The coronavirus situation has claimed another gaming event, this time one that’s a bit further out. Since Evo, the world’s biggest fighting game tournament, takes place later in summer there were no plans to cancel the event. But as the pandemic situation has only grown worse in the United States, event cancellations have had to go further and further out. Today, the folks organizing Evo 2020 have had to make that tough call, although it seems like plans are in place to do something else for the fighting game community.
A message from the Evo team… pic.twitter.com/ANXUXDiNGK
— EVO (@EVO) May 1, 2020
As noted in the official statement, Evo leadership will be issuing refunds to all those who have purchased tickets. Travel reservations aren’t mentioned, but as was the case with GDC earlier in the year, those arrangements are typically dealt with separately.
Also notable is that Evo leadership is apparently hosting an alternative event, to “keep the Evo spirit alive.” Details for an online summer event will be coming soon. This is interesting, as netplay is generally frowned upon for fighting game competitions at this level, especially with so much money involved. The language in the statement could imply that this is more of an event than a competition on par with the usual event, but that’s just my personal reading and not substantiated at all.
Evo is also usually a time of fighting game announcements, usually featuring things like new Street Fighter and Tekken reveals, and lately Dragon Ball FighterZ. With companies scrambling to figure out what to do in the wake of E3’s cancellation, it’ll be interesting to see how Evo 2020 cancelled affects the likes of Bandai Namco and Capcom.
