Evo 2018 Reveals Controversial Lineup

Earlier this week, the EVO 2018 lineup was announced, and it might be the most controversial lineup to date. The 2018 line up will feature Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Injustice 2, and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. To understand why this year’s lineup was so shocking to the fighting game community, we need to know a little bit of its history.

The Evolution Championship Series, or Evo for short, is largest and most prestigious fighting game tournament in the competitive scene. The series started in 1996 and has been an annual tournament since 2000. Starting off as a Street Fighter tournament it has since expanded to include other fighting games like Tekken, SoulCalibur, Guilty Gear, Smash Bros, and Marvel Vs Capcom. Street Fighter has been the headlining game at every iteration of Evo, and Marvel Vs Capcom is the second longest running series, having only been excluded from the very first Evo. With the exclusion of Marvel Vs Capcom for the first time in 17 years many fans were understandably upset.

The latest Marvel Vs Capcom game, Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite, came out in September of last year and was met with mediocre reviews. It was criticized for its artwork, handling of DLC and lack of X-Men characters, but praised for its new gameplay mechanics. Even with the criticisms fans still had hope for the game’s inclusion. This year included 2 new games, Dragon Ball FighterZ and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. This is where the outcry comes in. Many Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite players felt that the series has shown itself to be a strong fighting game, even if it had one not so hot installment. On top of that, some claim that Dragon Ball FighterZ hasn’t been out long enough to establish itself in the FGC. The new BlazBlue game was also met with backlash; Cross Tag Battle hasn’t been released yet.

Evo 2018 will take place from August 3rd to 5th in Las Vegas, Nevada.