Another major gaming event is making the appropriate choice in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.EVO 2020, the biggest annual fighting game tournament event in the world, is now officially canceled. The cancelation was announced Friday afternoon on Twitter with a short message from theEVO Championship Seriesteam. The team, as expected, explained that “The health and well-being of our community is our highest priority. We hope everyone stays safe during this time.”
EVO was originally scheduled to begin on Friday, July 31, and would run through the weekend. The games planned to be run during EVO 2020 included Super Street Fighter 5 Champion Edition,Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,Dragon Ball FighterZ,Tekken 7, and five other games. AMarvel vs. Capcom 2invitational tournament was even planned to celebrate the game’s 20-year anniversary. Perhaps a rain check is in order to bring it back in 2021.
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Needless to say, hype was very high for EVO 2020. Who is to say whether the same excitement forStreet Fighter 5and these fighting games will be there in a year, especially with a new generation of consoles coming this holiday. As such, EVO didn’t feel entirely comfortable just canceling the show and putting nothing in its place. Instead, EVO 2020 is going online.
According to EVO’s announcement, a new event is planned to run during the summer of 2020. There are no details yet regarding which games will be used in this tournament or how the logistics will be handled. But any upcoming tournaments will likely have a lengthy sign-up window to ensure anyEVO playerswho want in are able.
The bigger issue is that many, if not most, of the EVO games planned for 2020 don’t have particularly robust online features. Features that would be necessary for having an online tournament that doesn’t take months. The online EVO 2020 may be limited toStreet Fighter 5andTekken 7, but it’d still be better than nothing.
Since EVO 2020 was selling tickets for the past couple of months, all ticket sales will be refunded. There’s no official information regarding hotel or accommodations refunds, but hopefully, EVO works withLas Vegasmotels to ensure as many attendees can get their money back as possible.
Stay tuned for more information about the digitalEVO 2020event in the weeks to come.
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