Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is esports now. Well, there have been for a while, hosting various online fighting game tournaments.
Today, however, is the big sign of intent as they, together with new esports venture RTS in a joint venture partnership, acquired the Evolution Championship Series (Evo).
Evo has been the premier fighting game tournament in the world since its early days in 1996. There has been an Evo every year until 2019. The pandemic made Evo from the usual gathering of fighting game players across the world impossible. And a plan to host Evo Online last year was cancelled after sexual misconduct allegations were made against Evo’s former CEO.
Evo remains committed to ensure “harassment or abuse of any kind has no place within Evo or any of our future events”, as stated in their post here, now that they are under the ownership of SIE and RTS.
Evo co-founders Tom and Tony Cannon will still be involved with the tournament, acting as advisors.
The announcement also reveals that Evo Online is happening in August 2021. There’s no promotion stream and hype game reveals this time, but we do have a date and list of games.
Evo Online will be happening on August 6-8 and 13-15. The games that are part of Evo Online 2021 are:
- Tekken 7
- Street Fighter V
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Guilty Gear Strive
A majority of players in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America can join in any of these games’ tournaments (but no MK 11 for Asia).
Players in these countries in Asia can compete in Tekken 7, SFV and GG Strive:
- Thailand
- Laos
- Vietnam
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Japan
- Korea
- Taiwan
- Hong Kong
As per Evo tradition, it’s an open tournament- so everyone gets a fair shot, doesn’t matter if you’re a pro or a first-timer. There will be a livestream of the online qualifiers.
The list of games for this year’s Evo is really short (with some glaring omissions like not even one Super Smash Bros. game). Though Mark Julio, Evo’s Mark Julio has tweeted the tournament remains open for other platforms to participate.
Still, it’s good to see Evo is back, and stronger than ever.