Evo 2015 to feature both Super Smash Bros Melee and Wii U

Every year, thousands of people head to Las Vegas, Nevada in order to compete in Evolution, or Evo for short, the biggest fighting game tournament of the year. The line-up of games played in the main tournaments on the livestream changes from year to year, and yesterday the line-up for Evo 2015 was announced. Among the nine games to be featured at the tournament are Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

This is exciting and surprising news because it’s unusual for two games from the same series to both be featured, but it shows that Smash is gaining respect within the fighting game community. This is the first time since 2009 that the most recent Smash Bros. game has been featured at Evo. 2009 was the last year Brawl was in the line-up, only a year after its release, and Smash wasn’t brought back to Evo until 2013, when Melee earned its spot at the event when its fans donated the most money in a charity drive. Nintendo originally issued a cease and desist order for the tournament to not take place but backed down, allowing it to go on and shatter Evo viewership records. If that wasn’t enough, last year’s Melee tournament went on to break that very same record, with over 130k concurrent viewers.

Having both games at Evo is a great outcome as neither fanbase has to see their game be left out, and because it shows that the competitive scene are willing to give the latest game a chance even though Melee remains the competitive game of choice. In fact, the number of entrants for Melee (1037) at the upcoming Apex tournament this year, being sponsored by Nintendo, outnumbers the number of entrants for Smash U (831). Hopefully the positive reception and acceptance of both games will lead to Nintendo developing future Smash games with a more competitive focus.

The other games confirmed for the Evo 2015 line-up are Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat X, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and Tekken 7. The tournament will take place July 17-19, 2015, at Bally’s/Paris Las Vegas Casino.