Fellow fighting game heads, it’s that time of year again. Evolution Championship Series, more commonly referred to as EVO, revealed the eight games that competitors will be playing in its 2024 tournament, ranging from niche anime fighters to some of the genre’s biggest releases. Unfortunately for Super Smash Bros fans, for the fourth year in a row, neither Melee nor Ultimate will be one of the featured games.
EVO 2024 Parries Super Smash Bros out of the Tournament…Again
The eight official mainstage games were officially revealed on the EVO Twitter account. You can expect to see Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Guilty Gear: Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes], The King of Fighters XV, Mortal Kombat 1, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. It’s a pretty balanced selection of airdashers and more traditional footsie-based fighters, but platform fighter players once again were left in the dust.
The last time Super Smash Bros made an appearance at EVO in any capacity was during Evo 2019. The game was slated to make an appearance as well during EVO 2020, but that year was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following EVO 2020, EVO was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Super Smash Bros has not made an appearance since, despite the reassurance that the new acquisition would not impact EVO’s ability to include non-Playstation games.
Quite frankly, this is somewhat refreshing, as Super Smash Bros hasn’t made any new waves in the fighting game community for quite some time. Of course, unofficial side tournaments will still be held and likely include Super Smash Bros, and we can expect to get some new fighting game news during this year’s ceremony. Here’s hoping for some more information about the upcoming League of Legends fighter, Project L, or some other potential surprises.
The EVO 2024 event will begin on July 19 and end July 21. Find out more about the official ceremony here.
