At this year’s Evo (Evolution Championship Series), the annual fighting game tournament in Las Vegas, organizers announced Evo Japan. The announcement was made by Evo organizer Mark “MarkMan” Julio alongside Yoshinori Ono and Katsuhiro Harada, producers on Street Fighter and Tekken, respectively, during Evo this past weekend.
Street Fighter and Tekken are some of the biggest games at Evo every year and both are from Japanese studios, Capcom and Namco, respectively. Many other major games at Evo are also from Japan, such as Guilty Gear, and Super Smash Bros. It’s no wonder Evo is expanding with a Japanese tournament.
This is not the first time Evo has tried to host a tournament in Japan. In 2010, Evo organizers announced Evo vs. Godsgarden. Godsgarden is the largest fighting game tournament in Japan, and this collaboration was set for May 2011. However, it was delayed indefinitely due to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
Expanding with new tournaments seems like the obvious choice for Evo organizers, as this year’s tournament was the biggest fighting game tournament of all time. More details on Evo Japan will be shared at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Sept. 15-18.