Evo 2023 line-up announcement features Street Fighter 6 and brings old Marvel 3 players out of retirement

The official line-up for Evo 2023 was announced today. Street Fighter 6 is making its Evo debut, while plenty of community favourites like Guilty Gear: Strive and Tekken 7 are getting another go at the main stage too. Each game with have a prize pool of at least $25,000 each.

The event, which was bought out by Sony and RTS in 2021, is also making some substantial changes! The Top 8 finals format has been controversially scrapped and replaced with Top 6, apparently to keep things from running overtime.

Let's start with the big one. Street Fighter 6 will be featured at Evo 2023, and stood out as a main point of excitement for many of the prior Evo winners interviewed as part of the announcement show. Only a few days prior at the Capcom Pro Tour finals, a $1,000,000 prize for 1st place in next year's Capcom Cup Street Fighter 6 winner. The combination of the two has thousands hyped to attend Evo and give the game a go.

Next came Guilty Gear: Strive. This game has held up the fighting game genre over the past few years during COVID, and has grown to be hugely popular as a result. Producer Ken Miyauchi and development director Akira Katano had a message for the viewers, thanking the players for their support and for a spot at Evo 2023.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is a tad less popular, but a proven hype-bringer at previous Evo events. the game maintains a massive community of players across the US, Europe, and Asia. Interestingly enough, France turned up and took 1st, 3rd, and 4th place last year, with the game standing out as a major hub for European talent.

Tekken 7 is obviously making a return. While many are excited for additional information on Tekken 8, which has been getting plenty of new trailers over the past month or so, director Harada was sure to emphasise that this was still Tekken 7’s time to shine. That being said, Tekken 7 is a beloved game that has only grown more popular over the years.

King of Fighters 15 is making its second appearance. It’s an excellent game that while struggling with some netcode problems has retained a passionate community across the globe. King of Fighters is always exciting to watch, and absolutely deserves a spot at the event.

Then there’s Melty Blood: type Lumina! This anime fighter has bubbled away over the past two years, and has maintained its own passionate crowd of diehard players. Who knows whether French Bread will have an announcement for spectators and competitors this year? Let's hope so.

Mortal Kombat 11 is making a return, and this is a strange one. Mortal Kombat has certainly got its own crowd of dedicated fighters, but a lot of the excitement has died down for NRS games over the past few years, largely due to a lack of information on future titles and no remaining updates for the latest games. That being said, it’s always a crowd pleaser, and maybe a reveal could justify its place.

Finally, we have Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. Marvel has a long history with the Evo tournaments, with the game being a mainstay at almost all of the tournaments since its inception. However, with the lacklustre performance of Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, and an in-person Marvel vs Capcom 2 tournament that sadly had to be cancelled due to Covid, the series has been absent for some years now. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3’s appearance, alongside a $25,000 prize pot, has many retired fighting game players excited to come back, which is always great to see.

That wraps up our coverage of the Evo 2023 line-up! For more related articles check out our pieces on MultiVersus not doing so hot player-count wise, as well as Ireland's Biggest tournament is gone, and here’s why it matters.