When we last reported about the number of entries for Evolution (EVO) 2016’s Street Fighter V tournament, it broke records of over 4000 players. Now that entries are closed, where does the number stand?
Based on the tweet by Joey Cuellar, one of the main personnel behind EVO, it has surpassed 5000 players. The numbers for other fighting games tournaments are also no slouch either. Pokken Tournament, another relatively new game, managed to have 1000+ participants, whereas the Smash community is still strong, with both Smash 4 and Melee have over 2000 entries respectively.
Evo 2016 Numbers – SFV 5065, Smash 4 – 2637, Melee – 2350, Pokken – 1165, GG:XrdR – 903, UMvC3 – 770, MKX – 707, T7 – 543, KI – 540 #Evo2016
— Joey Cuellar (@MrWiz) July 1, 2016
Another exciting announcement is that the Street Fighter V tournament at EVO this year will also be televised in the US by ESPN, via their ESPN 2 channel. The sports network has dabbled a few times with broadcasting e-sports, but this is the first time a fighting game, a relatively niche community compared to the gargantuan numbers of typical e-sports games like Dota and CS:GO would attract, gets a shot in the limelight on TV.
To put in context, EVO is the pinnacle of most fighting game tournaments. Even in the Capcom Pro Tour, Street Fighter V’s pro league, the event is treated as its own major category-separate from the Premier Events, like the recent CEO 2016, as there are more points awarded to those that performed well at EVO, and a huge prize money to boot.
So, since in Malaysia we already have a dedicated e-sports channel, would it be likely to see EVO being broadcasted on our TVs as well? We have no news on that yet, but if you’re interested in following the action at EVO, Twitch streams of the event will be available soon. The event will take place in July 15, just a few weeks from now.