The Evolution Championship Series (EVO) have announced their line up of games for EVO 2020, including the return of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.
EVO President and tournament organizer Joey Cuellar (a.ka. Mr. Wizard) outlined the games coming to the tournament in a livestream on Twitch.
He then announced (at 00:36) that a special Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 tournament would be at EVO 2020, celebrating the game’s 20th Anniversary. This would be the first time the game has returned to the tournament since 2010.
The “20urnament of Champions” will feature eight players, four of whom are former Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 EVO Champions. These include Justin Wong (JWong), Michael Mendoza (IFC Yipes), Duc Do (Ducvader), and Sanford Kelly (Santhrax).
The remaining four are to be “figured out” at a later date. Suggestions included via a tournament at another event, or letting “the internet fight over it.” The prize pot currently stands at $10,000 USD, but could increase.
As of this time of writing, social media have been alight with celebrations from fans of the game [1, 2], though with some lamentation that certain games shown at EVO 2019 would not be returning. These included BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Mortal Kombat 11, and even titles from older tournaments such as Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Reasons for hype surrounding the return of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 include the poor reception of Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite, the game being part of many classic EVO tournaments, and the memes surrounding “Mahvel Baybee!“- shouted out by Michael Mendoza at a fighting game tournament, along with other strange and humorous phrases.
The full list of fighting game tournaments include:
- Street Fighter V: Champion Edition
- Tekken 7
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Granblue Fantasy Versus
- Marvel Vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
- Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]
- Dragon Ball FighterZ
- Soulcalibur VI
- Samurai Shodown
You can find the full run-down on the tournament here.
EVO 2020 will run from July 31st to August 2nd, at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada.
