Despite Super Smash Bros.Ultimate having a new update and character out before Evo 2019 begins, the latest version of the game won’t be used at the biggest Smash tournament in history.
Every year, Evo has a date that soft locks content updates for every game appearing at the tournament. That date works as the cutoff for developers to get any last-minute patches or content drops out for their games.
This year, Evo’s cutoff date was July 17 for any non-hard patch fixes that are approved by Evo’s staff ahead of time. This exception is only to fix any potential game-breaking issues that could heavily impact a game’s performance at the event.
For Smash Ultimate, there were plenty of rumors about the newest character, The Hero from Dragon Quest, and Update 4.0 shadow dropping on July 17. There was even an error made by Nintendo when they published a video about Summer releases, showing that Hero was coming out soon.
Related: Game Updates are now locked for Evo 2019
That didn’t end up happening, though. Both the batch and Hero were released on July 30, thus making them ineligible for use at Evo.
This isn’t exactly bad news since players wouldn’t have had time to practice much with the new character and, bar someone going on a crazy run, it wouldn’t have been the best showing for the new DLC fighter. Now, once players lose at Evo they can head to a setup and practice Hero against other competitors at the event to prepare for the next tournament.
The first Super Major tournament for Smash Ultimate that will allow the new update and Hero to be used in is Super Smash Con 2019 from Aug. 8 to 11 in Chantilly, Virginia. Smash Con is already set to be the third biggest Smash event of all time, only surpassed by this year’s Evo and Smash Wii U at Evo 2016.
Evo 2019 begins Aug. 2 and Smash Ultimate will close out the tournament as the finals take place at Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas on Aug. 4 at 7pm PT.
