the competition, not his fault if his opponents werent the greatest.
@chewii101: many of the comments weren't complaining about AE lacking Big names. The matches were still great but they were not at all as exciting as UMVC3 or even KOF before that. Thats what the comments have been saying, not because "big names" weren't present. Also saying Infiltration's opponents weren't the greatest? Infiltration beat players that made it to top 8 EVO and also the former Champion. He was just on fucking point.
I missed the Cross Counter Segment from last night, but MAAAAAANNNN!!!! The reactions from everyone when she said Alex Valle, THAT is my EVO moment behind KOF Finals, MODOK, Horsehead, and Sombrero Guy.
@chewii101: many of the comments weren't complaining about AE lacking Big names. The matches were still great but they were not at all as exciting as UMVC3 or even KOF before that. Thats what the comments have been saying, not because "big names" weren't present. Also saying Infiltration's opponents weren't the greatest? Infiltration beat players that made it to top 8 EVO and also the former Champion. He was just on fucking point.
Yeh AE finals matches were just too one-sided for hype. For it to be that one-sided throughout, it's just cool to appreciate the gameplay.
Overall though, I thought AE was better than Marvel as a whole in the tournament IMO. AE pools were better than Marvel pools exactly because Marvel was too one-sided. The amount of upsets in seemingly every other match in AE pools were insane.
EVO was great this year. Like everyone as already said, KOF and UMVC3 were really hype. I enjoyed the SC5 finals a lot, despite normally being a little bored watching it. AE was disappointing, most of the wins seemed pretty free. Though it might just have looked like that since it was 7am over here.
I have to say though, the stream chat showed a really bad side of Giant Bomb. During the start of SC5, MK and the Kayo Police video above in particular.
@StarvingGamer: All of the matches can be watched on the twitch channel if you don't mind having to find the start point. Archives only for subscribers was a mistake that they eventually fixed.
Yeh AE finals matches were just too one-sided for hype. For it to be that one-sided throughout, it's just cool to appreciate the gameplay.
Overall though, I thought AE was better than Marvel as a whole in the tournament IMO. AE pools were better than Marvel pools exactly because Marvel was too one-sided. The amount of upsets in seemingly every other match in AE pools were insane.
Yeah, the AE pool matches streamed were more fun than Marvel's overall. The pool matches with Dieminion winning through solid play and Daigo winning through comebacks were so dope that they could've been top 8 matches. Most of the great stuff we saw during top 8 was Infiltration playing like a robot with those Raging Demon reactions. He was dominating the top 8 so much that he outshined Xiaohai's performance against Daigo IMO. Come to think of it, if Infiltration played Justin or Ricky in pools though, would he have made it that far? It's just unfortunate that both of them got taken out before even making top 8.
Caught the AE finals, Infiltration is a monster. Sucks that Justin and Ricky got bopped pretty early, even Mike "Maximum Human Mike Ross" Ross got bopped pretty early because his Honda was looking on point early. I enjoyed what I saw, but nothing compares to the hype Marvel brings and the hype KOF brought.
I am very proud of attending EVO this year. I might make a full blog soon of my experiences.
My KOF pool was with Poongko and Kazunoko. I got double OCVd by Poongko's Kyo but was able to progress to losers semis where I lost to Kazunoko. I didn't really care for SF much but I got 1-2 because I didn't give enough crap unfortunately. I shouldn't be like that. I met up with various folks in the community including the IPLAYWINNER/Team Spooky family and various master stream monsters including the legendary Kingofsaurus.
I was very hype for most of the finals but I was amazed by Marvel, AE2012 (7 FUCKING DEMONS FROM INFILTRATION INCLUDING A LOW FORWARD KARA ULTRA DEMON) and most importantly KOF. Being at the front of the crowd during KOF was like fucking soccer. Despite Bala losing to Mad, the Americas now have motivation for next year... SOUTH KOREA!
@Sooty: Do you have any AE matches to recommend tracking down? I only got to see about two matches outside of the top 8.
Daigo vs. Gamerbee for sure, and vs. Latif. I can't remember many of others now. :(
Thanks, that was a good one. I also found one of a Mokoto player kicking some major ass and the Dieminion match with THAT Guile swag combo (I guess that was on Friday but I missed it).
EVO Marvel was so hype this year. Me and my friends were in front and it was insane.
My highlight of EVO this year was watching one of my best friends playing F Champ in SSFIV pool finals on Stream, and almost making it out of pool. This was winner's finals for his pool, and he was so close! He ended up losing again in losers to a Rose player.
I have to agree with most people, the KoF final was awesome. I have basically no experience in KoF (mainly SF3/4) but it was awesome to watch. Makes we want to break out the Dreamcast and play some KoF 99/2000.
Also the GB chat was awesome during the various finals.
Regarding the Koreans for KOF, they can't attend next year because they saved money for a couple of years for this one unless they get legitimately sponsored. They certainly made their mark.
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