PlayStation officially revealed its plans for the company’s first Evo event since Sony acquired the fighting game tournament. Not only have mainstage tournament titles been confirmed, but a myriad of side tournaments in what is being called the “Evo Community Series” is coming as well.
Sony acquired Evo on March 18, 2021, and was responsible for the rebranding after the tournament’s co-founder and organizer Joey “Mr.Wizard” Cuellar left the project due to accusations of sexual misconduct.
The Evo 2021 Online Side Tournaments will start on July 8 and will last through August 3. These tournaments feature games that have strong communities but couldn’t quite make it to the main stage. Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Gundam EX VS Maxiboost ON, Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Soul Calibur VI, Them’s Fightin Herds, Granblue Fantasy Versus, and UnderNight In-Birth Exe: Late [st] all appear in this series.
There will be local region online tournaments featuring Granblue Fantasy Versus, Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11, and Tekken 7 hosted by PlayStation from June 10-June 22. Players will compete through qualifiers to get to the top to fight some of the best pro players in their communities. This tournament series will feature viewer polls, interviews, and a round table featuring some of the biggest commentators in the fighting game community.
Evo’s online mainstage lineup consists of Street Fighter V Champion Edition, Tekken 7, Mortal Kombat 11, and the upcoming Guilty Gear Strive. These four titles were to be expected by many to appear as the main featured games and their competitions will take place throughout two weekends. Weekend 1 will be that of August 6 and weekend 2 will start on August 13.
These mainstage titles will also appear during an online practice tournament called Evo 2021 Online Warm-Up. This event taking place from June 26-July 13 will be what is being dubbed “a preview of the competition for every main event title.” Players can compete in this tournament in order to test themselves and find out what they need to work on before the actual tournament in August.
These tournaments will all take place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventing local play for the community. They will also be broken up by regions to keep online connections as smooth as possible.
To find out what regions are being permitted, the rules of the tournament, and how to register, players can visit the official Evo website.
