After a few years hiatus, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by accusations of sexual abuse aimed at CEO Joey Cuellar, Evolution Fighting Championships (or Evo) has returned under new ownership to showcase the very best in competitive fighting game action. It had been headed towards being a more corporate affair for a few years, so when I heard that Sony had taken the helm I was concerned that it would be even more of a dry, more 'esports-y' event but the people who Sony have gotten onboard to run the thing have ensured that it still carries the vibe of the fighting game community and, other than some pretty egregious advertising segments, felt like a genuine celebration of fighting games. I think it is fair to say that there will be people who lament the 'good old days' of smaller scale, independent tournaments that felt like they could spill out of hand at any moment but Evo, even with the significant corporate investment, still feels like it does have the fighting game community's (FGC) interests at heart.

Anyway, I understand that not all of you are as invested as I am into all things fighting games, so here's five takeaways from Evo 2022 that feed into the bigger videogaming picture. The five talking points you can easily digest and trick anyone into thinking you know what you're on about.

Street Fighting, Man!

The end of Street Fighter V?

With the next instalment in the Street Fighter series coming in 2023, it is very likely that this is Street Fighter V's last hurrah as a 'main' game at Evo. Current chat is that Street Fighter VI is likely to release as early as February '23, allowing the community a good six month stretch of practice and Capcom plenty of time to nip any on release bugs or major balance issues in the bud, so it is pretty nailed on that it is going to be the headlining game at next year's event.

When you look at old fighting games played at the highest level, you tend to find that they've been boiled down to a handful (and sometimes, literally just one!) of characters who are deemed to be the most effective. The 'top tier'. Hardcore, competitive play just wasn't even considered for the longest time and when a game is taken apart by a community constantly seeking the 'best' course of action, these games get - for lack of a better way of explaining it - figured out.

This hasn't happened with the last two Street Fighter games. Sure, there has been some troublesome characters but for the most part, at their last Evo and especially this past weekend, it is clear that there's substantially more life in the games as a headlining title, but that is now going to be played out as a side tournament game, rather than taking centre stage. It had some serious lows during its lifespan but Street Fighter V is a damn fine fighting game now and this Evo tournament showed it in the best state it has been in and played at the highest possible level. Grand Finals went right to the wire, to the very last possible round in the last match. A fine way to bow out and make way for Street Fighter VI next year. Get this watched, immediately.

Rollback uber alles.

If there was one recurring theme to the announcements made at Evo 2022, it was the inclusion of rollback netcode in forthcoming releases or older games having it patched into them. For those of you who aren't fully clued up on why this is so important, fighting games - obviously - require netcode that allows the game to feel just as responsive as it does offline. Now, there's always going to be some inherent latency when you play any game online but the other way of providing fighting game netcode (delay based) makes most games feel sluggish and ostensibly makes online play worthless. Certain difficult inputs are almost impossible and certain strategies work online when they simply won't offline because players can react to them.

Rollback mitigates this and allows for players from much greater distances to have very good online experiences. I'm not going to get into the minutiae of how it works because frankly I don't really understand but all you need to know is it is better, okay. Many a good fighting game has been left to rot because the player base simply can't get good quality matches with one another and for the longest time, developers persevered with delay based matchmaking. Mainly the Japanese devs, who seemingly needed convincing that rollback was worth their efforts. Well, I think they're convinced.

Samurai Shodown, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax have all been confirmed to be receiving it in updates (and in the case of Persona, it was released immediately). Add this to the list of new games that not only have rollback netcode out the box but actively advertise it as a key feature shows that developers are no longer considering this to be anything more than an essential part of any fighting game and to see everything from the latest greatest to classic retro fighters having it patched in bodes extremely well for the future of the genre.

Nintendo missing a sitter.

Now that Evo is owned by Sony, Nintendo have finally ended their somewhat fragile relationship with the tournament and no Smash Bros game was present, when in previous years they've been the biggest, most entered games. It's no secret that Nintendo don't really like their games being played at these big non-official events and, to be fair, it is also no secret that there's a bit of friction between the traditional fighting game and Smash Bros communities, so perhaps this parting of ways was inevitable?

Warner Bros' MultiVersus has stepped in to fill the gap and although it has some way to go to hitting Smash Bros numbers, the $100000 prize pool for a side tournament and the ludicrous, record breaking player numbers online show that there's certainly an appetite for the platform brawler. Nintendo leaving hasn't spelled the end for this sub genre at Evo - they've simply left the door open for someone else.

Keep an eye on this one next year. It doesn't appear to show any signs of being a flash in the pan.

The future is FIGHT.

As well as the announcements of rollback netcode patches, there were quite a few other exciting things showcased at Evo. Street Fighter VI showed off a couple of new characters, Tekken 8 maybe sort-of got announced and SNK casually confirmed there is a new Mark of the Wolves game in pre-production. Incredible stuff.

Fighting games are in rude health right now but even heading into the next twelve months there's an awful lot to be excited about, from the aforementioned new and upcoming games to existing games getting, updates that offer cross play, new balance patches or even new seasons of content, there's never been a better time to get into fighting games. Everything is just so GOOD at the minute.

Get ready for the next battle.

Which brings us nicely on to this - after Evo there's always a burst of activity in fighting games because it is quite easy to get caught up in all the excitement and most publishers offer sale prices on the games around the tournament but there's always a fairly considerable drop off in a month or so. With new titles (and let's be fair here, a new Street Fighter title) on the horizon there may be a few of you considering picking it up and trying to 'get into it'. Let me tell you something - start TODAY.

A clean slate is obviously appealing but the reality is, all the good players are still going to be good and all the shite players are still going to be shite and the only real thing that separates the two is time put in. Graft. Practice. Grinding out games and practice mode to sharpen skills and slowly improve at the game of their choice. So pick up Street Fighter V or Tekken 7. Hell, pick up Mark of the Wolves or KOF '98. The amount of resources out there to help new, intermediate or skilled players improve their game is higher than ever and with Twitter, YouTube, Wikis and Discord these resources have never been so accessible either. You can even jump onto something like Fightcade and play all these retro fighters with full rollback netcode, if that's what takes your fancy.

Playing fighting games is like learning a skill, like the guitar. It isn't something that is going to yield instant results but the feeling of improvement is so, so satisfying and you're not just 'getting good at a videogame' but opening up the door to the world of the FGC - full of huge tournaments, small local sessions and hundreds and hundreds of brilliant games that do share a core of fundamentals that, once understood, will allow you to see what you need to do to get good at them or be able to appreciate high quality play. Evo 2022's top 8s were all, without exception, incredibly exciting and being able to appreciate them is a lovely cherry on top of the fighting game cake. You're going to lose and you're going to get pissed off but don't worry about that - there's always going to be someone better than you. There's almost certainly always going to be someone worse than you too. So jump in.

And, if anyone reading this does decide to pick up a game and try to learn it, just hit me up on Twitter for tips. I'll happily help.

THANKS FOR READING.

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