Attention Fighting Fans: Prove You’re the Best… Around!

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Hello PlayStation-land. I’m Seth Killian. I run community for Capcom, and if you like Street Fighter, you’ve probably seen me running my mouth about it around the internets. I’m the special advisor to Street Fighter IV and lent my name to the final boss, but what brings me here today is what got me to Capcom in the first place: organizing the EVO Championship Series.

What is EVO? It’s the world’s largest and longest-running fighting game tournament. Every year, thousands of competitors from every corner of the planet descend on Las Vegas to determine the best of the best on the most competitive fighting games. It’s been running for over a decade, and with all the hoopla over SFIV, this year is going to be bigger than ever—at a conservative estimate, we’ll be playing over 50 thousand matches over the course of the weekend as we work our way towards a champion.

Why are we talking about this on the PlayStation Blog? Because EVO is especially PlayStation 3-flavored this year. PlayStation has been an important part of EVO history, but this year, we’ve selected the PS3 as the platform of choice for our very biggest competitions, including Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV.

Why else would you care? Because EVO is rad. It’s fighting game heaven with some of the most exciting gaming you’ll see anywhere, it’s run by players, for players, and best of all, it’s free to watch.

(I’m actually the one holding that handicam and yes, that’s my stupid voice cracking with excitement. For reference, this wasn’t even the finals—EVO is full of insane moments)


What is there to do? Well, there are all the tournaments to play in, but beyond the official tournaments (on games including my Capcom favorites, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and of course Street Fighter IV), there are a ton of DIY side events and free-play on every fighter imaginable in the free “BYOC” area. BYOC = “Bring Your Own Console.” Nearly half of our gigantic tournament floor is devoted to a free-play area, where we set up TVs, and you can plug in any games you want, on everything from next-gen PS3s to old arcade hardware. You’ll find competition on nearly any fighter you can imagine, from classic Street Fighter games to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters. There are also plenty of exciting grudge matches, and when you’re tired of playing and watching the madness, you’re still in Las Vegas.

One of my other favorite things about EVO is that unlike most “pro gaming” events, EVO is an open tournament. By “open,” I mean that anybody can just walk in off the street and take their shot against the best players in the world. You don’t have to jump through any hoops or join a silly league—if you’ve got the skills, you can step up to the plate take your shot. All of the EVO directors grew up playing in the arcades, where skills talked, and BS walked. EVO grew straight out of our desire to preserve that electric spirit of live arcade competitions, and—just like our old arcades—anyone can walk in, put their quarter up, and prove that they’ve got the skills to be the best.

All of that is hotness, but what I love most about EVO is the people. They come from around the world, from Korea to Kuwait, the UK to the US, and Portugal to Peru. And yes, while it’s mostly dudes, beyond that, you’ll find every race, every background—rich, poor, old and young, tough guys and pencilnecks. Of course you’ll find the world’s top fighting game players, including US champions like Alex Valle, John Choi, Justin Wong, and the legendary Japanese champ Daigo Umehara, and everyone comes together with a shared sense of history, and a shared passion for these games. They are the best, the hungriest, and the loudest players in the world. They are shouting, they are cheering, and they mean it.

So with all of those experts from around the world, do you have to be a great player to go? Nope. 99% of the people there realize they’re probably not going to win, but they love to go anyway because it’s a ton of fun, a great way to see old friends and meet new ones, a great place to step up your game, and because it’s an amazing show. There’s a ton of history and heart in the competitive fighting world, and this is the The Big Show, with everyone is welcome to come and watch (or compete!). Fighting games are FUN, and even if you don’t understand every intricacy, everyone can understand a punch in the face, cheering for their hometown favorites, and trying to KO the opponent.

The EVO World Finals run from July 17-19th (finals on the 19th) at the Rio Hotel and Resort, in sunny Las Vegas, NV.

Check out EVO2K for the full details, then pack up your PS3 joysticks and fightpads, and I’ll see you at EVO. If you totally can’t make it to Vegas, we’ll also be streaming some of the event’s best matches, as well as putting up a whole mess of footage afterwards, complete with commentary, player interviews, and the like, so stay tuned.

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62 Comments

13 Author Replies

  • Seth: Awesome last name; it’s my first name. Weird, though… first I see Killian Red Irish Ale in stores, then I see that Crimson Gem Saga’s antagonist is Killian, and now you post… just weird.

  • Mission Comprete.

  • More PSN avatars please :)
    You guys (Sony) have not update the PSN avatar selection in over a year and a half. Please add some new ones.

  • do not see the point of this blog post. free advertising for EVO championships but no way to win a trip to it S-KILL/Clothhand?

  • Ahh I’d enter but I suck. I want to get better but how ? Anyone willing to help me I’d be gratful.

  • Any chance of removing the copyright protected save like you did with the Resident Evil 5 patch? It’s gonna be a pain in the ass to acquire all that stuff again when I run out of space on my hard drive and get a new one.

  • This seems very interesting and intense, definitely is something to watch.

  • That Diago video is the best video – ever :)

  • Why is everything awesome in July? I’m already going somewhere and can’t go to EVO or Comic-Con. D= NEXT YEAR.

  • @Seth

    Still waiting on the BC:R trophies. Odd that a pach gets stuck in QA for a month. Do you have any info besides a link to a 3 week old announcement? Was an error(s) found in QA? What is the deal? Ughhhh…..

  • Looks like a great time. The truly hardcore players should all have a blast, and that’s great.

    However, the truly hardcore players probably represent about 0.01% of the total players out there. The other 99.99% of us non-hardcore, scrubs or whatever you want to call us wouldn’t last 5 seconds of course.

    I think Capcom forgets that the other 99.99% of us are out here, which explains Street Fighter 4s being completely unfriendly towards new players. Which also explains the piles of used copies of the game I see at Gamestop all the time.

    I could also go on about how much the boss ‘Seth’ just sucks the fun right out of the single player game, but I digress….

    • Capcom certainly knows the non-hardcore are most of the audience for any game (by definition). That\’s why we do a lot of non-tournament events too, like our fight clubs, which were LA, NYC, SF, and Vegas. We also keep basically any place we go open to the public in some form–hardcore stuff is the exception, not the rule, though it\’s awesome in its own way.

  • >> We’ve done EVO qualifiers on the East Coast, but unfortunately weren’t able to do one this year. Capcom did do a “Fight Club” in NYC, which wasn’t a tournament, but was extremely fun all the same. We’re based on the West Coast, but try and give the EC as much love as we can…

    That’s… not exactly what I’m looking for. Think PAX, and then think PAX bringing itself over to the East Coast (finally) this year.

    Those that don’t want to pay $200 but have the same “feel” of Evo could get together. The question is, would the “pro”s do Evo twice a year?

    The thing is, the majority of the “competitive fighting game community” is over on the West Coast (mostly So-Cal), so it’s fine to set EVO in Vegas for them, but not fine for some people that want to spectate but not travel half-way across the country to do that (IE: me).

    Oh, well. Thank you for the reply anyway.

    • The community is active on the West Coast, but they\’re by no means the majority (they just talk more than most of the rest =)).

      There are also huge East Coast tournaments regularly. They don\’t have the attendance or international presence you find at EVO, but they are still big and a ton of fun. Check the tournament forum at shoryuken.com to find something close to you.

  • that is the greatest moment in videogame competitions hands down.

  • I’m also a fan of Darkstalkers. Now that we have a new Street Fighter, it’s time to for some more Darkstalkers/Vampire Savior!

  • I haven’t been to EVO since 2004… but it’s everything he states and more.

  • Daigo Umehara and Justin are just simply the best, every tournament i hear about they’re always there! But to have PlayStation 3 this year at EVO is a big plus for me, I will try my hardest to be there.

    • Introduce yourself if you come. I\’ll be the guy shouting at everyone to stop having fun and report to their tournament stations :)

  • I wish I could go play. to far for me though (Indy). And who knows A lot of fights in SF come down to pure luck.. Been playing SF for About 20 years now!!!! :)

    • Lots of people come in from all over the country, and we actually put it in Vegas because 1) Vegas is fun all on its own 2) Vegas is usually the cheapest general destination from everywhere in the country. You can always get some kind of deal to go there cheap.

      PS- In over 10 years of EVO history, I can\’t think of any major matches that have come down to bad luck! Almost all of these guys play poker as well, and they\’ll all tell you–Street Fighter has almost no variance (no luck!).

  • Did Marvel vs. Capcom get held up in certification?

  • So Mr. Killian, how does it feel to be part of so many awesome things?!

    Street Fighter IV
    EVOLUTION Fighting Game Championships

    This is too much!

  • As others have pointed out….a big YES to more Darkstalkers.

    Just no more soul crushing, controller breaking, fun wrecking, cheap and horribly unfun bosses like Street Fighter IVs ‘Seth’ please. I would think that the ‘Easiest’ skill setting would allow me to enjoy playing through the game as a beginner, but I guess Capcom had other thoughts.

  • Hey Seth! Can you give us an update on what’s happening with the SFIV Home space? We’ve been waiting a long time for it… :(

  • Though I love playing me some Stree Fighter IV, I’d much rather watch pros than actually play against them. Besides, watching SFIV on a professional level is always entertaining and it saves me an embarrassing loss in front of a crowd. Can’t wait to see how EVO turns out.

  • Hey Seth! Hope you’re still reading comments here.

    First off great job on SFIV. I love the game. I even picked up one of those coveted TE Edition sticks…

    But I have a bit of a request… could you pull some strings and make it Backwards compatible? Seriously. I love playing SF Third Strike on my 60Gig PS3… but I hate the fact that I shelled out all this dough for my first Fight Stick and can’t even use it on my older much loved games.

    It also weirds me out because I can use it for PS1 Classic games that I downloaded from the store… but not Ps2 discs that I put in my system.

    Thanks again for all your hard work, and hopefully we can see that small improvement on and already fantastic product soon!

  • Hi Seth, would you happen to know if BlazBlue will be played at this year’s EVO?

  • I CANT WAIT

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