Evolution 2014 has come to a close, and what a day it was. Finals day at Evo consists of thousands of bodies packed into the grand ballroom watching the newly established worlds greatest go head to head at their favorite games.
The day opened with Blaze Blue: Chrono Phantasma, which built to an intense, and emotional grand finals. Underdog Garirero vs. Dogura was a intense as Garireo repeatedly held on with quick reads and fast reactions to reset the bracket and take home the title. The standings from BBCP are as follows
Top 8 rankings:
1. Garireo (Litchi)
2. Dogura (Azrael)
3. BE|DoraBang (Bang)
4. Yoshiki (v-13-)
5. Tiku (Tager)
5. N-O (Rachel)
7. Tochigin (Azrael)
7. SG (Litchi)
“Killer Instinct” hosted its grand finals featuring the likes of Rico Suave, CDJR, EG Justin Wong and more. With a strategic switch to Glacius, Rico was able to defeat Justin in the losers finals, but didn’t quite have what it took to take out RM|CDJR (Sadira). In another emotional victory CDJR choked back tears as he was awarded his trophy, take note guys this was early in the day.
Top 8 rankings:
1. RM|CD Jr. (Sadira)
2. RG|Rico Suave (Thunder, Glacius, Jago, Sabrewulf, Fulgore)
3. EG|Justin Wong (Sabrewulf)
4. Gutter Magic (Thunder)
5. TSwagg (Sadira)
5. IC|MyGod88 (Sabrewulf)
7. Pretty E (Orchid)
7. Mr. Grimmmz (Jago)
Photo: Reggie hypes up the Smash Bros top 8.
Smash Bros Melee was up next featuring the worlds greats including EMP| Armada, Curse| Hungry Box, EG| PPMD, GC| Silent Wolf, EMP| Mew2King, MOR|Axe, Fly Amanita and, C9| Mango. While the matches were hard fought, often with the crowd rooting heavily for Axe (the cheers for Pikachu were deafening). Eventually Mango was able to scrape out a win against Hungry Box to grab the title. The match had gone the way like many of Hungry Boxes earlier matches, in which Box ran it back from a pretty deep deficit, only a clutch smash was able to hand Mango the victory.
Top 8 rankings:
1. C9|Mango (Falco, Fox)
2. Crs|Hungrybox (Jigglypuff, Fox, Falco)
3. EMP|Armada (Peach, Young Link)
4. EG|PPMD (Falco, Marth)
5. EMP|Mew2King (Marth, Sheik)
5. MOR|Axe (Pikachu)
7. Fly Amanita (Ice Climbers)
7. GC|Silent Wolf (Fox)
Immediately following Smash was “Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3” featuring: EG| Justin Wong, RG| Filipino Champ, GG| Chris G, Jan, CTRL| RayRay, RG| Flocker, BIFU| Insaynne (Coach Steve) and, MRN| Marn. Through hard fought battles and incredible reversals, Justin Wong was able to overcome Chris G in an incredible fashion in the grand finals. The crowd favorite exploded from his chair after his final Wolverine combo that sent Chris G packing. This victory came of course after beating the returning world champion RG| Flocker and RG|Filipino champ during the earlier top 8 matches.
Top 8 rankings:
1. EG|Justin Wong (Wolverine, Storm, Akuma)
2. GG|NYChrisG (Morrigan, Dr. Doom, Vergil | Others)
3. RG|Filipino Champ (Magneto, Dormammu, Dr. Doom | Others)
4. CTRL|RayRay (Magneto, Dr. Doom, Sentinel)
5. RG|Flocker (Zero, Vergil, Hawkeye | Others)
5. Jan (Hulk, Shuma-Gorath, Haggar | Others)
7. MRN|Marn (Zero, Vergil, Strider)
7. BIFU|Insaynne (Nova, Spencer, Dr. Doom)
The final game of the evening was “Ultra Street Fighter 4”. This featured RG| Snake Eyez who was competing in the Evo top 32 for the first time, RZR| Fuudo, RZR| Gackt, EG|Momochi, EG|Ricky Ortiz, Bonchan, MD|Louffy and, HORI|Sako. The competition for Street Fighter was fierce, but nobody could hold up to Louffy and his incredible Rose play. Louffy beat Gackt, Snake Eyez, and Fuudo in losers bracket before resetting the bracket against Bonchan, and taking the series 6-1.
Top 8 rankings:
1. MD|Luffy (Rose)
2. Bonchan (Sagat)
3. RZR|Fuudo (Fei Long)
4. RG|Snake Eyez (Zangief)
5. RZR|Gackt (Fei Long)
5. EG|Ricky Ortiz (Rufus, Rolento)
7. EG|Momochi (Ken, Juri)
7. HORI|Sako (Ibuki, Evil Ryu, Elena, Gen)
Evo 2014 has come to an end, but next year aims to be bigger and better. With thousands in attendance and even more watching via live stream, the worlds premiere fighting game tournament continues to grow in size. Next year will see even stiffer competition; with as many or more upsets than were seen this weekend. This is a great time to be a gamer, especially a competitive one.