Fighting game tournament Evo 2023 will be the largest open-ended video game tournament ever, Evo general manager Rick Thiher said. This follows the explosive launch of Street Fighter VI, which has attracted 7,061 unique entrants to sign up for the tournament heading to Vegas in August.
A total of 9,182 entrants registered for 14,975 competing slots across the event’s eight headlining races. The number, described by Thiher as “both daunting and exciting,” was a record-breaking figure for both the event and the Street Fighter franchise.
“Our team has delved into every known tournament around the world – the only Open Division tournament larger than this is poker,” Thiher explained. “However, while it’s impossible to say definitively, today we are very confident that this is the largest video game tournament ever.”
The event has always held special cultural importance to the genre, with the best players and biggest developers in the space traveling to Las Vegas for the competitions and conferences that revolve around it. What started back in 1996 as a grassroots event called “Battle by the Bay” has grown into an industry powerhouse, partnering with Sony and talent management firm RTS.
It’s these partners, along with a dedicated team and volunteers, that are instrumental in helping Evo transform and shape around the coming wave of players. “It’s a pretty big mobile machine to make sure [equipment] Not only was the amount we needed reached, but it was ready and we had the appropriate games installed. This is a career fit for the military. “
But it’s the Army’s job values that make for this type of annual center, even for those with no competitive aspirations. This year, the event, in partnership with anime publisher Crunchyroll, will feature Tekken 8’s setting ahead of the game’s full release. As in previous years, major game reveals are expected to be on hand, with industry giants like Riot Games using Project L as a platform to directly reach out to the community during its development.
Thiher talked about the importance of Evo’s development as a cultural property and not just a championship. “I think from the day Evo was born, when it was just an arcade tournament, it represented a rallying point for competitive players, and only a small percentage of competitive players at the top were able to hit the championship moment.[…]”
Thiher continued: “This can’t just be a tournament, it has to be a celebration of fighting games as a competitive focus, a cultural focus, and an industry moment. If we can’t achieve all three of these things, I don’t think the event will reach its potential.”
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So where does Street Fighter VI fit in here? Apparently the game was very successful, selling 2 million copies in early July. Why on earth is it falling off so much all of a sudden? According to Thiher, this is due to the game’s ability to appeal to both existing and new audiences.
“I think Street Fighter VI has done an excellent job of providing a product for its existing fan base, both old and new, but even more impressive is the fact that it offers an engaging and fun product for those who haven’t invested in a fighting game before.
“I think that’s the only example other than what Netherrealm did in Mortal Kombat 11, where you release a fighting game expecting it to be touched by everyone and try your best to incorporate everything you can into a realistic game.”
Thiher went on to point to the array of unconventional experiences Street Fighter VI allowed for, including streamer Majin Obama’s avatar fight livestream, and his own team’s luncheon around the in-game arcade, which he described as “reminiscent of being among the locals.” It’s a game worth playing as well as watching, and in Thiher’s view, “a decade of fighting games that started to get all the little details right and created the perfect storm.”
With the aforementioned three pillars of Evo — competition, industry, and culture — the door has essentially been flocked for a wave of Street Fighter VI players. From Thiher’s perspective, the game really has the potential to push the genre forward in ways we haven’t seen before. “Frankly, I think what we have right now is an open door. We have something compelling enough to get us where we’re interested and probably skip a lot of the long haul in the middle.”
“When you have a CR Cup in Japan, or a Vtuber that breaks ratings records, that didn’t happen before Street Fighter 6 because there wasn’t everything you needed to get into the market. It wasn’t just the product, it wasn’t just the talent, it was the timing.”
So where does this portal lead? To Thielle, as to all of us, it was a mystery. “The funny thing is I don’t know. The coolest part of my job is that I don’t know. Together we can find out”.
