If you have lived under a rock the past two weeks. Evolution 2022 the storied annual fighting game world championship took place. Announcements were made, games were played. Friendships & rivalries rekindled as the best in the world all came together to celebrate fighting games and see who is the best.

Long story short: IT WAS DOPE. But keep reading if you want the details.

EVO2022 WINNERS

MultiVersus – NAKAT (Wonder Woman) / CLG|VoiD (Tom & Jerry)

Guilty Gear Strive –  RZR|UMISHO (Happy Chaos)

Street Fighter 5 – HB|Kawano (Kolin)

Tekken 7 – DRX|Knee (Feng)

King of Fighters 15 – Brook|ZJZ (Kula, Krohnen, B. Jenet)

Dragon Ball FighterZ –  MBS|Wawa (Blue Gogeta, Vegito, Adult Gohan | Others)

Granblue Fantasy: Versus – GS|Gamera (Djeeta, Vira, Zooey)

Mortal Kombat 11 – T7G|ScorpionProcs (Fujin, Kabal, Kung Lao, Liu Kang)

Melty Blood Type Lumina – Jing (Hisui)

Skullgirls – EG | Sonic Fox

PL Thoughts:

A couple of these games have been around for a while (SFV, T7, MK11) so it was fun to see the highest level of play after years of meta development. My personal favorite this year is Knee in Tekken 7. Why? He is agreed upon as the greatest Tekken player ever and to see him close the game out (this is assuming we get Tekken 8 and won’t see 7 at EVO again next year) beating the 2D characters with Feng was great. Earlier this year I spoke to FightingGM about Feng’s viability and he was adamant that he is top tier and did well against the 2D characters. Months later we see Knee on Feng :). Feng is one of my original Tekken 5 main characters along with Law before I switched to Devil Jin. The gameplay was flawless. I love watching the time out wins. No disrespect to any competitors but Tekken was my favorite to see. Congrats to all of the winners!

FreshCut Meet & Greet

Thank you to everyone that came! I was blown away! It’s crazy to go from wanting to compete at EVO to showcasing my gameplay to winning championships etc all the way to having a meet & greet?! Amazing how life works. Thanking and praising God for all of this. It was dope to meet supporters and for them to share with me their journeys in life and fighting games. A lot of players told me how I inspired them to get into competitive fighting games and a couple of them had deep tournament runs which is awesome!

I’m glad to have made an impact in some way shape or form and thank you so much for the support.

This is my first time ever doing a Meet & Greet. Thank you to FreshCut & EVO for making this possible.

I’m looking forward to the future with FreshCut and their vision for the scene.

download the app and follow me for high level FGC clips like the one below in this giveaway that you can still participate in :).

Giveaway ends around 10 pm EST so get in it while you can!

May needs to be stopped!

EVO2022 wasn’t without challenges as May from Guilty Gear caught the FGC with TOTSUGEKI!

Fighting Game Announcements

EVO is the e3 for the FGC. We normally get announcements for new games or updates to existing games. This year didn’t disappoint.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 is back through Arcade1UP’s special MVC2 cabinet.

Release comes with 8 games:

  • Marvel vs Capcom 2
  • Marvel vs Capcom
  • Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter
  • X-Men vs Street Fighter
  • Marvel Super Heroes
  • X-Men: Children of the ATOM
  • X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse
  • Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems

I want to get this cab but I’m afraid I won’t use it as much outside of playing online. Great collectors item and I’m sure the game plays great as they have Justin Wong on the team making sure the games are running perfectly.

Dragon Ball FighterZ RollBack Netcode announced with release of the PS5 & Xbox Series X | S versions!

You already know how I feel if you come to the stream. I’ve spent hours upon hours TRYING to get quality matches in DBFZ. Since release matchmaking and netcode have been inconsistent and you had to get used to how it felt or not be able to enjoy. Now we can have consistent more quality games between one another that feel closer to how the game plays. Online tournaments will become even more insane. Only drawback is you have to get a new console or upgrade your PC. I do have the game on PC but don’t have PS5 or Xbox Series yet. Regardless I am looking forward to get back into competing when it releases at the very least online.

Tekken 7 FREE UPDATE, Tekken 8 Teaser & GLOBAL FINALS of the Tekken World Tour

I cannot wait to see how the balance adjustments play out. As long as Mishimas are still strong I am happy. I am also hoping they adjust the loading time for rematching in player match online. It is hard to get a consistent flow of games in for muscle memory online. That is what holds me back from competing in Tekken.

SNK Announcements

  • Samurai Showdown gets ROLLBACK in 2023!

Samurai Showdown has been a great game since forever but with the most modern release you couldn’t get matches online or if you did it wasn’t that playable. Players had to use third party means to be able to play using Parsec. Buying servers so the game could operate better under the circumstances. Then with the lockdowns and varying travel conditions players had to play from home. With this new update the game can finally live and thrive allowing its fan base to comfortably play while welcoming new players!

King of Fighters 15 CROSS PLAY

KOF15 COMING IN HOT WITH CROSS PLAY in 2023?! King of Fighters 15 has a great netcode and the gameplay is one of the best games to release in years. With adding cross play so the player base isn’t divided and now we can all get games in with each other. This is a huge development and breathes new life into KOF. And we are getting Samurai Showdown DLC in Autumn, Just got the Team Awakened Orochi and in the NEXT SEASON WE GET MY MAIN KIM KAPHWAN BACK. Kim is my FAVORITE character in the KOF series/universe. Looking forward to hopping back into the fray with you all.

Fatal Fury / Garou is coming back!

I grew up playing Fatal Fury the same as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, Dead or Alive etc. I have no idea what they are going to do but I will be trying it out! This is how we all were introduced to the Bogards.

Guilty Gear Strive Season 2

Forreal. Bridget is dope as heck. When I first saw this character in the 2004 EVO trailer I thought she was so sick using the Yo-Yo to beat people up. I didn’t understand till I got older what the gameplan was but the Yo-Yo is very tricky. Theres a version that hits while it approaches or hits while it returns. The visual is the same but you have control over what it does. The sweet part is you can set up more movement options with it and mix up your pressure. She has a dragon punch reversal and movement so you ALREADY KNOW IM USING HER. This will actually be my first secondary in Guilty Gear since I main Potemkin. Yes I will be back playing Guilty Gear Strive. Casually at least :). I’m glad Arc Sys brought her back.

Street Fighter 6 1st time play thoughts & impressions

At EVO2022 I finally got to try Street Fighter 6!

If you didn’t know but this time around Street Fighter starts you off with full meter called the drive gauge.

Drive gauge allows you to do all sorts of different mechanics seen through the Street Fighter series. Drive Impact (Focus Attack), Drive Parry (Parry), Overdrive moves (EX moves), Drive Rush (Focus Dash Cancel) and a Drive Reversal (V-Reversal/Alpha Counter).

If you are familiar with the above mechanics you will be fine. However you cannot waste your meter or your character goes into a new burn out state. This state is risky since in the corner if you block a drive impact your character gets guard broken and becomes open to get punished. Drive gauge meter returns on its own with time similar to Mortal Kombat 11. However there is a separate gauge for your super meter at the bottom of the screen in a familiar position while drive gauge takes up the top.

I tried Ryu and all of the common competitive Street Fighter strategies and it all still works. Fireball to bait jump. Dragon Punch the jump etc. Reacting to jumps with dragon punch and winning clean. Seeing if I could punish missed attacks with ease. Legacy 2in1 combos like crouching medium kick cancel to fireball.

Game felt great to me! I look forward to it releasing. I do know people are saying the game feels slow and that may be due to the fact they played on it in the Capcom booth. In that booth all the set ups felt slower. Could’ve been the monitor they used or how it was set up. I am not entirely sure but I do know the game felt at a fine speed when I played it at the Playstation booth.

I tried out Jamie but I didn’t know anything so I couldn’t form an opinion on him.

Chun Li feels the slowest she has ever been in a game. Luke feels similar to his Street Fighter 5 counter part with alterations to his moves. The game looks and feels beautiful overall. I look forward to trying and playing more.

Juri & New character Kimberly Gameplay Revealed for Street Fighter 6

Juri looks as good as always. I don’t think they could ever mess up her design. Kimberly looks dope!!! She’s a 80-90s style retro ninja? Sign me up. Trained by Guy?! Guy was dope in Street Fighter 4!

Here are videos comparing Zeku in SF5 & Guy in SF4’s animations to Kimberly’s.

Kimberly is 100% apart of my character rotation in Street Fighter 6.

EVO2022 Game Viewership

Great numbers! With the new updates, better netcode for games etc the FGC will continue to grow.

s/o McFly getting the data!

My Results

TRASH!!!

33rd DNF Duel

45th? Mortal Kombat 11

49th? MultiVersus

The MK and MultiVersus placings could be wrong but I know its 40 something. For me if it ain’t 1st I’m the worst (just playing this is humor do not think like this lmao)

In DNF Duel I didn’t play it as much leading up to EVO especially since DNF was a side game. The game is still very fun so I will play as long as people ask. I entered some Can Openers but as far as practice? I was focusing more time on MK11 and MultiVersus. Unfortunately for me since I flew into Vegas early to get used to the time zone and play offline… MultiVersus 2v2 doesn’t work when you try to go online with two people offline.

So we couldn’t practice the game in 2v2 format at all. Our MultiVersus matches you saw was us winging it without much practice despite our mindset from the Road to EVO invitational. This caused us to focus more on MK11 since it was more in our control of how much we could practice. Despite being very ready I overlooked Spawn & Baraka which are the two characters I lost to while I was extremely ready for everything else.

I will upload the matches soon. GGs Mighty Unjust & Honey Bee.

I did make great plays on stream! I will upload the highlights soon once I get all of the footage.

Forreal though my placings are wack but I understand there are people out there who would be happy with those. However I am absolutely not. I’m not going to beat myself up though. It’s hard to be upset especially at EVO when I can walk past the Wall of Champions and get reminded of where I stand.

Most overlook or ignore the games, strategies etc being played are different. You have to know every match up and now they make the rosters so big its easy to overlook a character or strategy you didn’t prepare for. That is how it goes. You have to just be ready for the next battle. I might travel to play one more time before this year is up.

Overall EVO was dope. It was great to meet new people, reconnect with long time friends, meet supporters and players I’ve inspired. The FreshCut after party mixer, the tournament runs. All of it was great. Thank you all for reading and following along with the journey!

And thank you to the EVO Staff. This is the most well run EVO I can say I’ve attended in recent memory if I were to compare with 2011-2012 smoothness. Everything started on time. Brackets weren’t hard to report. Wasn’t hard to know where to go to play. I think the venue was used well space wise for separating the games. Thanks again!

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