EVO Will Take Place Online This Year

EVO, the annual high-profile fighting game tournament traditionally held in Las Vegas, will be held online this year.

The very coronavirus commercial-y announcement came today, as organizers detailed how the tournament would take place over five weekends in July. Games in the lineup include Dragon Ball FighterZ, Soul Calibur 6, Tekken 7, and others. Mortal Kombat 11, Killer Instinct, Skullgirls, and Them's Fightin' Herds were announced as games that will feature open online tournaments.

Perhaps most notable about the announcement, was the absence of one highly popular game: Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. While EVO did not give a reason as to why Smash will not be included this year, IGN speculated that this was due to online performance issues with the game.

The news nevertheless disappointed fans of the series, but also led to a wave of schadenfreude from players who think the game is overrepresented.

evo: cuts smash ultimate from evo, won't be at evo online

nintendo fans: does this mean nintendo will finally fix online???

nintendo: pic.twitter.com/oExVCMsff8

— Noah (@PhantomArtifice) May 14, 2020

SMASH GOT DROPPED AND SKULLGIRLS IS AT EVO ONLINE 2020

SKULLGIRLS STAY WINNING pic.twitter.com/LXXiAaYZqB

— 🔥 Deri 🔥 (@OfWyvernsHeart) May 14, 2020

Smash Twitter the instant that they hear Smash won’t be at EVO Online pic.twitter.com/ETsL3xDnVM

— Shizzy (シズィー) 🌸 @ Happy Bday DylanTendo 🎂💞✨ (@TheVibingShizzy) May 14, 2020

OMG, remember EVO online 2020 Smash Ultimate Grand Finals? 😍 pic.twitter.com/nSMjk1wkym

— apathy (@apathycreates) May 14, 2020

While this will almost certainly have no impact on the popularity of Smash, it will be interesting to see if the exclusion from the most prestigious fighting game tournament will inspire Nintendo to address its online multiplayer issues.