Marvel vs. Capcom titles have been an integral part of the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) for the past nine years and a major highlight of the fighting game tournament. However, i was announced this week that the EVO World 2018 line-up will not include Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, despite the title’s relatively recent release.

EVO is the most notable and longest-running series of fighting tournaments in the world, with the first tournament having been held in 1996. Since 2000, the tournament has been held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada, with entrants traveling across the globe to compete in various different categories based on a line-up of popular video game titles within the fighting genre.

EVO World 2018 will be first year since the inception of the tournament that an entry within Capcom’s Vs. fighting series will not be included in the line-up of tournament titles.

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EVO World 2018 will be held at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas between August 3rd and 5th. The tournament’s full line-up of titles consists of seven games: Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, BluBlaze: Cross Tag Battle, Injustice 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Dragon Ball FighterZ.

It is currently unclear as to why EVO has decided to neglect including Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite from the 2018 tournament title line-up, but one could make a few guesses. The game received mixed reviews when initially released in September 2017 and supposedly failed to live up to Capcom’s sales expectations, despite avid attempts at improving the game experience post-release.

It has also been pointed out that Capcom did not reference the title either in a blog post announcing the start of the 2018 edition of the Capcom Pro Tour (their own fighting tournament), which suggests even the publisher has little confidence in the title's tournament appeal.

Despite these possible explanations for EVO’s decision to neglect including Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite in their line-up of tournament titles, some will likely be disappointed not to see it at the event. Moreover, those fighting game pros that have been perfected their skills at the game will now miss out on an opportunity to show off.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Source: Game Informer