Sony turned some heads in the fighting game community earlier this year when it announced that it had purchased the EVO Championship Series tournament. This annual event has been a staple for the fighting game community and has produced many iconic moments like Daigo Umehara performing a perfect parry against Justin Wong during a Street Fighter 3: Third Strike match, helping him come back from the brink of defeat.
With such a passionate fanbase, many players actively worried about the future of EVO after Sony acquired it from its previous owner, Triple Perfect, Inc. Sony's reasoning for this purchase came from the company's admission that fighting games are popular on PlayStation consoles, clocking in 1.1 billion gameplay hours on its consoles alone. While nothing has yet changed for the annual event, Sony has finally announced a new tournament series kicking off next week.
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The Evo Community Series is a new opportunity for all fighting game fans to get involved, through open-format competitions running throughout the summer months. Starting next week on June 10, this event will feature more than 120 tournaments across the globe, over 100 hours of broadcasts, as well as $74,000 in prize money. Interested PlayStation 4 players can register from the PlayStation Competition Center or from the Events tab on the PS4 console.
As of right now, Sony has announced three tournaments that PS4 players can enter. The first, known as PlayStation Tournaments FGC Arcade: Evo Edition, kicks off on June 10 through the 22 and features Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and Tekken 7. There's $20,000 available in prizes and features open qualifies followed by swiss rounds to determine the winner.
The second tournament known PlayStation Tournaments Evo 2021 Online Warm-up kicks off a few days later on June 26, running through July 13. Featuring $19,000 in prices as well as digital rewards from avatars and themes, the competition expands to include Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition, Tekken 7.
The final summer tournament arrives on July 8 and run through August 3. PlayStation Tournaments Evo 2021 Online Side Tournaments features a big $35,000 prize pool and includes the biggest selection of fighting games including BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. Maxi Boost ON, Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Soulcalibur 6, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late. Needless to say, there's likely something for everyone here whether participating or simply watching online.
It's worth noting that this tournament isn't intended to be EVO 2021 or as a way to replace the massively popular event. The annual fighting game EVO 2021 kicks off in August as expected, so this announcement simply pertains to a series of community focused tournaments. In fact, Sony also announced that registration for EVO 2021 Online is now open, with registration not only being free but available for any players from North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
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Source: PlayStation Blog