Evo 2013: Return of the Fighter
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am exhausted. After three days of overwhelming hype and excitement, another Evolution Gaming Series tournament weekend has gone by and exceeded expectations. Evo 2013 saw champions dethroned, former villains become crowd favorites, and tier-lists blown apart in the face of spectacular play and technical prowess.
Even more impressive are the final viewership numbers for the fighting game tournament’s overall weekend. According to Twitch.Tv the viewership numbers from last year increased by over fifty percent, with somewhere around 1.7 million unique viewers for the entire weekend. Previous active stream records for Evo were broken as well, with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 garnering just shy of 145,000 viewers at one time and Super Smash Bros. Melee achieving 134,000 viewers.
The weekend offered a glut of content and moments that could have been easily missed if you weren’t paying close attention. As a final send-off to the amazing weekend that was the Evo 2013 tournament, here are the top moments across the entire three days.
Evo 2013: Unbearable Hype
Persona 4 Arena held the center stage of the Evolution tournament Friday night, as the entire tournament was played in one day. Pool brackets began in the early afternoon and players were competing until the final KO somewhere around 8 p.m. Being the new game on the roster, Persona 4 Arena had big shoes to fill as the spiritual successor to such”anime fighters” as BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, but even if you were a viewer with no prior P4A experience, the grand finals provided an amazing start to the weekend.
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Japan’s undefeated king of P4A, Yume, went up against American challenger and Northern California mainstay, LordKnight. Yume had managed to burn through large swaths of players, going the entire tournament without a single dropped round. LordKnight fought his way to the Grand Finals out of the losers bracket and carried the hopes of American players in an attempt to dethrone Japan as the king of the Mayonaka Arena.
In the end, LordKnight’s precise tactical strikes with Mitsuru were not enough to overcome the sheer combo power of Yume’s Aegis play, taking advantage of the android warrior’s enhanced movement mode and insane ability to air-juggle enemies off of a single hit-confirm. LordKnight may very well have been out of steam, having just played two draining matches against other American and Japanese hopefuls. The NorCal veteran would have had to reset the bracket by winning the first two matches due to being the loser’s bracket winner. This task was too tall and LordKnight fell, with Yume taking the first Persona 4 Arena Evo crown.
Injustice for… Superman
Another newcomer to the Evolution tournament weekend, Injustice had a bit of a chip on it’s shoulder. With Mortal Kombat 9 losing it’s competitive steam, many players of the former game decided to jump ship and try their hand at NetherRealm Studios’ DC fighter. If you were a first-time observer of Injustice, some may have had trouble figuring out the metagame or what character would be dominant. It turns out that projectiles and more specifically, Superman, were king of Evo 2013.
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The Grand Finals came down to two MK9 mainstays, KDZ and his dominating Superman play versus 2013 MK9 Grand Finals champion Crazy DJT88 and his Green Lantern. The word of the weekend for near every Injustice match was projectile zoning, and the Grand Finals ended up being no different.
KDZ was able to dominate the long-range as well as the mid-range game with Superman’s absolutely overbearing projectiles, dealing massive amounts of damage, even as DJT’s Lantern was blocking. Being forced to move the Emerald Knight in, DJT would try to play footsies up close in an attempt to set up Green Lantern’s air juggle combos. Superman proved to be equally effective up close, with KDZ taking advantage of Big Blue’s superior power and attack advantage to pummel DJT with combos that took off as much as 43% of the health bar.
KDZ moved to swift victory, having not dropped a single round through the entire tournament. Superman was clearly the most dominating character of the tournament, with three players representing Kal-El in the top 8. Will Injustice see a patch soon to power down the Man of Steel? We’ll have to wait and see.
COME SMASH ME, BRO
One of the biggest shocks of the weekend came via the massive out pour of support and interest in a twelve year-old game. Super Smash Bros. Melee and it’s amazing community of players willed the game’s inclusion at Evo 2013 into existence, voting the game in via a poll and charity drive earlier in the year. The Fighting Game Community had a vocal minority against the inclusion of Smash on the main tournament, when games like BlazBlue and Tekken were largely forgotten.
The Smash community would silence that minority with some of the most exciting play of Evo 2013.
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The Grand Finals, which netted the second largest amount of active viewers for the weekend at 135,000, pitted two mainstays of the Smash community against each other. The last contest of the tournament saw the Ice Climber’s player Wobblez against Evo 2007 Smash Grand Finals contestant Mango and his suffocating Star Fox play.
With the crowd at a fever pitch and the largest amount of players watching online at that point for the weekend, Mango and Wobblez put on a Smash Bros. clinic for those that had never seen the game played competitively. Wobblez made his mark in the tournament up to that point with Ice Climbers’ ability to completely dominate an opponent in seconds with a brutal unblockable command throw. Mango had beaten multiple opponents via precision dodging and counter-attacking, making the most out of opponent’s mistakes.
That ability to dodge and counter was exactly what led Mango to dominate the Grand Finals over Wobblez. Dodging the Ice Climbers’ throw attempts, Fox was able to deftly attack and separate the hammer-throwing siblings, rendering their ability to attack and defend useless. Mango quickly dominated the sets and took the first Evo crowd since 2007 in Smash Bros. Melee.
The Return of Justin Wong
Marvel vs Capcom 3 and it’s pool of competitors were responsible for some of the biggest moments of Evo 2013. Many well-known players and former champions fell throughout the tournament, but nobody had a more incredible run of matches than former Evolution champion Justin Wong. Vilified in the past by crowds for his propensity to always win at every event, Wong had long been the guy that everyone from the live crowd to the stream viewers would cheer against.
In the span of three matches, Justin Wong went from villain to Evo 2013 hero.
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Using the squad of Akuma, Storm, and Wolverine, Justin Wong made one improbable comeback after another, beating the likes of ChrisG, FilipinoChamp, and Angelic in order to make his way out of the loser’s bracket and head to the Grand Finals against EMP Flocker. Many of these matches against such well-known Marvel players saw Justin fall behind 0-2 quickly, on the verge of elimination. Wong would not relent and stormed back with one comeback after another. Justin had earned the respect of the crowd with the type of astounding play that you only see from competitors like Wong.
This streak continued for Justin as he fell behind to Flocker in the Grand Finals 0-2, on the verge of elimination. Flocker’s all-encompassing opening play using Zero had Justin on the ropes before the Evil Geniuses-sponsored Wong came back with a fury, winning three matches in a row and resetting the bracket due to being the loser’s side winner.
In the end, Wong could not keep up with the combination of Flocker’s impressive zoning game and the precision shots of Hawkeye, taking the set and the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Evolution championship. Justin may have lost the title, but he won back something he had lost years ago in his early rise to fame: the adoration of the Fighting Game Community.
King of the Hype
As far as finales go, the top 8 of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition was as good as it gets. The final 8 players left standing were some of the greatest in gaming history, with the likes of Daigo Umehara, Tokido, Xian, and America’s own PR Balrog all fighting for the 2013 Evolution title. The SFIV top 8 also had some of the greatest moments of the weekend.
The evening kicked off with the bang as former champions clashed when last year’s winner Infiltration took on “The Beast”, Daigo Umehara.
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This contest would be the third time that Umehara and Infiltration had faced off in a year, with the previous time coming at Capcom’s 25th Anniversary tournament. In a similar match, Daigo’s Ryu had triumphed over the Korean 2012 Evolution champion’s Akuma. Their rematch in the top 8 would see that battle occur once again.
The two contestants traded match victories using similar game plans centered around controlling the mid-range zone with fireballs and low kicks, attempting to find any opening to move in for a large combo attack. Daigo, showing signs of frustration, began playing aggressively, pushing Infiltration to the opposite end of the board and stopping any attempts to jump in. This aggressiveness would inevitably be Umehara’s downfall, as Infiltration began to read the Dragon Punch attempts by Ryu and punished accordingly with efficient Hurricane Kick linking combos.
Infiltration’s constant pressure off multiple knockdowns proved to be too much for Daigo, and the reigning champion would move on to the next round over the Japanese gaming legend.
The Korean champion’s night would be far from over, as Infiltration’s next challenge would be from the man that sent him to the loser’s bracket two days prior; PR Balrog. In the Friday night quarterfinals match, Eduardo Perez-Frangie dominated Infiltration’s Akuma with his namesake, keeping his opponent firmly pinned in the corner with Balrog’s punishing footsies and pressure game.
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The rematch began in a similar fashion. Infiltration quickly attempted to push Balrog away and generate distance with Akuma’s air fireball zoning, but the Puerto Rican hopeful was relentless, focus-canceling and dashing through the torrent of projectiles. Hitting hard and fast, PR Balrog was able to quickly go up 2-0, match point locked into his view.
At that point, Infiltration took a chance that was the biggest moment of the entire tournament. Infiltration, known to be a more scientific player that is not afraid to switch characters if facing an unfavorable match up, switched gears completely. Sun Woo Lee knew he would need to challenge Eduardo’s character knowledge in order to win. Infiltration made the ballsiest move I have ever witnessed in the competitive scene and switched to the underused, underestimated, and unappreciated Turkish oil wrestler, Hakan.
For those unfamiliar, Hakan is a highly technical grappler in SFIV that is largely ignored due to the fact that he’s an unorthodox character, requiring great reactions and time management skills. Hakan has the ability to cover himself in oil, increasing damage, defense, dash length, jump arc, and gains the ability to chain together moves not possible to chain while unoiled. In other words: Hakan oiled and unoiled are two completely different characters and neigh-improbable to prepare for in a tournament such as Evolution.
I may be waxing poetic, considering I have been a Hakan player for three years. I can describe no greater joy and feeling of hype than seeing my favorite Street Fighter character pop up as a serious threat on the largest stage in fighting games.
An unexpected move to everyone at Evo 2013, Infiltration went to work. Hakan is a natural counter to Balrog, as he possesses the ability to punish the boxer for simply attempting his special moves such as his dash punches. Further more, Hakan has a impressive and underrated set or normal moves, including jabs that move the wrestler forward with each push of the button. Infiltration made excellent use of this fact, catching Eduardo in almost a state of not knowing what to do.
PR Balrog had clearly not planned for such a move, despite the fact that Sun Woo pulled the same move the previous year, though not to this extent. The prior year, Infiltration switched to Hakan while ahead in rounds as a mind game, played the grappler for a match, and switched back to Akuma immediately.
Down two games and facing elimination at the hand of the last American in the tournament, Infiltration bet big on his opponent’s lack of information and made him pay dearly. Shocking the live crowd, the viewers online, and even trending on Twitter, Hakan pushed Infiltration to loser’s finals and crushed PR Balrog’s championship hopes for 2013.
Evolution’s 2013 Street Fighter IV tournament held many surprise character choices in the top 8, as we saw characters such as Evil Ryu, Makoto, and the aforementioned Hakan all make substantial appearances. No appearance would be as impressive and stunning as Xian’s tournament run with the Chinese assassin, Gen.
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The player from Singapore had been making great strides in the previous year, placing and winning myriad tournaments across the globe, all while using a character that is widely considered to be too difficult to properly use. Xian would make everyone regret those thoughts as he dominated Japan’s Tokido, one of the premiere Akuma players in the tournament.
Xian was able to take advantage of Gen’s superior ability to hit low from awkward close angles, chaining multiple attacks together at once. While Tokido was able to use Akuma’s air projectiles to stave off Gen, Xian would not be denied and took the round and the Evo 2013 world title, 3 sets to 1.
Evo 2013 raised the stakes from years prior, bringing more excitement, a more diverse catalog of games, and the largest crowds for the Fighting Game Community to date. One can only assume that this trend will continue, as Evolution has shown no signs of regression or decreasing in size or excitement. If you missed the Evo 2013 action, I highly recommend following the scene now in order to prepare for what is to come in 2014.
The post The weekend that was: The Evo 2013 fighting game tournament appeared first on Video Game Writers.
