If you love fighting games on a competitive level, chances are you’ve already registered for the Evolution Championship Series 2019 tournament (or EVO 2019 for short), which will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on 2nd-4th August (PST). And since you can’t register for the tournament anymore, you may as well watch it on-stream here.

This year’s tournament is sounding more like a big deal. Here’s why:

• 7 out of the 9 games in the official lineup have more than a 1,000 entrants. They are Mortal Kombat 11, Samurai Shodown, Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Under Night IN-Birth Exe: Late[st].
• Out of all the games above, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has the highest number of entrants, clocking in at 3,000+ people duking it out to be the best Smash player in the world.
• (Update) Here’s the full tally of entrant numbers:
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 3,492
  • Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition – 1,929
  • Tekken 7 – 1,885
  • Samurai Shodown – 1,719
  • Mortal Kombat 11 – 1,567
  • Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] – 1,156
  • Dragon Ball FighterZ – 1,191
  • Soul Calibur 6 – 742
  • BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle – 640
• EVO founding father Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar said that the event is getting such an overwhelming response that the organization is contemplating on overhauling its payout structure. He posted a public poll on Twitter to ask if the event should split the pot up more to benefit more players.

https://twitter.com/MrWiz/status/1150088794059599872

• This will also mark the weekend where Capcom will break the silence concerning Street Fighter V‘s next big update and seasons. My guess? Super Street Fighter V and a ton of old and new characters. Still, it’s up in the air as to what current Street Fighter guy Yoshinori Ono has planned before EVO 2019’s Street Fighter V Grand Finals fight.
• Speaking of fighting game announcements, publishers may announce new content for their existing fighting games.

The Players

Here’s a quick list of pro players who will be attending the tournament. It’s going to be a big one, as Terry Bogard would say before his Engrish mangles it.

• Tokido (SFV)
• Punk (SFV)
• Fuudo (SFV)
• Problem-X, last year’s EVO SFV champion
• Arslan Ash, EVO Japan 2019 Tekken 7 champion

• Knee (Tekken 7)
• GO1 (Dragon Ball FighterZ)
• Shen Chan, top player in Southeast Asia (SoulCalibur VI)
• Xian, top player in Southeast Asia (SFV)

• MKLeo (SSBU)
• Tweek (SSBU)
• Marss (SSBU)
• Dabuz (SSBU)

• Justin Wong (Samurai Shodown, SFV)
• ChrisG
• SonicFox (DBFZ, MK11)
• Aroo (Samurai Shodown)
• Cory Bell (Samurai Shodown)
• Resurgence Nicholas “SEO” Choo (Dragon Ball FighterZ, UNIST)
• Resurgence Shen Yuan (SoulCalibur VI)

https://www.facebook.com/RSGResurgence/photos/a.1724200547885736/2087158644923256/?type=3

Stay tuned to Kakuchopurei as we will cover the ins and outs of this upcoming fight fiesta.

Top image credit: Robert Paul @tempusrob