Evo 2021 Online began this past weekend, filling the void of no offline event happening this year. Street Fighter V, Mortal Kombat 11, Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Strive and Skullgirls are the games featured in the event. The two-week celebration of fighting games leads up to the Evo 2021 Showcase in November. Evo 2021 Online winners and runners-up will compete at this offline finale in Las Vegas to be crowned the year’s Evo grand champions.
Skullgirls became a main title for Evo 2021 after a surge in interest last year. The Asia and North America region brackets occurred this past weekend. While many anticipated SonicFox winning North America, it was Cloud who reigned supreme. After taking down Triviality in grand finals, both Cloud and Triviality secured spots at the Evo 2021 Showcase.
Meanwhile in Asia, penpen became the first Evo 2021 Online champion, defeating Naminori in a grand finals set. Following these two tournaments, Europe and Latin America competition begins next weekend to decide who will join penpen, Cloud, Triviality and Naminori in Las Vegas for the finals.
Though NetherRealm officially ended DLC support for Mortal Kombat 11, the competitive side of the game continues to go strong. During weekend one, Europe and Latin America crowned their champions for MK11 at Evo 2021. Disarted took first place in the European bracket after an exciting 3-2 victory over K-TOP.
Latin America top eight took place the following day on August 8. Konqueror won this bracket, defeating KillerXinok in grand finals. Only North America has a bracket next weekend, as Asia does not have a Mortal Kombat tournament this year.
The first Tekken 7 bracket of Evo 2021 saw many familiar faces in top eight. Shadow 20z took first place in dramatic fashion over Averiey_RIB, though both may meet again in the Evo 2021 Showcase bracket.
The Asia region had two separate brackets, split between Asia South and Asia East. Asia South was won by Book, the former Evo Japan 2020 champion. After Book defeated Jules in grand finals, the Asia East top four began. Gen claimed victory in a grand finals reset over former TWT champion Chikurin.
Street Fighter V had four separate brackets between Europe East, Europe West, North America East and North America West. Jamie_TTM won Europe East over VolcanoRosso, while Europe West crowned Hurricane as champion over Problem-X.
North America East grand finals was a familiar matchup between iDom and Punk. Much like their Capcom Cup 2019 matchup, iDom yet again came out on top. Meanwhile on the west coast, Nephew achieved a hard-fought victory over Samurai after a grand finals reset.
Guilty Gear Strive’s first Evo appearance was this weekend. Latin America and Europe kicked off the GG Evo action, though unfortunately Latin America’s top eight could not be streamed.
Despite the lack of a broadcast, Trema won the Latin America bracket 3-1 over Mike_Saftig. In Europe, Leffen continued his streak of GG dominance with a 3-2 win over Uriel_Legion. These four players join next weekend’s champions and runners-up for Guilty Gear Strive’s offline Evo debut at the Evo Showcase.
The Evo 2021 action continues next weekend with brackets for all the same games in different regions. Online top eights and top fours are all streamed on the official Evo Twitch channel.
Featured image courtesy of Evolution Championship Series
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