Expectations were shattered last Sunday night as competitor registration for Evo 2023 came to a close. Two weeks ago, the event’s Street Fighter 6 bracket became the largest open-bracket fighting game tournament in Evo history, surpassing the record of 5,107 previously held by Street Fighter V’s debut at Evo 2016. Several other games followed suit, setting new franchise registration records in the final days of sign-ups. Now that the numbers are finalized, we can confirm that Evo 2023 will officially have the most bracket competitors ever at an Evo event. With that said, let’s take a closer look at some of the statistics behind the registration numbers for the tournament.
This is good news for the FGC in general, but I am less impressed with Evo compared to the otherwise very similar Combo Breaker. Only running a handful of main games that specifically have something to market to you is a bit of a bummer compared to CB running over 25 official brackets. There’s also no chance they have enough casuals stations, so there are going to be a lot of salty suite matches.
As a Chicagoan Combo Breaker is an amazing tournament. Highly recommend if you get the chance to go.