I fail to see how the newly released Blazblue is a surprise.

DOA5U would be pretty sweet too. No surprises in the line up though.

Yeah, a lot of the top players from the MK community have started to devote more time on KI and IGAU so it makes sense (also KI is pretty legit). Divekick last year never showed up in the main stage too but they were in the main stage in the second room last year for the grand finals and it was streamed via Iron Galaxy's channel. I'm sure they'll probably have a side tourney again this year. Come to think of it even games like P4A or Skullgirls are being snubbed. As for the 3D games, there is just a huge indifference coming from most of the other people in the community and even the people who play them aren't coming to support in weekly tournies as much. It's really depressing.. ;_;

I'm really excited for USF4 but I think what's secretly exciting me most is BlazBlue as that's a game I pretty much never watch people play, especially at a high level.

MvC3 will be sweet and KoF too. I hate to admit this but I still feel a weird bias to KI like it's not a real fighting game or something so hopefully this EVO will challenge me on that front.

@gaspower: Yeah it's a shame that TTT2 only got one year, I haven't seen a lot of it since EVO 2013 though.

It wasn't on my radar at all, I was expecting a 3D game or even Skullgirls before an anime game.

EDIT: Technically Skullgirls is an anime game. My point was that it raised a ton of money behind Melee last year.

@flstyle: Blazblue has been ASW main franchise for years now (which may change with the new Guilty Gear). It's not like it's a random fighting game from Japan. It's a big title. And when a big company (in the genre) releases a big game you can bet it will be on events like this to promote. Also, considering ASW status within the fighting game community you're more likely to see this game than say, DOA5U for instance.

I believe the only chance a title such as Skullgirls has is if it was a game chosen by the public like happened to Melee. That would mean it would have to beat games like Melee or 3rd Strike though. They couldn't make it last year although it was close. It's a small title making it hard to compete.

It may be there as a side tournament or something. Just like last year.

Yeah, Tekken is still my game and the only game I bothered trying to get good at playing. I haven't been playing it in a long time but its just a bummer that Tekken will probably getting lost for a long time because there isn't much support. I also feel for the other 3D fighters as well like VF and Soul Calibur.

Seriously, they still have Marvel vs Capcom 3 but no MK9 or Tekken?


succcccckssss

Great write up! The run up to EVO is always exciting. I don't play any 3d fighters myself but it's a bummer none are being represented this year. Hopefully those communities can stay positive, keep supporting their games throughout the year and be back at EVO next year. Hopefully people will step up to run side tournaments at EVO for their respective 3d FGs.

It's cool to see the games you like on the main stage and even though I'm most excited to see the GGXXAC+R side tournament at EVO this year, seeing GGXrd next year on the main stage will be super hype!

Not especially surprising considering Marvel is still at the top of entrants at every single major event it's at whereas MK9's community has all but dropped it for Injustice and Tekken generally brings a small turnout to anything other than Final Round. Though it is a bit of a bummer there's no 3D representation at Evo this year.

Will GGXrd be at the venue this year for testing?

Sad but true. Also, Tekken tournaments really dragged their heels with the tournament format, watching a match was a real grind.

@flstyle: I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little demonstration of Xrd this year in the same vein as the KI demo last year, especially considering the arcade version is just about out in Japan with the console version presumably not being very far behind.

@flstyle: No official word from ASW on GGXrd being at EVO in any form this year. I think they brought P4A to American tournaments (including EVO) to play before it's release, but that may have happened more because Atlus was involved in publishing. I also think P4A was much closer to coming out on consoles at the time. GGXrd is just being released in Japanese arcades on the 20th of this month. Knowing ASW much will change about the game before it's console release (balance patches, new characters, etc.) So as much as I would love to see it playable at EVO 2014 it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't.

This will be the first game I follow closely from arcades to consoles so I'm hype to be along for the ride. Looking forward to seeing real quality video and matches instead of all this shaky cam stuff from loketests.

The first official tournament for GGXrd is happening this Wednesday and will be streamed on niconicolive here. Here is the event on youtube!

Let's rock!

One of the former EVO seeding point season events is live this weekend: Winter Brawl 8!

Please look forward to it.

Winterbrawl status: ZERO MAY CRY. ZERO MAY CRY FUCKING EVERYWHERE.

Also, I saw a Spider-man team at one point but it got crushed single-handedly by a surprisingly crafty Strider. Then back to Zero May Cry.

Stream is here for those who don't know.

As someone who only watches a couple of high-level matches here and there, this was a lot of fun to read and watch. Thanks!

Hope to see Melee at EVO.

Daaamn that rushdown Sim with the dizzy? More hype than Jwong vs Flocker in grand finals.

Winter Brawl's Injustice showing might be my favorite tournament the game has had in its lifespan. Unreal balance in that game. Excited to see Injustice hype build on the road to EVO.

Is it balanced now? It was pretty damn boring last year with every second matchup being Superman vs Superman with the occasional Batman thrown in.

@sinusoidal: A Superman won the tournament, but it was against a Batgirl and a Flash finished 3rd! So yeah, there's a good variety of characters now

At Kumite In Tennessee the other week, I believe top 8 had 10 different characters with no repeats. The current state of the game is totally worth a look if you got sick of it last year.

Good stuff from Arturo and I was happy to see Kev win in AE :D

NetherRealm pushed through a massive, game-changing patch last fall. It has totally leveled the playing field. Injustice is seeing greater parity than ever before. No one character has dominated the scene since November, and a number of flawed, mid-tier characters have made big splashes--something that wouldn't have ever happened in the era of Superman, Superman, Superman.

What made Superman so overwhelming was a particularly safe attack string he could keep using with impunity, even when blocked. That was taken away, and his damage was scaled back somewhat. Other characters with similar advantages were retooled as well.

The community argues a couple top-tier characters exist in the cast, and while there are certainly characters whose tools seem to be more plentiful than those of fellow castmates, Injustice is more and more about the players who can deploy those tools.

Dieminion is the low-tier hero we deserve. He made excellent use of jump back RH and air throws to thwart Ricky's offense. I was glad to see him prevail over dive kick spam BS from Ricky and KBrad. And I always root for Art. He somehow manages to sneak his way into top 8 most of the time where he gets bodied free. Still a good showing for him though.

@flstyle: GUYS...SNAKE EYEZ IS THE FUCKING BEST....HE IS THE BEST.

@gaspower: That was SICK.

Damn, had no reception at the mall so I couldn't watch the team exhibition. Read the twitter-splosion and am now going back to the archive.

@gaspower: Stupid time zone differences, what happened?

@flstyle: If you can find a spare 90-ish minutes to watch the entire AE 5v5, here it is: CLICK ME OH GOD I HOPE THIS WORKS

@damodar: It does work! I'll check the link out tonight, thanks.

A new blog is going up next week for Final Round XVII (3/14/14 - 3/16/14)!

You know, Guilty Gear Xrd went from being announced to being released in Japanese arcades in the span of about nine months, but we've already been waiting about eight months to find out who the fifth character is. Given the clues that Ono has given which make it sound like it will be an obscure character from the canon, it seems weird to let that build for so long and I can't really see it being anything but disappointing for most people.

@flstyle: Did you watch it? :D Also thanks, @damodar!

It's sounding more and more like it's going to be another Bison doll, so basically a remixed Cammy.

Oh boy, let me swallow the vomit that just filled my mouth and say that a remixed Cammy would be lame as hell!

Hakan's wife would be a way better addition.

Or maybe they've just been lying and it's been Alex all along. Probably not, but it'd be pretty crazy.

Yeah, that does sound like it could be a distinct possibility. Gouken's daughter, who appeared in the Street Fighter Alpha anime, has come up a few times too.

Basically, since it's not going to be bringing back an old character that anybody actually cares about, I think at this point, I'm hoping it's just as disappointing as possible because the salt will be entertaining. Either way, SF4 has had a pretty good run of introducing new characters with interesting playstyles, so they'll probably be fun to actually play. Unless it's a doll.

@gaspower: Fucking Level Up, always having production issues, they're playing the first match but the visual feed went down, just waiting for it to come back up.

@gaspower: Yep, Snake Eyez is the best!

man Virtua Fighter gets no love. It's the best 3D fighter ever created, and yet no one cares :'(

SAGAT!!!

THE KING IS BACK!!!

Ultra to have version select for each character!

Also, Combofiend just said that the announcement at Final Round is the announcement that we've been waiting for.

The Edition Mode seems fun. Now I'm curious if they will use it in tournies and also I'm curious how they will handle it online.

As someone that mained Juli in Alpha 3, if it is another doll, I wouldn't mind.

I was so sure that whatever they announced would be super lame but Edition Mode is so fucking amazing/smart. Great side-tournament stuff.

Aw Chun :(

@toph_bei_fong: I watched a lot of finals at SCR, and VF5 was one of them. Don't ask me if I remember anything about that entire top 8, spotty short-term memory's kicking in. I remember some of the Skullgirls final, KOF XIII, Marvel, and AE 2012, plus the AE 2012 exhibition (which was a thing of beauty, watching Snake Eyez transcend beast mode the way he did). Outside of that, hell if I remember anything. Good tournament, though, and the Edition Select thing for USF4 has me so happy. I can get my Super-era Gouken back! When back throw into Shin Shoryuken still did full damage!

Now, it'd be interesting to see and know for sure if AE Yun or Vanilla Sagat is the better OP character. :P

Also I want to say that Infiltration is the fucking best. He ALMOST beat KBrad with a character that is not his true main and a character a lot of people don't expect to make it far in a tournament setting. He's also a wonderful human being, so much love between him and KBrad.

It's beautiful. ;_;

Did ChrisG enter anything besides KI? I didn't get a chance to watch very much of the stream live, but looking at the results page on SRK I don't see his name in top 8 for AE or Marvel.

I'm not entirely sure what happened, but he got hit with a DQ in Marvel at some stage. I *think* what happened was that he was late for a match, so they just sent him to losers, then he lost a later match. He might have even been DQ'd from multiple games.

@flstyle: Thanks for the thread. The Sanford "Pick a Top Tier" Kelly matches were great!

Sanford Kony 2012

Shoutouts to Mike "Mike Ross" Ross.

EVO and MLG announce the return of Super Smash Bros. Melee for 2014!