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The Evolution Championship Series (Evo) has announced its lineup of featured games for 2020. Evo is the largest annual fighting game tournament by total attendance, and regarded by most as the de facto world championship for each of the games selected for its featured tournaments.
The games selected for this year’s event include DRAGON BALL FighterZ, Granblue Fantasy Versus, Samurai Shodown, Soulcalibur VI, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tekken 7, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r].
Additionally, Evo will host an invitational Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tournament to celebrate the game’s 20th anniversary.
Notably absent from this year’s list is Mortal Kombat 11, which was the best-selling video game of April 2019 according to data from NPD. The latest game from MK11 developer NetherRealm Studios has been featured at Evo every year since 2012. Due to the significance of Evo to the fighting game scene, a game’s inclusion or exclusion can often have a significant impact on attendance at other tournaments, online play, and game sales. Perhaps the most notable example of this was the release of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle in 2018, which advertised its inclusion at Evo on the game’s packaging.
Last month, Evo announced that NISSIN’s Cup Noodles brand would return to sponsor its fifth consecutive tournament with Evo Japan 2020. In addition to Cup Noodles, past Evo events have featured partners such as Samsung, Astro Gaming, developer Cygames, and animated Japanese television program Hi Score Girl.
