Evo 2015 is set to go down in Las Vegas in just a few short months, but with the announcement of the event’s official line-up, some fans were wondering where their favorite games went.
Which games were dropped?
This year saw the departure of games like King of Fighters and BlazBlue, both of which are fairly iconic in fighting game circles.
So what happened?
According to tournament organizer Joey Cuellar, King of Fighters was singled out due to its lack of popularity, as the community for that game has waned significantly in recent years.
As he explained to Shoryuken:
After last year’s Evo, [King of Fighters] just stopped being played. Even in SoCal (Arguably the home of KOF in the United States), no one was playing this game. Even though it’s still a good game, the interest died out.
As for BlazBlue, recent updates to the game have proven to be extremely unpopular with its playerbase. On the plus side, last year’s tournament brought a lot of new fans to that style of gameplay, opening the door for Guilty Gear Xrd SIGN and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax to be included in the line-up this year.
Guilty Gear has always been an Evo favorite and it was back this year, and everyone seemed to be playing it. Persona also seems to cater to the not fully anime crowd and more on the mainstream side of things. This can lead to big things at Evo. BlazBlue had a version update that not to many players were fond of, and we rarely put a title in Evo based on the previous year’s top eight.
Don’t worry though, the tournament’s nine game roster still has plenty for everyone, including the Evo debuts of Mortal Kombat X and Tekken 7.
Evo 2015 will take place from July 17-19 at the Bally’s/Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
