Evo 2025 is about to be upon us once more and while it may not hit the record-breaking heights of last year’s events, it’s hard to not be impressed at the massive 14,000 total signups across the games represented at this year’s event.
With 16 lineups spanning across the Main Lineup and Extended Lineup, there’s going to be more action at this event than one can even begin to imagine (and lots of side tournaments on top of that too), so let’s do an overview of what exactly is happening for each game this weekend.
This story will be focusing specifically on the event and its competitions, but if you’re interested in what announcements might be incoming we have a rundown of that over here.
Entrants: 4,228
Top 8 Seeds: DRX|Leshar, Zeta|Kakeru, FLY|Punk, WBG|MenaRD, Reject|Fuudo, Falcons|NL, Mouz|EndingWalker, 2G|Blaz
Finals Timeslot: 8:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 3rd at Evo
Street Fighter 6 hits its third year on the Evo main stage with a bang and unsurprisingly leads the charge in entrants this year as well.
Although FLY|Punk won Evo last year and Zeta|Kakeru took home the gold at Capcom Cup 11 earlier this year, DRX|Leshar might be the favorite going into the event after back-to-back premier victories at Combo Breaker 2025 and CEO 2025.
Of course, with more than 4,000 players signed up the talent level is immeasurable so predicting who the top 8 will consist of is a herculean task indeed — but whoever does grab the gold here will not only be crowned the Evo 2025 champion but also gain qualification to Capcom Cup 12 and an Esports World Cup spot, the latter of which the runner-up will also receive.
As usual, Street Fighter 6 will be the grand finale at Evo 2025 to close out the whole event.
Entrants: 2,521
Top 8 Seeds: DRX|Knee, DNF|Ulsan, Falcons|Atif, DNF|Mulgold, TM|Arslan Ash, Varrel|Rangchu, Yamasa|Nobi, DRX|LowHigh
Finals Timeslot: 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 3rd at Evo
Tekken 8 comes to Evo 2025 in its second year and while it’s had a rocky start to its second season, developers acknowledged the issues and have been gradually improving the game for its players.
On the competitive side, Season 1 was largely dominated by TM|Arslan Ash who is last year’s Evo champ and also took first place on the leaderboard for last year’s Tekken World Tour rankings, though he ended up faltering at the finals themselves with Varrel|Rangchu becoming the Tekken World Tour champion.
Last year’s leaderboard also saw DNF|Ulsan and DNF|Mulgold with remarkable consistency, with the former also becoming the Esports World Cup champion last year in a dominant showing over Falcons|Atif who has also been an extremely strong competitor since Tekken 8’s release.
The first really big tournament for the game’s second season, Evo Japan back in May, was won by DRX|Knee who has seen a major resurgence recently for Tekken 8 and throughout some social media spats, a match between him and TM|Arslan Ash is basically what everybody is hoping to see.
Of course, there’s a lot on the line for qualification at Evo 2025 as well. It’s a Master+ event on the Tekken World Tour itself and also holds four qualification spots for the Esports World Cup so players have all the incentive to try to push through the grueling bracket to reach those top placements.
With the talent pool deeper than ever and more than 2,500 participants, Tekken 8 is going to be an electrifying showing for sure but the most hyped up finals match would definitely be one between DRX|Knee and TM|Arslan Ash.
Entrants: 1,576
Top 8 Seeds: KSG|Xiaohai, DFM|Go1, CAG|Fenrich, Saishunkan|Nemo, Falcons|Kindevu, T1|ZJZ, ONIC|NYChrisG, AG|Reynald
Finals Timeslot: 1:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 3rd at Evo
Debuting earlier this year, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is making its first appearance at Evo and is actually also the first main stage appearance for Fatal Fury as a franchise.
The game exploded out of the gate with a fierce competition for players across the world trying to grab one of the 16 spots for the Esports World Cup which played out earlier this month.
While many had KSG|Xiaohai pegged as their winner pick, it ended up beng DFM|Go1 who took the crown in the end so it’ll be interesting to see if we can get a rematch between the two here at Evo 2025.
Of course, they aren’t the only top contenders — there are lots of top players from all over the fighting game community who have converged here in SNK’s latest flagship fighter, as you can see from just the top 8 seeds listing, so trying to take the win in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will be an arduous task indeed.
Evo 2025 will be a brutal battleground since there’s a qualification spot for the SNK World Championship at stake — and these finals were announced a few months ago to have an astounding $2,500,000 prize pool so you bet that there are a lot of hungry wolves out for a chance at that life-changing sum.
Although the game has had a relatively stagnant meta since its release (in my opinion because of how much money there is to be won more so than the game’s balance itself) the gameplay has been top-notch and Evo 2025 is sure to be another amazing showing of top level entertainment matches.
Entrants: 1,508
Top 8 Seeds: PAR|Daru, RedDitto, Tatuma, FLY|Nitro, PAR|Jack, Kshuewhatdamoo, TSM|Leffen, Verix
Finals Timeslot: 10:00 A.M. on Sunday, August 3rd at Evo
Guilty Gear Strive is still staying strong with more than 1,500 participants here at Evo 2025 even four whole years after its initial release and will be a Sunday main stage game once more as a result.
FLY|Nitro was the champion at Evo 2024 and will be looking to defend his championship title here against some very stiff competition, including reigning Arc World Tour 2024 champion RedDitto, Evo Japan 2025 champion PAR|Daru and Evo 2023 champion TSM|Leffen.
After several years of competition, the playing field is very wide for Guilty Gear Strive and its been diversified further as more and more characters have been added to the game, leading to a fairly high variety in representation at most tournaments.
Since we have yet to see a repeat champion for Guilty Gear Strive at Evo, even counting both the standard Evo and Evo Japan, this might be the year where we get to someone get their second notch on their belt… though with so many players signed up, there are many hopefuls who are going to be standing in the way of that happening as well.
It’s also a Platinum+ event on the Arc World Tour so for players vying at one of those Finals spots it’s more important then ever to perform here.
Entrants: 936
Top 8 Seeds: IBSG|Tororo, GS|Fukunaga, GS|Gamera, PAR|Kojicoco, GU|Monarch, PAR|Zane, Avenger|Ryazo, PAR|Aarondamac
Finals Timeslot: 8:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo
Last year, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising saw an American player overcome the Japanese invasion as PAR|Aarondamac was the last player standing at Evo 2024.
Since then, however, Japan has retained its power position with IBSG|Tororo taking home the Arc World Tour Finals earlier this year and Kasausagi (who unfortunately is not attending Evo 2025) winning Evo Japan 2025.
While PAR|Zane and PAR|Kojicoco have shown how strong the US is as a region ever since Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising came out, we’ve now seen GU|Monarch and Avenger|Ryazo rise in the ranks as well with both of them making top 4 at the Arc World Tour Finals earlier this year.
This will definitely be a clash of regions as they go up against the aforementioned Arc World Tour Finals champion, but also the prior Arc World Tour Finals champion from 2023 GS|Fukunaga and the champion of the original Granblue Fantasy Versus title at Evo 2022, GS|Gamera.
Japan and the USA are definitely the main regions vying for the title here, but we could also see other regions rise up to take them down so it’ll be an exciting show to be sure.
Much like Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising is also a Platinum+ event on the Arc World Tour at Evo 2025 so players will need to bring their absolute A game to get the lion’s share of those points and secure their spot.
Entrants: 570
Top 8 Seeds: CM|Khaos, DK Express, Ducvader, Locdown, Crizzle, SmoothViper, Gconceptz, Mvc2 Roundhouse
Finals Timeslot: 5:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo
Making a grand return after well over a decade’s absence from the main stage, one of the most storied games of Evo history in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 will be seeing some proper action at Evo 2025 this weekend.
Last year had Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as a side tournament, which SmoothViper was the champion of, but with a main stage presence and more than 500 participants it’s an entirely different ball game for the game this year.
It’s likely we’ll see old favorites dominating in the game but with such a long time passed from the game’s heyday, it’ll be interesting to see how they fare against each other here in 2025 during the the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 resurgence we’ve shared thanks to the release of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
Although the most frequent Evo champion for the game Justin Wong has not signed up for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 this year, it’s going to be an intense battle between all of these old favorites that Marvelheads have been cheering on for decades at this point.
Entrants: 547
Top 8 Seeds: Senaru, BBB|Defiant, PAR|BigBlack, BNP|Knotts, 2GB Combo, Chobi, BBB|OmniDeag, Ugly|Shaly
Finals Timeslot: 2:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo
Last year, Senaru took home the victory for Under Night In-Birth 2: [Sys:celes] at Evo 2024 and he went on to also win the championship at the Arc World Tour Finals earlier this year.
Without a doubt, this makes Senaru the person to beat and as public enemy #1 of the bracket, that’s what everyone is going to be trying to do.
With PAR|BigBlack and BBB|Defiant — the former winning Combo Breaker 2025 and the latter winning CEO 2025 — being some of the most consistent American players all eyes are on them to see if they can put a stop to Senaru’s dominance, but there’s tons of other talent waiting in the wings as well.
Although entrants are slightly down from last year, the gameplay has only been leveling up so this’ll be one for the history books to be sure.
Also, much like the other Arc World Tour titles, Under Night In-Birth 2: [Sys:celes] also has tour qualification on the line here being a direct qualifier to the Arc World Tour Finals.
Entrants: 377
Top 8 Seeds: SonicFox, ONi|Kanimani, RBT|Nicolas, PAR|Rewind, RBT|Scorpionprocs, Grr, STG|Onlinecale213, 2G|SnakeDoe
Finals Timeslot: 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo
The final game of the main lineup, Mortal Kombat 1 may have the lowest entrants but it also has some very concentrated talent looking to take the win this year.
SonicFox was the victor at Evo 2024 and will be looking to make a repeat performance here, especially after taking down Chile’s golden child RBT|Nicolas at the Final Kombat 2024 last year to bring home that victory as well.
Just like for Under Night In-Birth 2: [Sys:celes], there’s a clear frontrunner here and all eyes will be at SonicFox and how to take them down.
Given the level of consistency from these other competitors, though, it’s definitely possible that we’ll see an end to their reign and have a new Evo champion crowned for Mortal Kombat 1 here in 2025.
This is also a Demi God level event for the Mortal Kombat Pro Kompetition so for players who are hoping to get a shot at that Final Kombat prize pool, this is more important than ever.
Moving on, we’ll be listing the statistics, seeds and timeslots for the Extended Lineup games but without detailed writeups. Make sure you catch all of these titles as well as they happen across the weekend as part of Evo 2025’s huge celebration of the fighting game genre we all love.
Entrants: 358
Top 8 Seeds: CakeAssault, Plup, FaZe|Sparg0, Kusiwastaken, Sophilo, Bbatts, PAR|I0N, Boiko|Stango
Finals Timeslot: 6:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo1
Entrants: 247
Top 8 Seeds: J-Anson, CAG|Fenrich, Ruka, Xcaliburbladez, Division, BrkrDave, Uri, GU|Monarch
Finals Timeslot: 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 3rd at Evo1
Entrants: 236
Top 8 Seeds: Coates|Bas, ChoiBoy, Silentscope, EricTurbo, Dr. B Galaxy B, Señor Payaso, Kilomax, Umthrfkr
Finals Timeslot: 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo1
Entrants: 212
Top 8 Seeds: Akani Shiwapo, Homestay Akira, Y O U, Hydrix|DensetsuSP, MGG|Reorao, DFM|Itabashi Zangief, SF|GentlemanThief, Tenguman
Finals Timeslot: 10:00 A.M. on Sunday, August 3rd at Evo1
Entrants: 169
Top 8 Seeds: GHZ|TheGio, Falcons|E.T., LEV|Layec, QAD|Wero Asamiya, Liquid|ViolentKain, Falcons|Tamago, Comitê|PiterErn, LEV|Pako
Finals Timeslot: 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 3rd at Evo1
Entrants: 155
Top 8 Seeds: XBF|ScrubSaibot, Watanabe Shachou, Guppii, XBF|Maki, Bubba000, Royalpsycho, BBoySonicX, Healing Vision
Finals Timeslot: 5:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo7
Entrants: 134
Top 8 Seeds: OG|KTP, PAR|ZweiNot, Moist|Hotashi, Foo, FF|ElvenShadow, Vogue, Pattheflip, Rude+E
Finals Timeslot: 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo1
Entrants: 118
Top 8 Seeds: DaaChronicle, UA|Bass, ThrashHeavy, DD|Roman22s, Raven is Raw, LAGR|Carnitsa, LAGr|Element, WolfSlayerNinja
Finals Timeslot: 7:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 2nd at Evo5
Evo 2025 is taking place this weekend between August 1st to August 3rd. You can find the full schedule below in local time for the event, which is PDT.
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Which games are you most excited to watch at this year’s Evo? Let us know in the comments.
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