OMG I just remembered my parents are helping me go there this year! Man, too much excitement indeed…
The haters will still say “KI is dead!” after 3 consecutive years at Evo and growth.
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Hopefully it and MKX aren’t at the same time, I really want to watch both lol
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I’ll be honest about Melee returning along with Smash 4. I have mixed feelings about it as I enjoy watching how fast and energetic this game is, however 95% of these matches will be Fox vs (insert any character here). Because of that; matches feels unoriginal as they lack variety to pick something other than Fox or occasionally Falco. Just wish for more original matches than relying on #1 top tier character in Melee.
“COUGHCOUGHMELEECOUGHCOUGH”
*shrug * Melee breaks all the rules, but it’s also earned the right to do so. 1500+ entries, diehard (and I mean truly diehard) community, very little overlap in its community and others…
I personally really don’t like watching Melee, but I’d say it’s more than earned its place at EVO. Which it wasn’t at for many years I might add.
If you want a free 150,000 stream viewers and 2000 entrants that otherwise wouldn’t come to your event for anything else, you add Melee to your roster.
It’s pretty much that simple.
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The argument for Smash4 being very similar, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that both got into Evo again over USFIV – but here we are, I guess.
We seem to be getting a lot of people taking Wizard’s various rationales (and justifications said people pulled out of their arses, also) for including certain games and passing on others, and holding him to them as these binding principles that he must be literally consistent about, otherwise…he’s biased or a sellout or hates the FGC or something? And I get the impulse to bring up some principle and object that a game making/not making the cut violates that, because you think that clear goal posts is what fairness is. But the reality is that these are subjective decisions which try to balance a range of principles and concerns, as well as the organisers’ desires about what they want their event to be.
For my part, I think the lack of dev engagement with UMVC3 should weigh more strongly against the game (and against Melee, but in that case it’s easily outweighed by the huge, undying community behind the game), but I’m not going to berate Wizard for getting behind Mahvel like he has.
Oh, and Pokken is a very interesting choice. Aside from taking a gamble on the Pokemon brand and whatnot, maybe its inclusion is partially motivated by an apparent scarcity of current 3D fighters? That’s pretty clearly why Wizard is tolerating Bandai-Namco dragging their feet with Tekken 7.
I think USF4 not being at Evo is just as much Capcom’s decision as it was Evo’s decision. Evo was probably already stressing a bit about how to run yet another 2000+ man bracket (SFV, Melee, Smash 4 are for sure going to get that many) and Capcom has probably been indicating to the various Premier CPT events that SFV should be the preferred game going forward.
Pokken is a huge surprise to me, but definitely it’s because Evo feels that it won’t get as many entrants (making it a fairly low-risk game, as far as staff resources go) and the potential for it to attract a market that Evo has never had before is pretty high. Also, nothing wrong with Evo trying some new ideas every now and again.
From a business standpoint, I think Smash 4 and Melee are slam dunks. They each attract a unique 2000 competitors to your event, so it’s hard to say no to that no matter what else is going on. My guess is something like 75-80% of USF4’s potential Evo entrants would also sign up for SF5, making the overlap and stress huge without getting more people through the door.
IMO Marvel and Tekken were the closest to being cut, since Marvel is on the decline (both in player base and developer support) and Tekken 7 doesn’t even exist in America. But, again, Tekken brings in a particularly unique group of players (especially from overseas), and Madcatz has a good relationship with the Tekken guys, and it’s nice to make one of your biggest sponsors happy that way. And Marvel is Marvel… I’m happy it’s at the event because I like watching it, but I would have liked to see it be a Saturday game and give KI an early Sunday slot.
I was actually a little worried that KI wouldn’t be at Evo this year, because it was the lowest attended event last year. It had a great top 8 showing, but that hasn’t saved other games from getting cut in the past. But I think the combination of it being one of the best spectator games, and the continued support of the developers (Season 3, PC release, etc) makes it a good candidate for Evo to support “on principle.”
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The PC port might be able to grab more attenders because KI is not exclusively on Xbox One anymore, making it easier to grab attention. Plus there’s a big chance that a large amount of people felt like they’ve missed out on seeing KI at EVO and wants a chance to attend this year, hopefully at least.
I played Melee as a kid back when it first released on Gamecube…but its been years since I have played/watched it. What makes it so special compared to the new Smash games that have been released (I haven’t played them)
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