Evo 2020 might be canceled, but the Evo team is already working on an online replacement.
Tom “PhantomCannon” Cannon, one of the organizers for Evo, has already promised the team is not looking to just run Evo online. Instead, he said they’re working to turn it into an event more structured for online play. This new event will still keep the “Evo spirit” alive but is going to be treated as its own individual entity by all parties involved.
“I hear ya,” Cannon said in response to questions around the online tournament. “The intent is not at all to port a traditional Evo to online and pretend it’s the same. It’s going to be a different kind of event. Eager to share more…we just need to button up some loose ends.”
Since the online version won’t be a port of Evo 2020 into the online space, this opens the door for the team of tournament organizers to play around and make it bigger than the traditional event was going to be.
Big titles like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Street Fighter V, and Tekken 7 will still be the headliners, but it is expected that every game that would have had a presence at Evo 2020 will receive its own tournament. And that might also extend to popular side tournaments such as Guilty Gear Xrd or the potential return of Smash Melee in some form.
And because of its online nature, games like Mortal Kombat 11 and Killer Instinct that have significant followings and good net code are likely to be added to the roster, too. This is only further backed by the recent resurgence in interest for KI during the coronavirus pandemic, largely thanks to its great online play.
More details will be revealed in the coming months as the Evo team finalize the game lineup, sponsors, broadcast plans, and other details for whatever this online tournament ends up being.
