Many were called, but few were chosen by the Fates of fighting games at Evo 2016. After two grueling days of competition across massive brackets, and then a harrowing championship Saturday night and Sunday full of intense duels between the best of the best, the fighting game community crowned a slate of new champions.
Street Fighter V: Infiltration
If there is one fighting game professional that needs no introduction, it would be South Korea's Lee "Infiltration" Seon Woo. First exploding onto the scene during the early days of Street Fighter IV, Infiltration quickly became a household name, capturing EVO championships in Super Street Fighter IV: AE and Street Fighter x Tekken in 2012 and 2013.
This year, with the introduction of Street Fighter V to the competitive scene, Infiltration quickly gravitated to a single character: The powerful mix-up master, Nash, who has the tools to complement Infiltration’s style. This combination quickly propelled him to victory across several international events ahead of Evo.
At Evo, Infiltration's hot streak continued. The Nash specialist plowed his way through bracket after bracket without taking a single loss until he reached the Top 8 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Only one player would be standing in his way: Razer teammate Keita "Fuudo" Ai. Fuudo's R. Mika — despite having limited options to play a footsies game against Nash — was able to get in on Infiltration several times during the match and pile on the damage. Fuudo eked out the victory, sending Infiltration to the Loser's bracket.
There, Infiltration roared back with a vengeance, sending home opponent after opponent until arriving at Grand Finals to face Fuudo once more. This time, things would be different. Suddenly, none of Fuudo's offensive tactics were working anymore. His pokes were blocked, his throws were whiffed, his aerial offensives were shut down. Infiltration was in Fuudo's head; the match was already over. A visibly shaken Fuudo was able to regain some composure to fight back against the powerful offensive, but it was too late, and following a bracket reset, Infiltration was declared the world's first Street Fighter V champion.
Super Smash Bros. Melee: Hungrybox
Melee’s final day at Evo 2016 was a crazy one. Despite losing to fellow Floridian Plup in Winner’s Semis, Hungrybox and his infamous Jigglypuff climbed through the Loser’s Bracket to reset Armada in Grand Finals and eventually win the championship.
It’s been a long road for Hungrybox to get to this point. In 2013 and 2014 he was always considered a threat, but rarely would he win a tournament. The consistency with which he would place second or third, however, was uncanny. Unlike other top players, Hungrybox also battled derision from fans and other players. His style of play coupled with his emotional reactions to winning made him a "player people love to hate," for better or worse.
But within the past year, Hungrybox has redoubled his efforts. Steeling himself against the criticism he received, Hungrybox steadily placed higher and higher. So far in 2016, he has been nearly unstoppable. He has placed first in 10 of the 15 major tournaments he attended this year, with the only finish outside the Top 3 coming from an odd performance at WTFox 2.
Hungrybox hasn’t done it all alone, though. Enlisting his good friend — and now official Team Liquid coach — Luis "Crunch" Rosas, the two worked together to improve Hungrybox’s play, and it has paid off with interest. With more confidence than ever, and easily the best Jigglypuff in the world, Hungrybox won his first Evo ever. And if his recent track record is any indication, he’s not even close to peaking.
Guilty Gear: Machabo
Coming into Evo, Sin player Machabo was a heavy favorite to take the championship crown. He's won numerous Guilty Gear Xrd tournaments in Japan, including the Arc Revolution Cup. To many, he's considered the best in the world — but until now, he had yet to participate in Evo competition.
After blasting through the Winners' side of the Guilty Gear Xrd brackets, he came up against Omito, a Johnny player who is also considered extremely skilled. For the first two sets, it looked like Machabo would dominate Omito as thoroughly as he had the other competitors. However, Omito wasn't about to go down without a fight, adapting his game plan and tying things up 2-2. It came down to the last round of the final set, where Machabo narrowly avoided a bracket reset with some very impressive and aggressive Sin play, putting a low-on-resources Johnny into bad situations over and over.
One thing's for sure: Sin's in-game cravings for meat might be satiable, but Machabo's hunger for victory continues unabated.
Mortal Kombat: SonicFox
Surprising no one, Dominique "SonicFox" McLean burned his way through the Mortal Kombat X field at Evo 2016, his expanding mastery of the game’s roster making him too much of a wildcard. Even seasoned competitors like his Critical Reaction teammate Matthew "Biohazard" Commandeur and Aric "Dab" Dabajae could not contend with SonicFox's ability to switch characters.
On Sunday, McLean was sitting pretty in a familiar Winner's bracket position. His battle through finals was similar to earlier portions of the tournament, which character choices ranging from bruiser Jason Voorhees to Erron Black, the gunslinging cowboy he mained with tremendous success early in Mortal Kombat X’s lifespan.
That said, it was the newest addition to McLean’s arsenal that likely saved the tournament for him.
As grand finals drew closer, it was clear that SonicFox's last opponent would be Sayed "Tekken Master" Ahmed. A surprising contender all the way from the tiny nation of Bahrain, Tekken Master shocked the Mandalay Bay Events Center by forcing a reset against the world champion with his amazing use of bruiser Kotal Kahn.
With his back against the wall and his trademark hat off his head, McLean was forced to switch to Alien, a guest character that has proven to be a dominant force in recent Mortal Kombat competition. The young competitor persevered through the onslaught of Ahmed’s pressure, overcoming his shock at the sudden challenge in order to win his third straight Evo championship for Mortal Kombat X.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: ChrisG
After hitting the buttons on his arcade stick to land his final hit with his infamous Morrigan, ChrisG rose from his seat, so shaken at first that he didn't know how to react. Then, as he yelled at the top of his lungs, the crowd echoed him with a deafening roar. He had finally taken the tournament that eluded him for so long.
Chris "ChrisG" Gonzalez has been a powerful force since the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. He made a name for himself in the game by placing third at CEO 2011 and never slowed his pace. As he developed in the scene, he continued to have strong finishes, but was never able to seal the deal at Evo. After getting third at Evolution 2012, Gonzalez placed fifth and second at the following Evolution tournaments, losing close sets each time.
Evolution 2016 was looking like another unfortunate tournament for Gonzalez as well. After losing to up-and-coming player Dual Kevin in Winners fell into Losers, where his first match in Top 8 was against the American legend Justin Wong. Gonzalez was barely able to edge out the legendary player 3-2, but following that match, he went on a tear.
These matches led Gonzalez to Grand Finals, and to a seat next to Kane Blueriver. The two had already faced twice earlier in April 2016, and Kane won both sets 3-0. The first game of grand finals looked as if it would have a similar outcome, with Gonzalez dealing little damage. But Gonzalez found his focus and immediately started taking over, winning six straight games to take the first Evolution of his career.
Pokken: Tonosama
The Japanese legend Tonosama fought all the way through Loser's finals get a rematch against his fellow Japanese opponent Buntan. Tonosama was sent to Loser's by Buntan when he lost 3-1 in the Winner's Finals, but came back to win 3-1 in both sets of Grand Finals and take the title. Using his trusty Braixen, Tonosama seemed unfazed by anything, and as a result of this win he qualifies for the Pokken Tournament World Championships.
Smash 4
The Canadian Mario main Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce blew through his Evo bracket, taking down huge players like Nakat, Dabuz, Abadango and even Japanese player Kamemushi twice in both Winners and Grand Finals. Ally was so dominant against Kamemushi that Ally caused him to change characters twice, switching to Cloud in Winners and Yoshi in Grand Finals, and he could still only take one game off the Canadian star.
Ally recently had two huge tournament wins over Zero, one at Get On My Level 2016 on his home turf, and another at Smash ‘N’ Splash 2, but after finishing 49th at Community Effort Orlando in June he still had to prove himself, and he did so in a huge way.
Killer Instinct: Hollywood Sleep
Hollywood Sleep looked dominant throughout all of Killer Instinct Top 8 with his stellar Arbiter. Methodical throughout, Hollywood Sleep outplayed each opponent until he met Bass in Winner's Finals, who plays Spinal. Hollywood Sleep took an early two-game lead, but after losing game three Hollywood Sleep switched to Gargos.
As one of the most recent Killer Instinct characters, most players have the least practice against Gargos, which may have made it a good character choice, but he also has poor wake-up options, which Spinal is very good at exploiting with his high/low and grab mix-ups. Hollywood Sleep capitalized with the use of Gargos’ minions, however, and made the matchup look immensely in his favor.
Hollywood Sleep switched back to Arbiter for Grand Finals, but after losing game two he switched to Gargos once again and took over the series to win it all.
Tekken 7: Saint
Korea took all three of the top Tekken 7 spots, but the man to take the entire tournament was Choi "Saint" Jin-Woo. Saint had to beat his opponent, Knee, twice to take it all, which is no easy feat. Knee is a storied Tekken player, especially recently.
Knee not only won Tekken at last year’s Evolution, but he won the King of the Iron Fist World Finals last year as well. Despite being faced with this, Saint was able to defeat Knee 2-0 in Winners Finals. When Knee fought back to Grand Finals it was much closer, going all the way down to last round, last game, but Saint was able to take the tournament with a 3-2 win and no bracket reset.
Catch up with all things Evo 2016 on the Red Bull eSports Evo Hub Page and enjoy exclusive coverage, interviews and features from Las Vegas. For more eSports coverage, follow @RedBulleSports on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.