Evo 2022 Lineup Revealed; Street Fighter V, King Of Fighters XV Among Main Games

Evo, the largest fighting game tournament in the world, has announced the lineup for Evo 2022, which will return to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas from August 5-7.

Evo aired a livestream on its Twitch page hosted by longtime fighting game commentators Stephen "Sajam" Lyon and Steve "TastySteve" Scott to announce the lineup for Evo 2022--the first after a two-year hiatus caused by COVID-19 and controversy surrounding sexual abuse allegations against founder Joey Cuellar. The lineup was joined by a brief exhibition of each game featuring two top pros in the community.

The full Evo 2022 lineup, in the order the games were announced, is as follows:

• Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (5th appearance)
• Guilty Gear: Strive (1st appearance)
• Mortal Kombat 11 (2nd appearance)
• Tekken 7 (6th appearance)
• The King of Fighters XV (1st appearance)
• Melty Blood: Type Lumina (1st appearance)
• Dragon Ball FighterZ (3rd appearance)
• Granblue Fantasy Versus (1st appearance)
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore (1st appearance)

Two notable exceptions to the list is Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate, the latter holding the Evo record for most entrants in a single tournament with nearly 3500 in 2019. Evo confirmed Smash Bros would not be part of Evo 2022 when it announced this reveal event, as Nintendo elected not to partner with the organization.

Evo 2022 will be the first event held under Evo's new ownership, as the organization was purchased by PlayStation in February 2021. The purchase followed a controversial 2020 for the event, as longtime organizer Joey Cuellar was accused of sexual harassment and removed from any involvement in Evo.