I think this EVO was better than last year, maybe some of you are disappointed because the AE Top 8 were mostly unhype but:
- KOF was the most amazing thing this year. Bala was destined to win, he was the sure bet of EVO, the god of KOF. And then an unknown korean player came out and took the crown beating him in two sets. Nobody saw that coming, so the hype was incredible. The ending with the top players shouting together K-O-F made me proud being part of the FGC, this is how you show love for the game and your community.
- ST legends tournament is a close second. Mao and Kusumondo put on a spectacular fight that showed again why this game will never die.
- Marvel was better than last year, it was totally nerve-wracking, nearly every matches went down to the wire. There were a lot of chokes and not clean fights, ChrisG vs FChamp sets was high level playing at its finest, yet full of strange decision (in fact it ended with a choke). FChamp deserved the win, he was the most solid player all around.
- While AE finals were so and so (Shadowloo Showdown was the best), quarter finals to Top 8 were fantastic, lots of upsets and great matches. There's nothing really much to say about Infiltration's performance, he was like the incarnation of Akuma, all those demons that came out of nowhere.
I hope EVO next year will get a fourth day, it's just too big now and I'm sure the international showing are only going to grow. This year we had Mexico, Korea, China, South East Asia and Japan. I'm expecting more South American players for the next year.
It's not feasible doing all the finals in one day, KOF can take a lot of time and Marvel is now 3/5, plus too many interruptions, that hurt the viewership a lot.
EVO is now truly The world championship, it's not just about USA vs Japan, people are coming from everywhere and you can feel the excitement in the air. There's nothing like that.