Thoughts on the EVO 2023 Lineup

After my Virtua Fighter stream, me and a couple friends in the VF community watched the EVO 2023 Lineup Reveal hosted by IFC Yipes and Ryan Hart, and it’s a decent lineup. Although I will say that EVO being sponsored by Chipotle is something else.

I’ve been doing this for years, so if you’ve been reading my stuff for a long time, you all know what to expect. For those who are new, here’s how it works: this is all my personal opinions on what I think about the lineup for this year’s EVO. Usually I don’t mention Street Fighter here since the game has a long 25+ year history at EVO, but I always make an exception if it’s a new entry in the series. Case in point, what we’re about to talk about right now with Street Fighter 6.

Side note: I wanted to talk about my thoughts on the EVO Japan 2023 lineup, but since the event is next weekend, I’ll still make a blog about it. Mind you, EVO Japan’s lineup is different compared to what we have with this one.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get started!

This was expected since Capcom Cup 2022 came to an end. Of course, EVO Japan 2023 will be the last to have SF5 as the main game at EVO, but it’s a new era since Street Fighter 6 was the first game announced for EVO 2023 this year.

Last year, we saw a heated battle between iDom and Kawano, and Kawano came out on top at the end. But now with a brand new game, will we see new legends rise in SF6? Will we see returning legends as well? SF6 comes out in June, so we have two months to prepare.

Last year, Guilty Gear -STRIVE- closed the show with their Top 8 and it also had the highest number of entrants at EVO. This year, it’s back once again since this game is currently on its second season.

I didn’t see Top 8 for GG last year since I couldn’t stay up late, but I do know that it was a hype tournament overall. UMISHO dominated in this game by taking 1st Place at GG, but can they become a 2x EVO Champ for this game? 

Dragon Ball FighterZ returning to EVO once again is no surprise, but the community continues to show support for this game. Since last year, it was announced that the game will now have Rollback Netcode, as well as having ports for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Not much needed to be said here.

Wawa from France dominated last year’s Top 8 in this game, but can he do it again this year? France has been leveling up in DBFZ and it’s starting to show.

As always, Tekken 7 is the sole 3D fighting game once again returning to EVO this year, especially since they had an intense tournament with the Tekken World Tour Finals weeks ago. I was expecting Tekken 8 to be on the lineup, but the game is still early in development and we won’t be able to see it until next year. However, I do enjoy watching Tekken 7 tournaments since I’m also a 3D fighting game player. Seriously, we need more 3D fighters aside from Tekken because there’s not much left.

Last year was a battle between Pakistan and South Korea as we saw Knee finally winning 1st Place in Tekken 7 after defeating Khan. Will he continue his streak, or will Pakistani players get their revenge once again?

Back for the second time this year, The King of Fighters XV is once again part of the EVO 2023 lineup. KOF15 is currently on their second season, so there’s more characters that’ll be added to the roster and much more.

Last year’s tournament saw three Taiwanese players in the Top 3, with ZJZ taking 1st place in the tournament. Can ZJZ do it again this year, especially since the Mexico and South Korea communities are trying to level up to reclaim what’s theirs? 

Melty Blood: Type Lumina returning back to EVO this year is somewhat of a shock, but the Melty Blood Community are very supportive of their game and I’ve checked out some of the tournaments. It’s pretty hype if you ask me, so I’m glad that it’s back at EVO once again.

Jing from Japan dominated after he defeated Masoma at Grand Finals. Will he do it again this year?

Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate coming to EVO this year was somewhat not surprising, but it was needed since they didn’t give the franchise a proper 30th Anniversary Celebration. And I know there are people who are hoping for the 12th entry in the series to be properly announced, so there’s also that as well. Personally, I’m not much of a fan of Mortal Kombat’s gameplay since I skipped MK11 as a whole, but I do appreciate how much support the game is getting after all these years. 

Last year we saw Scorpionprocs take 1st Place against Rewind, while his brother Nicolas took 3rd Place in the tournament. Can Scorpionprocs do it again this year? Or will Nicolas outshine his brother?

This one came as a shock to me. When Ryan Hart and IFC Yipes mentioned an EVO Throwback entry, I was not expecting Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 to return to EVO once again on the main stage. For the first time since 2017, UMvC3 is back at EVO as part of the main lineup, this time as part of the inaugural EVO Throwback entry. It was supposed to be the swan song for appearing at EVO so that Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite could take over. Unfortunately that was not the case since MvCi wasn’t received well. Since then, UMvC3 has appeared as side tournaments at future EVO events.

When I was in college, I always looked forward to UMvC3 tournaments, especially at EVO since it brought the hype. I could not stop yelling multiple times whenever I saw something awesome. To me, UMvC3 tournaments are really enjoyable to watch even though I wasn’t good at the game itself.

RyanLV won 1st place at EVO 2017 with the team of Chun-Li/Morrigan/Phoenix, an unlikely team that worked out in the end. The question is who will be a new champion this year?

EVO 2023 is once again returning to the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on August 4-6, 2023. Pre-registrations are ongoing right now, so make sure to register for your favorite game immediately! Once again, side tournaments and Vortex Gallery will be back again this year, so if your favorite game isn’t in the main lineup, don’t worry because it’ll be there in another format. And if you’re there for fun, there’s a lot to do such as checking out the Arcade Stick Museum, Artist Gallery, and more!

Don’t forget that in a few weeks from now, EVO Japan 2023 will be happening on March 31-April 2, 2023 in Tokyo, Japan with seven games in the main lineup! I’ll do another blog about that in a moment since it feels good to have EVO Japan return after a three-year hiatus.

Until then… Train Up, Fighters!