EVO, the Evolutionary Championship Series fighting game tournament, has revealed its official 2023 lineup during a recent live stream. Among the games listed was the surprise inclusion of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the entry in Capcom’s crossover fighting franchise from way back in 2011.
The game will be featured as a “Throwback Tournament” among more recent releases, at the tournament taking place August 4-6, 2023. Registration for the event is currently open through the EVO website. The tournament will be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, with all tournaments featuring a $25,000 prize pool.
All of the games revealed in total as part of the EVO lineup include:
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is the oldest title on that list, though Tekken 7, originally released in 2015, is only a few years off from it. Tekken has been a tournament mainstay for years, and with the eighth game in that series still not set for release until some time in 2024, Tekken 7 maintains its spot in the lineup for the seventh time in a row. The other entries are all comparatively recent releases.
This is especially true of Street Fighter 6, which won’t even be officially released until June 2, 2023. That will theoretically only give players about a month to practice the game, though Street Fighter 6 has already had multiple online betas in which players could participate in, with established tournament players also having regular access to the game during development.
As the last game announced on the stream, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was the biggest surprise from EVO this year. The Marvel vs. Capcom franchise continues to be extremely popular with fighting game fans. Classic favorite Marvel vs. Capcom 2 had been set to be featured as a special exhibition tournament for that game’s 20th anniversary at EVO 2020. However, the eventual tumultuousness of that year led to that tournament being canceled.
The Marvel vs. Capcom franchise does also have a more recent entry, in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite from 2017. However, that game was not as popular with fans of the series as prior installments, which arguably accounts for its predecessor in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 making the main stage at EVO instead. Featuring a favored entry in a perennially popular series like this makes for exciting news for fans.
As well there’s the possibility that the huge, officially-sanctioned stage of EVO might yield some sort of surprising announcements relating to the dormant Marvel vs. Capcom franchise. Fans will find out, at the same time they get to watch the world’s best fighting game players go head-to-head in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the other main lineup games, at EVO 2023 in August.