EVO 2022 line-up – Are Street Fighter V, MK11 and Tekken enough?

EVO is still the premier fighting game tournament, and the selection of games offered at EVO shows what’s popular, new, and growing in the fighting game community. Recent EVO tournaments have been difficult with COVID restrictions pushing things online. However, this year it’s going back to offline.

It makes a huge difference for fighting games and it’s part of why this might be the most anticipated EVO in a long time. However, EVO has had some major changes in the interim, including being purchased by Sony. This has affected the choice of games on offer at this year’s EVO.

The full EVO 2022 games line-up has now been released and we’ve got a decent look at how the event is going to go.

@EVO / EVO 2022

EVO 2022 Games – Full Roster Announced

The full EVO 2022 games roster line-up has been announced this week, bringing nine different games through to the tournament. These include some of the obvious picks like Street Fighter. However, as is customary for EVO, there are also some new games that are a bit more of a surprise.

These are the games that are being played at EVO 2022:

• Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (Returning)
• Guilty gear Strive (New Game)
• Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate (Returning)
• Tekken 7 (Returning)
• King of Fighters XV (New Game)
• Melty Blood: Type Lumina (New Game)
• Dragon Ball FighterZ (Returning Game)
• Granblue Fantasy: Versus. (New Game)
• Skullgirls 2^nd Encore (New Game)

Those are all of the games that have been announced so far. In terms of the actual schedule though, things are working a bit differently this time around. The schedule is going to be decided depending on entry numbers. The top-billed game is going to be the title with the most sign-ups, with the schedule decided by popularity. This will probably yield similar results to a traditional approach to the schedule. However, it is a fun change of pace that can mix things up a bit.

The Returning Games

The EVO 2022 games feature a good number of returning titles, with four of the nine being mainstays. This is going to be reassuring after the tournament dropped one of its most popular titles recently. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken aren’t too big of a surprise for tournament goers. These are the best and most popular fighting games and the biggest franchises.

It is also great to see FighterZ continuing to get representation. There are newer games from the same developer that get a bit more focus now. Although, the main problem is FighterZ’s netcode, which won’t be an issue now that EVO 2022 is back online. With even a fair part of the FighterZ community currently discussing sequels, it is great that the original is keeping things fresh.

New EVO 2022 Games

There are plenty of returning favorites at EVO 2022, but new games actually outnumber them this time around. Guilty Gear Strive is one of the more expected titles, being the newest game from Arc System Works. King of Fighters is also to be expected, while it is a new version of the game this is one of the bigger names in fighting games.

Skull Girls is getting an outing this time around too. This is a common sight at quite a few tournaments, but this newest version of the game being featured so prominently is always going to be encouraging for fans.

The less predicted titles here show there’s still plenty of room for innovation and growth in competitive fighting games. Melty Blood Type Lunar is a 2D fighting game with a decent-sized esports scene, but one that some might not have expected to make it into EVO.

Granblue Fantasy Versus is another addition from Arc System Works, making this their third game in competition at EVO. While there’s a decent spread of old and new, Arc System Works might be the biggest winner in this roster of games, it’s definitely a testament to their recent skill and success in producing fighting games that capture the competitive community’s attention.

The news of Smash Bros being removed did cast a shadow over the lead in to EVO. However, the roster of games on offer shows a decent variety of fighting games still in competition at EVO. There’s a heavy concentration on the big titles and those by Arc. However, there are still enough smaller games being featured that EVO is hosting a wide variety of titles.

With a relatively new lineup of titles, I do hope the old heavy-hitters will be enough to carry EVO this year.