Evolution Championship Series

Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique steamrolled his competition to win Tekken 7 at Evo 2019. The Pakistani competitor has been on an absolute tear since his surprise victory at Evo Japan, and this latest championship ties a nice little bow on his burgeoning Tekken career.

Samurai Shodown’s Haohmaru will be joining the cast of Soulcalibur VI as its third guest character next season. A release date wasn’t announced, but fans can look forward to the return of classic Soulcalibur character Cassandra tomorrow, August 5, in the meantime.

SNK revealed a timeline for the first season of paid Samurai Shodown content at Evo 2019. Rimururu is coming in August, Basara in October, Kazuki Kazama in November, and Wan-Fu in December. As an added bonus, Shizumaru Hisame will be available for free in September. A second season is also planned for 2020.

Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi has been crowned Street Fighter V champion at Evo 2019. It’s been a long road for Bonchan since placing second in Ultra Street Fighter IV at Evo 2014, fraught with character crises and surprisingly early eliminations, but now he can finally add an Evo championship to his resume.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle will receive nine more characters on November 21, a trailer debuted at Evo 2019 revealed. These newcomers include Senran Kagura’s Yumi, Akatsuki and Blitztank from Akatsuki Blitzkampf, and RWBY antagonist Neo Politan.

Oscar “Shinku” Jaimes opened Evo 2019 finals day with a victory in the BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle championship. Shinku defeated three Japanese powerhouses—Kamisue “mekasue” Kazuya, Seitaro “domi” Ohno, and Hiroyuki “Kyamei” Kamei—en route to his first Evo title.

Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi has been eliminated from Street Fighter V competition at Evo 2019, ending his weekend at 49th place. A perennial favorite, Tokido won the event in 2017 and placed second in 2018.

Seon-woo “Infiltration” Lee is Evo 2019’s Samurai Shodown champion. Typically a Street Fighter player, Infiltation is currently on hiatus from official competition after an investigation into domestic violence allegations against him.

The next iteration of the Under Night In-Birth franchise, the bafflingly named Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [cl-r], is coming in early 2020. It will include balance changes and at least one new character.

Clearlamp is the very first Evo champion in Under Night In-Birth. He outlasted several of his fellow Japanese competitors (and one Canadian) to win, all of whom provided further proof that this unique game absolutely deserved its spot at Evo 2019.

Yuta “Yuttoto” Sudo is Evo 2019’s Soulcalibur VI champion. He fended off a fierce challenge from runner-up Zain “Bluegod” Tibeishat to become the game’s first official Evo champion.

Evo has free water refill stations this year, which is a godsend. Probably my favorite Evo 2019 moment so far.