Fans will Flutter to Evo and More | Set Point! FGC News January 15, 2025
Headfirst, Mai dove into Street Fighter 6 with her gameplay trailer; we got a look into Evo Las Vegas and the Evo Awards; and we also had a number of great Street Fighter tournaments from our friends in Asia.
That and more in this week’s Set Point! Your FGC News round up.
Let’s Rock!
I would like to take a moment to talk about the California Wildfires. This is an ongoing natural disaster in Southern California where many people are losing everything and not sure what to do. I have donated $25 to the California Fire Foundation to help with relief efforts. For more information on how to help, see this link: https://abc7.com/post/socal-wildfires-how-can-help/15779040/
Fires Impacting FGC
Due to the surge of fires and winds in Southern California FGC events are affected as well. The Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour LCQ and Finals have been postponed along with all the related Dragon Ball tournaments in the Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour. The Street Fighter League US Finals were supposed to occur in Los Angeles this weekend as well, but that has also been postponed. Stay safe everyone!
Evo Announcement Show
Last night was the Evo Announcement show, officially announcing the main stage line up for Evo Las Vegas with some other cool details. This has been a yearly promotion since 2023 and it’s a well put together production featuring producers from the main stage games.
The Lineup
The main stage games for Evo Las Vegas this year are:
- Street Fighter 6
- Tekken 8
- Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
- Granblue Fantasy Versus : Rising
- Guilty Gear -STRIVE-
- Under Night In-Birth II
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Marvel vs. Capcom 2
During the show, Evo introduced what will be the Extended Lineup of games. Instead of being “side tournaments” run by the community alongside Evo, these games are now going to be organized, streamed, and promoted by Evo themselves. So if you get a Top 8 in one of these games, you will be a medal just like the main stage games. There were five games announced at the show, and three more to be revealed at the Evo Awards on February 15.
- Rivals of Aether 2
- Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O
- The King of Fighters XV
- Blazblue Centralfiction
- Killer Instinct
With all of the games, the full Top 8 will be streamed. If you are attending the event, the main stage for finals is a separate ticket that will reserve your seat. If you aren’t able to get into the stage, Evo will have a more fleshed out live stream at the venue with its own hosts.
For Tekken 8, it was announced that all the Evos will be Master events and Mortal Kombat 1 will also have Evo as part of its MK Pro Kompetition
The First ever Evo Awards!
For the first time, Evo will be hosting its own awards show. Think more of something like the ESPYs then the Oscars. There are 21 categories with five entrants each chosen by Evo. The categories range from Player of the Year, Commentator of the Year, to Best Button and Best Meme. You can go to evo.gg/awards to cast a vote for your favorites!
As of now, I’m not sure how much the votes will impact who wins in each category, but you should definitely vote if you feel strongly about a nominee.
At the event there will be three Impact awards given out this year. This is Evo’s version of the Lifetime Achievement award you see in other fields. The first one this year will be going to Tokido. If you don’t know who Tokido is, in short he is one of the greatest fighting game players with championships across multiple games. He’s now known for Street Fighter. If you want to learn more about Tokido, check out the documentary Evo produced. It was hinted that another recipient for the year would be Katsuhiro Harada, the main producer for Tekken as well as a producer for Soul Calibur and Pokken. There will be a third we do not know about.
Feburary 15th will be the evo awards with winners, more announcments, and details about the Las Vegas event on August 1–3.
More info can be found at evo.gg
Street Fighter Updates!
Mai Gameplay Revealed
Capcom released the gameplay trailer for Mai this week. She is the second of the two Fatal Fury guest characters for Street Fighter 6, the first was Terry Bogard added back in September. A blog post detailing Mai’s gameplay was shared on Steam. Between that and the trailer, here’s what I found notable about her between the two:
— cancelable 2MK (can drive rush out of it)
— 6MP overhead
— dp/reversal
— headfirst divekick, “Musasabi no Mai”, can hit with fans to juggle, OD version can go into level 2 in the air
— level 2 is fireball invincible as a reversal
— “Ryuuenbu” is her fire move, light is safe on block, heavy/OD can link combos
— charged fan fireball “kachousen” that juggles the fan
— has classic elbow “Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi,” will be her light knockdown, OD version juggles
— target combos from a heavy kick, and one from 5LK that leads to head dive
— level 1 “Kagerou no Mai” gives her 5 flame stocks that buff all of her special moves and level 1/2. It looks like mostly juggles and/or plus frames.
— regular level 3
She comes out February 5th. You will probably see this character in at least one Capcom Cup set in March.
World Warrior Asia East
HotDog won the Regional Finals for World Warrior Asia East winning over a stacked top 8 including Chris Wong, last year’s Capcom Cup runner up.
HotDog is a long time fighting game player from Hong Kong. You may recognize him from this year’s Street Fighter League US where he played with Team Shopify. Hotdog made a killer Capcom Cup run in 2019 winning the CPT North America open and got 13th in Capcom Cup that year. He is known for his Bison in both Street Fighter V and 6.
GTW 2024 Finals
GTW was a series of tournaments held in China and this weekend was their finals event. The finals were a single elimination first to five. Xiaohai won the tournament, but it also featured Zhen and other Chinese top players.
Liquipedia
VOD
FAV Cup Special Match
Even more Street Fighter out East. FAV, the esports group had an invitational 5v5 team tournament featuring players from Japan. Each player played a total of two sets that were first to three. Daigo, Momochi, Mago and more where there.
VOD
Liquipedia
Topanga Charity Cup 14
We also had the largest open team bracket in Japan this weekend with Topanga Charity Cup. It’s a 5v5 team tournament where each player plays first to 1, and winner stays on until the opposing team member have all lost once. Apart from that it’s a double elimination bracket. The tournament had 853 teams and over four thousand participants. Team DBFZ won the whole thing with GO1, Kazunoko, Leshar, Fenritti, and moke.
Sajam Slam 4
Sajam Slam returns this week with the new line up of coaches and players. Elchakotay is a new coach this time around. The featured players are about half returning, half new. This event is always fun to watch, it brings in so many new faces to the FGC, and the coaching is actually really great advice for anyone who wants to get better at the game.
Versus Festival: Habba Edition
Also in India was the Versus Festival: Habba Edition for Street Fighter 6. Tokido traveled to play along with takera. Mike Ross was also in attendance if you’re a fan of him.
Liquipedia
European Tekken Cup
European Tekken Cup had its first tournament of the new year with Invictus in Italy.
JoKa won the bracket with his Feng and Heihachi. He’s been on a hot streak during the ETC, consistently getting top 8s at each bracket he’s entered. We also had a standout performance from Kirakira, a Jun player from Switzerland, who actually beat JoKa in top 16 and Italian star Danielmado in top 8. Pikah went into grand finals from winners side, but Joka’s Feng took him out in the reset, 3–1 both sets.
ETC current standings
The next ETC event will be this weekend with Galaxian Explosion: Dark Resurrection II in Paris France.
Round Robin
Virtua Fighter 5 got another update. This time mostly just bug fixes and very small character adjustments. Along with the update, Sega doubled the tournament cap and prize pool for the VF bracket happening at Frosty Fasutings. Everyone attending will get a free T-shirt for participating as well.
Speaking of Frosty Fasutings, their schedule of Community Events, hosted by Vortex Gallery, is out. This will include the Samurai Showdown tournament that is a qualifier for the SNK World Championship.
CEO registration is now open for the main stage events as well as the community events. CEO is happening June 13–15th. Early pricing ends on January 31st.
The gameplay trailer for Mortal Kombat’s next guest character, Conan the Barbarian, will be released this Thursday.
Here Comes a New Challenger!
Fighting game news and events upcoming this week
Mortal Kombat 1 Conan the Barbarian Gameplay Trailer January 16
Galaxian Explosion: Dark Resurrection II — Europen Tekken Cup January 18–19
Cygames Cup Special 2025 (Arc World Tour Platinum Event for Granblue Fantasy Versus : Rising, Gold for Guilty Gear -Strive-) January 18–19
World Warrior Japan Regional Final (last Capcom Cup qualifier!) January 19
You Win!
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you found it helpful. Fighting games are so cool and I love talking about them. You can see the video version of this on my YouTube channel.
ggs
Bonus Stage!
With all these team events going on, check out this Core-A Gaming video on “Why We Like Teams”
