PlayStation Tournaments brought 17 hopeful fighting game players to Evo, the largest fighting game tournament in the world — but only one made it to the final game of the weekend.
The Evolution Championship Series is the pinnacle of fighting game culture. It has become almost unrecognizable in the 29 years since its humble beginnings as ‘Battle by the Bay’ in 1996, growing from hundreds of attendees to tens of thousands of players who travel from all around the globe to Las Vegas, Nevada each summer.
This is the tournament where every fighting game player dreams of making their mark. Winning an Evo Championship automatically grants you ‘legend’ status, and some of the world’s best players have achieved immortality by winning multiple games at multiple Evo tournaments.
In an effort to bring some of these ambitious fighting game players to Evo, PlayStation Tournaments held a ‘Road to Evo’ online competition series, including an open online bracket and closed regional finals. Only 17 pros made it through the grueling global gauntlet, earning an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas for a chance at proving their mettle against 10,240 other competitors.
PlayStation Tournaments brought 17 fighting game players to Evo 2024.
PlayStation Tournaments brought 17 pros to Evo 2024 – but only one made it to Grand Finals
As usual, Evo 2024 was insanely stacked. In the end, only 3 players made it out of pools and into Sunday’s Top 6, where the tournament’s strongest participants tested their might for a crowd of hundreds of thousands of viewers watching in-person and online.
Spanish Mortal Kombat player MKJavierMK duked it out against fighting game legend SonicFox in Mortal Kombat 1 in the Winners Semifinals. Despite beating the furry fighting game pro in an online invitational, he was knocked into Losers’ 3-1, managing to take a game off one of the scene’s most famous figures of all time.
Raef Alturkistani, a player hailing all the way from Saudi Arabia, made waves in Tekken 8’s Top 16 bracket, managing to earn a spot in Winners side on Sunday’s Top 6. However, he was booted into Losers’ side by Tekken god Arslan Ash in a blistering 2-0 defeat, and ultimately eliminated by Japanese pro Nobi.
PlayStationThanks to PlayStation Tournaments, fighting game players like Mok (right) were able to attend Evo 2024 and test their might against 10,000 other competitors.
In the end, Japanese Guilty Gear player Tatuma was the final PlayStation Tournaments winner left standing. In a stunning showing, he managed to fight his way through Winners’ side for the entire tournament up until the Grand Finals, where he faced off against Evo Japan champion NitroNY, an American pro hailing from New York.
He had already beaten Nitro in the Winners’ Semifinals 3-1 — but Nitro had clearly downloaded his moves, resetting the bracket 3-0 and taking the Evo 2024 championship 3-2. Tatuma fought hard, earning his spot at Evo through a swath of other online competitors, and then through pools of thousands of other players… but Nitro fought harder.
The fact that Tatuma was the only player to make it to the Grand Finals out of 17 other PlayStation Tournaments pros is a testament to just how difficult it is to become a legendary figure in the fighting game community. Making it out of pools filled with thousands of other competitors is hard enough; clawing your way through the rest of the bracket, stacked with ambitious players who know what they’re doing, is even more daunting.
PlayStationTatuma made it all the way to the Grand Finals at Evo 2024 for Guilty Gear Strive against Nitro.
In the end, Tatuma said he was “happy” earning second place — but admitted he “really wished” he had won. But if it wasn’t for PlayStation tournaments, his Grand Finals battle against Nitro wouldn’t have happened, nor would Raef have been able to stand on Evo’s Top 6 stage against Arslan Ash, nor would MKJavier have gotten the chance to face off against his rival SonicFox in front of the entire world at the biggest fighting game tournament of all time.
“I’ve always wanted to participate [in Evo] someday,” Tatuma admitted. “It’s not something that’s easy for me to do on my own.”
“I wanna thank them for this opportunity, giving people like me this kind of chance,” Raef said.
“I was dreaming about it ten years ago, and now I’m here,” Freenicius revealed.
Thanks to PlayStation Tournaments, fighting game fans were able to witness some truly mindblowing matches from players who otherwise wouldn’t have been likely to attend at all — and with Evo 2025 on the horizon, there’s only more amazing competition in store.
Think you can make it to the main stage? Road to Evo might just be your golden ticket. Join daily qualifying tournaments from May 11 – 31 to compete for cash prizes, plus the ultimate trip to Evo 2025 in Las Vegas.
17 made it last year—will you?
