The 2014 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2014 or EVO 2014) was a fighting game event held in at Westgate Las Vegas on July 11–13. The event featured a major tournament for eight fighting games, including Ultra Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma. The event was part of the first Capcom Pro Tour.
Background
Evo 2014 was announced in September 2013 and was slated to feature primarily Xbox 360 versions of fighting games. As the first Capcom Pro Tour was announced in March 2014, Evo was scheduled to be one of its ten first "Premier Events". Capcom announced a month later that the company would provide a bonus $10,000 USD to the prize pool of Evo's Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament. Nintendo also sponsored the event, which was noted as a surprising shift in policy after the company tried to shut down the Super Smash Bros. portion of the event in 2013.
All of the tournaments held at Evo 2014 were livestreamed and available for free on the Twitch online video service. Evo 2014 broke the record for the largest Super Smash Bros. Melee competition up to that point, with 970 entrants. The Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament also broke its record, with nearly 2,000 players competing for the title. The event, held at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on July 11–13, had a total prize pool of US$100,000 and was described by IGN as "the 'World Cup' of competitive fighting games."
Games Eight major tournaments were held at Evo 2014. The games played were: Ultra Street Fighter IV Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Super Smash Bros. Melee BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Killer Instinct Injustice: Gods Among Us King of Fighters XIII Tekken Tag 2
2014 was the first year to feature Killer Instinct as a main title at the Evolution Championship Series. The 2013 Xbox One release of the game was well received by both critics and the fighting game community. Injustice: Gods Among Us failed to impress audiences at Evo 2013, and Ozzie Mejia of Shack News suggested that, if the game were to disappoint again, it was likely it wouldn't return in 2015.
Reveals Bandai Namco revealed the first trailer for Tekken 7 at Evo 2014. NetherRealm Studios announced that the character Raiden would return in Mortal Kombat X, which was to be released the following year. Meanwhile Microsoft announced that Maya would be the next character to be added to Killer Instinct. Nintendo showed a video of Reggie Fils-Aimé thanking the fighting game community for their dedication to the Super Smash Bros. series during the Melee finals.
Tournament summary
The Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament was won by Olivier "Luffy" Hay, playing on a PlayStation gamepad rather than a more traditional arcade controller. Luffy, playing as the character Rose won against Japanese player Bonchan in the finale. Daigo Umehara finished outside of the Top 8 at Evo 2014 for the first time in the tournament's history.
Playing as the character Litchi, Japanese player Garireo won the BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma tournament. Coming out of the loser's bracket, Garireo's final match against Dogura's Azrael was considered highly impressive by journalist. Mike Fahey of Kotaku described his 3-to-2 win as "the most intense battle Of EVO 2014" up to that point, and Earnest Cavalli of Engadget called it the "most thrilling competitive drama" of the weekend. Garireo won over US$23,000 at the tournament.
The Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom tournament was won by Justin Wong after making a high-tension comeback against Filipino Champ in the winners finals, and would go on to defeat Chris G in the grand finals. Meanwhile, the Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament was won by Mango, who defeated Hungrybox in the finale and won US$5,820.
Results Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Olivier Hay MD|Luffy Rose 2nd Masato Takahashi Bonchan Sagat 3rd Keita Ai RZR|Fuudo Fei Long 4th Darryl Lewis RG|Snake Eyez Zangief 5th Ricki Ortiz EG|Ricky Ortiz Rufus, Rolento 5th Ghim Kee Eng RZR|Gackt Fei Long 7th Naoto Sako HORI|Sako Ibuki, Elena, Evil Ryu, Gen 7th Yusuke Momochi EG|Momochi Ken, Juri
Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Justin Wong EG|JWong Wolverine/Storm/Akuma 2nd Christopher Gonzalez GG|NYChrisG Morrigan/Doctor Doom/Vergil, Morrigan/Magneto/Doctor Doom 3rd Ryan Ramirez RG|Filipino Champ Magneto/Dormammu/Doctor Doom, Magneto/Doctor Doom/Phoenix, Morrigan/Magneto/Doctor Doom 4th Raynel Hidalgo CTRL|RayRay Magneto/Doctor Doom/Sentinel 5th Jan-Michael del Rio Jan Hulk/Shuma-Gorath/Haggar 5th Job Figueroa RG|Flocker Zero/Vergil/Hawkeye, Zero/Dante/Vergil 7th Steven Delgado HoC.BIFU|Insaynne Nova/Spencer/Doctor Doom 7th Martin Phan MRN|Marn Zero/Vergil/Strider
Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Joseph Marquez C9|Mang0 Fox, Falco 2nd Juan Debiedma CRS|Hungrybox Jigglypuff, Fox, Falco 3rd Adam Lindgren P4K.EMP|Armada Peach, Young Link 4th Kevin Nanney EG|PPMD Falco, Marth 5th Jeffrey Williamson MOR|Axe Pikachu 5th Jason Zimmerman P4K.EMP|Mew2King Marth, Sheik 7th Otto Bisno GC|Silent Wolf Fox 7th Jeremy Westfahl Fly Amanita Ice Climbers
Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Emmanuel Brito KN.RM|CDjr Sadira, Jago 2nd Jonathan Deleon RG|Rico Suave Thunder, Fulgore, Glacius, Jago, Sabrewulf 3rd Justin Wong EG|JWong Sabrewulf 4th Neilimen Alicea Gutter Magic Thunder 5th Lenin Castillo IC.ENTH|MyGod88 Sabrewulf 5th Grant Gibson Tswagg Sadira 7th Brian Rincon Mr. Grimmmz Jago 7th Erik Johnson Pretty E Orchid
Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Keiji Okamoto Galileo Litchi 2nd Ryo Nozaki Dogura Azrael 3rd Ryuji Utsumi BE.TSB|Dora_Bang Bang 4th Yoshiki Kouno Yoshiki Nu-13 5th Shunichi Kubota N-O Rachel 5th Kizuki Kudo Tiku Tager 7th Derek Bruscas sG Litchi 7th Satoshi Kawai Tochigin Azrael
Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Zhuojun Zeng Qanba|Xiao Hai EX Iori/Mr. Karate/Kim 2nd Hajime Taniguchi MCZ|Tokido EX Iori/Mr. Karate/Chin 3rd Jiahong Lin LDA|ET Clark/Mr. Karate/EX Iori, EX Iori/Mr. Karate/Kim 4th Kwang-noh Lee Cafe id|Mad KOF Duo Lon/Daimon/Kim, Duo Lon/Chin/Kim 5th Josimar Jimenez TC|Yoshi EX Kyo/Benimaru/Shen, EX Kyo/Billy/Shen 5th Heesan Woo Woo King/Takuma/Kim 7th Nick Woods TC|Chris KOF Duo Lon/Iori/Shen 7th Felipe Torres VGM|Misterio Yuri/Saiki/King
Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Dominique McLean RG|SonicFox Batgirl 2nd Brant McCaskill AK|Pig of the Hut Zod 3rd Malik Terry IC|MIT 88 Deathstroke, Aquaman 4th Kyle Panlilio GGA|pimpimjim Hawkgirl, Raven, Shazam 5th Denzell Terry IC|DJT 88 Aquaman, Doomsday, Green Lantern, The Flash 5th Ozzie Delisle EMPR|Noobe Doomsday 7th Jivan Karapetian FRQ.EMPR|Theo Aquaman 7th Stephanie Brownback GGA|16 Bit Catwoman
Place Player Alias Character(s) 1st Hyun-jin Kim Twitch|JDCR Heihachi/Armor King 2nd Genki Kumisaka Twitch.MCP|Gen Bob/Leo 3rd Akihiro Abe BE|Ao Alisa/Miguel 4th Jimmy Tran JimmyJTran Bryan/Dragunov 5th Hoa Luu Anakin JACK-6/P-JACK 5th Eduardo Rada Inkognito Bryan/Bob 7th James Garrett JustFrameJames Marshall Law/Yoshimitsu 7th Muhanned Alseihati BMNS-13 Hwoarang/Baek
References