As is the case every year, the Evo 2019 lineup has finally been revealed. The main stage for the annual fighting game tournament will feature BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Mortal Kombat 11, Samurai Shodown, Soul Calibur 6, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tekken 7 and Under Night In-Birth ExeLate. The event will take place from August 2 to August 4 in Las Vegas.
The Evo 2019 lineup was revealed on a stream held by “Evo head honcho” Joey Cuellar and business developer at Evo Mark Julio. You’ll likely notice that there are nine titles, which is up one from 2018 but the same number as the games at the 2017 tournament.
Only four games are carrying over from Evo 2018: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, and Tekken 7. While Ultimate made the cut, Super Smash Bros. Melee did not, which is a notable exception given how popular that fighter has been since its 2001 release. To commemorate the loss, the stream compiled a video of great Melee Evo moments. For comparison, Evo 2018 had both Melee and the Wii U entries.
This means that it will be the first Evo for the newly released Mortal Kombat 11, Soul Calibur 6, Under Night In-Birth ExeLate, and Samurai Shodown. It is unknown how these titles will stack up and if Dragon Ball FighterZ will be as popular as it was last year for contestants and viewers.
There will be other side tournaments too. These are games that aren’t quite popular enough to take the main stage but still have small communities. Some titles include Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, Melee, Marvel vs. Capcom, and more.
While some popular returning games like Tekken 7 don’t need explanation, some of the absences and entrants do. As is tradition, Mortal Kombat 11 is replacing Injustice 2 as NetherRealm games tend to overwrite each other every few years. Under Night In-Birth ExeLate was also included because it was one of the biggest side tournaments last year.
