If there's any one universal test of fighting game skill, it's the annual EVO tournament. Every year, players from around the world travel to Las Vegas for a chance to prove that they're the best in the world.
Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear — these fighting game fanatics put their reputation on the line to prove that they're the absolute best player in their respective franchise.
Capcom's 2D brawlers tend to steal the show, what with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Street Fighter dominating the tournament — but this year, there may be a new challenger on the way.
Super Smash Bros. has had a strange, often confusing relationship with the pro-fighting game scene. Super Smash Bros. Melee, widely considered to be the best in the series, has been used in tournaments like EVO since the early 2000s — Super Smash Bros. Brawl, on the other hand, never had its time in the spotlight due to a number of tournament-breaking gameplay decisions.
The latest game in the series, dubbed Smash 4 by fans, doesn't seem to be having the same sort of trouble as its predecessor: not only is the game one of the most popular titles in EVO, but a record number of players have already registered for the 2016 tournament.
Here comes a new challenger! Please welcome Super Smash Bros. for WiiU to the 2k club! Congrats! #Evo2016
— EVO (@EVO) June 6, 2016
Over 2,000 fans have already signed up for the EVO 2016 Smash 4 tournament. For context, that's a huge jump from last year's tournament, which only saw around 1,100 players sign up for Smash 4.
The folks behind EVO have yet to reveal the registration stats for Super Smash Bros. Melee, but it's easy to assume that more players will be signed up for the classic game when everything's said and done. Despite the warm reception of Nintendo's latest Smash Bros., the GameCube game is still considered perfect by many pro players — and if Smash 4 is already breaking registration records, there's a good chance that Melee will do the same.
As for the other major titles at EVO 2016, Capcom's Street Fighter V still holds the records for overall registration: more than 4,000 players had signed up for this year's tournament back in mid-April. That's nearly twice as many people compared with EVO 2015's Ultra Street Fighter IV competition — though the jump in numbers does make sense, as 2016 will mark the first year that Capcom's newest 2D fighter will appear at EVO.
All in all, 2016 is looking like it'll be a huge year for fighting games: EVO 2016 is set to kick off on July 15.
