The yearly Evo Championship Series fighting game tournament has been jointly acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment and RTS. Evo 2021 Online will be played out over two weekends, August 6-8 and 13-15, and will feature Guilty Gear -Strive- (PS4/PS5), Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate (PS4/PS5), Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition (PS4/PS5/PC), and Tekken 7 (PC), as well as other games that have yet to be announced. While this will be the second year Evo Online has been planned, it will probably be the first time it actually takes place due to last year’s cancellation after allegations of sexual misconduct against former tournament organizer Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar.
While many are happy that the community-representing tournament is still going to be around (without involvement from Joey Cuellar), this announcement has fans of platform-exclusive games worried. Even with a statement from Evo employee Mark Julio that Evo is committed to remaining open to all platforms, there are concerns of Sony PlayStation bias, and that Microsoft and Nintendo will refuse to allow their few fighting games to have any kind of presence. That is a worst-case scenario, however, and this acquisition should propel Evo to brand new heights.
Business As Usual
The best part of this deal, for both Evo itself and the larger fighting game community, is that not much will change with how the event is actually run. Sony and RTS are essentially permanent joint sponsors, funneling money into the event. Sony has made it pretty clear in its statements that it doesn't intend to try and do things “its way” and instead wants to preserve the authenticity of the event that the fans expect. It does want to grow the tournament further and see its events and broadcasts continue to improve, but Sony and RTS aren’t going to try doing anything they don’t understand.
To that end, the usual Evo staff is still present. Familiar faces like Mark Julio, and Tom and Tony Cannon will still be involved in the organizing and running of the event each year. The Cannon brothers co-founded Evo back when it was called Battle By The Bay, and while they have been more focused on other projects in recent years (like their upcoming Project L fighting game with Riot), they are still involved with Evo in advisory roles. The talent that manages the massive number of entrants Evo sees each year is still intact, and that ensures the event will stay as good as it ever was.
With Some Changes
The one major change that Evo regulars will notice now won’t even be present at Evo itself; rather, Sony will make sure to give the tournament more advertising than it ever had. Evo is already the largest yearly fighting game tournament by a landslide, attracting players from all over the world and tons of visitors and entrants from around North America. The tournament series even started running Evo Japan events a few years ago, as it had enough Asian interest to hold competitions there as well.
Now, those events (if Evo Japan is still planned to return) will have a fair bit more commercial presence than they used to thanks to Sony. There could be online commercials and trailers aired months in advance, more interviews with players, and perhaps even an Evo ad spot during a State of Play.
Another change, of course, is that Sony and RTS’ names will appear frequently on and around the events. This will be an interesting, if subtle, shift, as while sponsors are no stranger to Evo, they have never been quite this important in running the show. Commercials for PlayStation games could show up more during online tourneys, and physical tournaments will likely favor PlayStation hardware where applicable.
Sony does not have a particular fighting game brand associated with it (another PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale would be great, but no one is expecting it), though it did help Capcom fund Street Fighter 5’s development and platform exclusivity. It will be interesting to see if this move is foreshadowing another Sony venture into fighting games in the future.
Though Not Everything Could Go Smoothly
Despite this seemingly good news, there is a distinct possibility that Microsoft and Nintendo could stand in the way of some games returning to the Evo main stage. Microsoft’s Killer Instinct is well-suited to online tournaments, and fans are wondering if the game will show up this year. It’s quite possible, as Microsoft is not known for holding back its games from appearing on products owned by competitors. Killer Instinct is an old game anyways, and no longer receives official support, so Microsoft won't be bothered by it getting some action.
More interesting will be Evo 2021 Online’s presence on the now-Microsoft owned Smash.gg, a website used to organize tournaments. That will likely be a simple matter of the two separately owned properties interacting directly as they always do, but it's funny how that worked out.
Nintendo, on the other hand, represents a real obstacle to certain games appearing at Evo. Nintendo has always held an awkward relationship with its competitive scenes, ranging from ARMS, to Splatoon, to Super Smash Bros. itself. Smash Bros. is not likely to show up at Evo this year, as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s netplay is infamously bad, and Nintendo has already openly disapproved of Melee being played online with fan solutions. With a Nintendo representative stating that it will continue to assess Evo’s viability as a future tournament partner, Smash and other Nintendo fighters showing up in the future is not a surefire thing.
Ultimately, the ideal scenario for this Evo acquisition is that very little about it will change at all. While Evo does not represent the many grassroots FGC tournaments happening around the world, it does represent the FGC to the world, and it’s in everyone’s best interest if it is run as smoothly as possible. Not to mention, Evo tends to be a pretty great time all around. As long as its culture of game and player diversity is kept, Evo should be just fine under Sony and RTS’ banner.
Evo 2021 Online will be held August 6-8 and 13-15.