Gaming’s biggest controversies of 2020
Evo 2020 Drama and Buildup to Overall Cancellation
Speaking of fighting games, Evo 2020 had a bit of a rough start even before the pandemic put the world to a halt. Initially, the roster had Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tekken 7, Street Fighter V Championship Edition, Soul Calibur VI, Granblue Fantasy Versus, Samurai Shodown, and for some reason, Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and Under Night In-Birth.
The latter two seemed to be oddball choices, especially when Mortal Kombat 11 just had a major new expansion at the time and wasn’t in, Melee was once again absent, and Blazblue: Cross Tag battle didn’t make the cut. The Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 tournament wasn’t even open to just anyone; it was to be an 8-player invitational.
Well, none of that ended up happening because COVID was ramping up to be much worse than expected, so the event went online. It was split up to be a series of five weekend events, with special exhibitions and content for the original line up. What ended up happening for people of the general public was that they can only sign up for Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath (at the time of the event), Killer Instinct, Them’s Fightin’ Herds, and Skullgirls 2nd Encore. Basically, these games had strong enough netcode to handle some expected lag from players’ home setups.