The largest fighting game tournament  in Las Vegas has finally come to an end. The dust has settled and the chaos dwindled down. Games ranging from Melty Blood: Actress Again, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Tekken 6, and Super Street Fighter 4 were present this year.  All of the matches featuring some high caliber players and household Evo contestants like Daigo “The Beast” Umehara, Mike Ross, Alex Valle and Justin Wong.

I can easily say that this was a spectacular showcase of talent, skill, hell even muscle memory! All of the streamed matches featured some intense action as well as some surprising upsets. One of them being last year’s Street Fighter 4 runner-up Justin Wong who was knocked out just before the semi-finals. It definitely was a shock to most spectators as they expected to see a rematch between him and Daigo. And to no surprise Daigo Umehara defends his title on Super Street Fighter 4 against Justin Wong’s “Rufus” protégé from Evil Geniuses, Ricky Ortiz. It literally seemed like he broke him down mentally with a very convincing 3-1 victory.

On the non Street Fighter side of things I would say some of the most exciting matches came out of the vs. series entrants. This was some hard hitting action that kept blood pressures boiling and nerves rattling. And the 5 plus years champion (Justin Wong) of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 proved that he is still the most dominant competitor. Wong remained the best as he took the last ever MvC 2 title held at an Evo event. Another solid showing of skill came from the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom tournament and I must say it was the most impressive display of players who really knew the game engine well. The final match between “Evil Geniuses” Marv versus KBeast was ungodly. KBeast basically was in the winner’s bracket up until the final match until Marn comes back with the clutch comeback from the loser’s bracket to tag another win for team E.G.

The more laid back events featured the Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, Melty Blood Actress again, and the Women’s Super Street Fighter 4 Invitational. I list them in that order because of the excitement level. SSF2T HD was amazing to watch if you’re an old school guy like me.

I say this because the old school came out of the woodwork showing that they haven’t lost their step even if Capcom rebalanced the game. It was great to see Alex Valle and Daigo Umehara compete like it was old times.

But the new school eventually took down the old school when Snake Eyes took the crown. The Melty Blood matches were basically “fighting game” players at heart and it was truly great sportsmanship to see them compete at a game nobody really knows. I mean come on a guy flew all the way from Mexico to compete and almost won it.

It was quite surprising and somewhat of a letdown to hear that they introduced a Women’s Invitational for SSF4 at Evo this year. I felt that the level of competition was mediocre only because I feel that there has to be better female players out there. I know that most women would not give this game the time of day but by golly I know that you are out there! I’d be lying if I said that the gal fighters couldn’t play.

Both AAA Kayane and Burnyourbra proved that women can compete. It just would have been nice if the rest of the field were at their level of play because their matches were pretty entertaining. Hopefully this is the wakeup call for you ladies out there to get on these games and beat these guys. I mean who wouldn’t want to see a bad ass female represent “Makoto” at SSF4?

Overall I was impressed with how Evo was run. The commentators did a good job of explaining the mechanics of the matches as if you were watching a boxing match. I definitely plan on going next year along with the 3GK crew and hope to see you there!