No, I’m aware what this thread is about. I’m just responding to a baseless statement that was made as part of it.
I hope everyone in here as already tweeted to @MrWiz to get KI in the 2017 line up! 
I tweeted, for whatever that’s worth.
It’s never a good idea to argue with @Infilament, because he knows a lot about this subject and is both thoughtful and thorough. I’m not known for my fantastic EVO enthusiasm, although I have tuned in to the KI stream in the past. I’m always a little bit puzzled by these discussions because it’s so unclear to me what EVO is trying to be. Is EVO a business? Then it makes sense to take the most attended games (SFV, Smash A, Smash B - hell make another smash game out of paper cutouts and broadcast that). Probably there’s some truth to “whatever NRS is currently doing” and Tekken (current # here) bringing in a different set of fans. But there’s always this idea that EVO is some kind of charity/showcase/“community” event and that the games we play are on trial so we have to please the monastic EVO council to get their blessing. I think KI will be at EVO if MS drops a wad of cash on the EVO organizers to showcase it. I suspect that’s unlikely because MS is bought in on the KI World Cup and that’s where they are going to show their support. Which is fine with me.
The one that has me curious though is KoF 14. I mean, the game is not a great seller and the accounts I have seen suggest that it isn’t a huge scene. Granted, I’m not well informed. But where does the idea that KoF deserves it because it’s been a while fit in with the “EVO is a business” model?
If EVO is really a community showcase it seems like there’s lots of different games they could be spotlighting - Skullgirls, dozens of “anime” games (even though I know some folks object to that categorization), Arc games, SNK games, classic games.
I think Evo is first and foremost a business that wants to attract as many attendees as possible and set FGC records each year. I don’t really think they care much about being a “community showcase”. For example, last year they did Pokken, not really because it was a brand new game in the FGC that maybe could shed light on a lesser known but unique title, but because it was a Nintendo game and it had the potential to bring in a lot of money. It was a gamble, but they were gambling on it from the attendee/money perspective, not the “hey let’s spotlight a game for its unique gameplay” perspective. They probably won that gamble last year.
IMO if Evo was a community showcase event, the rest be damned, then KI would get back in this year, because they should be wanting to showcase a game with continued developer support. We don’t know about how much IG/MS will support the game into the future, but we do know that there will be at least 3 new characters + ultimates + whatever else between now and Evo (most likely). But if KI doesn’t make them money, then they won’t do it. So I don’t think they will do it.
I think KOF14 has a good chance of getting in this year because not only is it a new game, but it stands to rekindle yet another group of players (from Latin America and China/Korea) that might not attend Evo otherwise. But I do think it is the game on the edge of my list, and it has an outside chance of being dropped for something like Marvel or Blazblue if they decide those games have a chance to bring in more money (plus, Wizard has a big soft spot in his heart for Marvel, so if there is a game that will get in for reasons outside of business reasons, Marvel is IMO that game).
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Street Fighter, both Smash games, and whatever new fighters drop in time next year are pretty much guaranteed. Marvel, GG, and Tekken are probably coming too.
KOF might make it, I don’t know enough about the game/scene to say anything of value.
NRS will be there with Injustice 2, but if IJ2 doesn’t release in time, I don’t see MKX being in the lineup. The game had 30% less entrants in 2016 than it had in 2015 and this was after a major update/patch with new characters. Money comes first, and if the numbers are declining, it may cause MKX to sit out.
KI did have about a 30% increase which is really good, and maybe Kilgore’s fund could make a nice prize to draw in more players. If there are 7 slots, KI probably won’t make it, but if we get 8-9 games, I think we’ll see it at EVO.
For the first time, I am not expecting KI at EVO although I’d love to be surprised and see it there. KI has enjoyed 3 years at EVO, which is more than most American-made fighting games.
We still have KI Cup 
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I don’t know, I assumed Mr Wizard being from the bad old arcade days would have a soft spot for SNK as well. But then I don’t entirely know how the oldschool mentality works, maybe there’s a whole lot of Capcom/SNK tribalism that I missed and Joey sits firmly on the Capcom side of that.
Even for casual kids back in the day there was a lot of Capcom vs SNK (pun intended) fanboyism. Not many people in both camps.
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No offense, but does nobody else think it’s time for melee to finally stop showing up at Evo? Or keep Melee and put smash 4 out. I don’t like how 29% of Evo is smash brothers. Even hype games like SF third strike stopped showing up eventually. Point is, Melee had a great run but I think people should move on. If Nintendo really wanted to make fans happy and make butt-loads of cash, they would just make an SSBM HD remix or a sequel or something.
Don’t they have their own big annual tournament they could go to instead?
Don’t know, but I guarantee they would get people to both attend and view a Super Smash Bros. Melee World Cup Retro Spectacular (or SSBMWCRS for short)
Nintendo is the antithesis of the idea that offline tournaments are marketing for the game. They’ve done squat to encourage a competitive community and attempted to block EVO from broadcasting Smash as a violation of their copyright. They relented eventually but it was more a “okay, whatever. We don’t need this bad publicity” decision than any kind of endorsement or acknowledgment of the competitive smash scene. About the only thing they have done is release GameCube controllers for the WiiU so Smash players could make the jump from Melee to th WiiU version. But they have made it pretty clear that they view Smash as a party game and that any competetive scene is essentially an unintended consequence.
As far as EVO - if they are a business then having both Smash games actually draws more people than any other game in the list except SF V. So as little interest as many of us might have in competetive Smash, there are 5 games on the likely list of 7 that they would probably be smart to get rid of rather than Melee. Strange world, I know, but that’s how it is.
Genesis is their annual tournament but before last year with Genesis 3 no.
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So just double-checking … everyone here already cast their vote? https://twitter.com/MrWiz/status/815995408832872448