“Hey guys, once again it’s your boy Dante, AKA Victor Freez, back to give you the latest buzz in all things gaming!”
For all of my “Fighting Game Junkies”, EVO 2014 was in full effect this past weekend in Las Vegas. This was an amazing year of competition. Regardless of who actually took home the titles, we got to see gameplay at its highest level! Nearly 2,000 competitors competed for three days with more than 100,000 viewers across its Twitch channels. And with all of the diverse competitors this year, we were able to nail down some of the more “exceptional” matches.
(Due to technical difficulties I can’t post the videos of these matches, so I will give a brief replay of what happened. But I highly suggest getting over to Youtube to check these out)
Injustice: Gods Among Us!: SonicFox VS. Pig of the Hut
Whether you are a huge fan of Injustice (which I am) or not, this was probably the most exciting fight at EVO! SonicFox and Pig of the Hut battled their way to the top 2 spots using Batgirl and Zod, but in the finale, it was the 16 year old SonicFox that took the finale with a shocking 6-0 win over Pig of the Hut!
Ultra Street Fighter IV: Luffy VS. Boncha
Being a fan of Street Fighter, this was a great match-up! Luffy and Boncha battling with characters Rose and Sagat had the crowd on the edge of their seats! The end result being Luffy for the win with Rose! This was also huge because of the fact Rose is the first female Street Fighter character to win EVO!
Ultimate Marvel VS. Capcom 3: Justin Wong VS. ChrisG
Justin Wong, who placed 2nd last year at EVO 2013 in Ultimate Marvel VS. Capcom 3 came back this year on a mission! He and ChrisG went toe to toe with each other and kept it very close. In the end though, Justin Wong could not be denied, snatching the victory from ChrisG with the team of Storm, Wolverine, and Akuma!
THE WINNERS OF EVO 2014
- Ultra Street Fighter 4: Luffy (playing Rose)
- Ultimate Marvel VS. Capcom 3: Justin Wong (Wolverine/Storm/Akuma)
- Injustice: Gods Among Us!: SonicFox (Batgirl)
- Killer Instict: CDjr (Sadira)
- Super Smash Bros. Melee: Mango0 (Fox)
- King of Fighters XIII: Xiaohai (Ex Lori/Mr. Karate/Kim)
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2: (Heihachi/Armor King/Kazuya)
*BONUS STAGE*
The matches weren’t the only cool thing that happened this past weekend. We were also given 3 major game announcements!
NetherRealm revealed a new character for the upcoming Mortal Kombat X, the thunder god himself: “RAIDEN”! He will be returning for his 10th installment of the bloody fighting series, and premiered with a new trailer featuring new move-sets and new fatalities.
Next up, the guys at Namco/Bandai made the announcement of the long awaited “TEKKEN 7”! A very mysterious trailer was shown and hints that this could possibly be the final game in this legendary fight series, at least for Heihachi and the rest of the Mishima clan!
And last but not least, Fans of the Super Smash Bros. franchise will be adding 3 new characters to their next game: Captain Falcon (from the F-Zero franchise) and Lucina and Robin (from the Fire Emblem series).
EVO 2014 was an exciting event for anyone who calls themselves a “true” fighting game fan. Even if you aren’t there to compete, there is plenty to do and fun to be had in between watching the incredible match-ups! Not to mention, it’s in Las Vegas of all places! This EVO may be past and done with, but I would start planning for next year! And who knows, if you practice enough, maybe you’ll be the one who takes home to title… and the $100,000 prize!
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