Hiya!

The fighting game community is bracing for a bigger and better EVO this year. Yes, the biggest fighting game tournament had embraced a few changes last year and it also had a ton of exciting moments. There was still some room for improvement. Rather, there was space to return to the status quo and it looks like we’ll be getting some of them back, like the return of Top 8s for the finals instead of just Top 6. Besides EVO Japan, we’ll also be getting a new international EVO tournament in France as well. All-in-all, there’s a lot to look forward to.

Still another new innovation from EVO in 2025 is the new EVO Awards. This is more of a community driven venture where the winners will be based on the votes cast by the fighting game community. There are a ton of categories to vote for and, well, being someone in the fighting game community myself, I decided to place my votes based on my extensive limited knowledge with all fighting games. So, let’s go through the categories and place my votes!

I do have to say, if I’m unsure of what to vote for, I will be skipping the category. So, don’t expect me to see a vote for everything here. Sometimes, you have to think for yourself, okay? Stop relying on me too much! Anyway, on with the voting!

Best Button

For me, the winner of Best Button has to be the normal attack which is just plain oppressive. Something that has very few weaknesses and strong enough you can use over and over again. To me, that’s Street Fighter 6‘s Ken‘s crouching medium kick all day.

First off, I did remove Tekken 8‘s Dragunov‘s Ignition Switch from contention as it’s a command move, not a button. So, technically, it shouldn’t be on the list as it’s not “a button.” Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising‘s Dash Light Attack is a universal mechanic so, even if it is super good, it’s a super good move every character has access to. Mortal Kombat 1‘s Johnny Cage‘s Forward+3 is good but does have a short range. The reason why I picked Ken’s crouching medium kick over Luke‘s crouching medium punch is, while both attacks have good range and are cancellable, Ken’s crouching medium kick hits low, making it much more deadly against people walking back. Simple reasoning, huh?

Best Comeback

This is one category where I do have to base my vote on how exciting the comeback was. Even that is based on a lot of factors, such as how good the players nominated are, how well known they are as well as which character they picked to make the comeback. For this, my vote has to go to Hayao‘s Hugo managing to make it out of the Loser’s Quarterfinals during the Street Fighter III: Third Strike tournament at EVO 2024.

Even if you cut out Hayao’s antics throughout the tournament, this was one of the most hype moments in all of EVO’s history. Not only was Hayao using a “low tier” character with Hugo, he was facing off against Ken, a “top tier” character and he beat him using pure skill (as shown by him air parrying Ken’s jumping Hurricane kick) and game knowledge (by using Hugo’s utterly worthless standing heavy kick to get off Ken’s Super Art).

What’s even more amazing is he did this with a pixel of health, meaning, if he made a single mistake throughout this entire sequence, Hayao’s Hugo would get KOed from chip damage. Heck, call it EVO Moment #38! It’s that good!

Best Content Creator

This is a category I have a good amount of knowledge about as these guys are the ones I usually get my Street Fighter knowledge from. I am sad I can’t vote for everyone but, when all is said and done, I will have to give my vote for Best Content Creator to Brian_F. That’s because he has either full/lengthy videos on his primary channel or bite sized stuff on his Clips channel.

Simply put, I’m more of a Clips kind of gal since I don’t really want to spend too much time just gawking through lengthy YouTube videos. I will do so sometimes but, when I’m on the road, I spend most of my time watching short form videos. Thankfully, Brian_F makes it easy for me to pick and choose. If I’m in the mood for something longer, I can go to his main channel. If I don’t have the time, I have access to his Clips channel. While everyone does make really good content, I like the idea of putting shorter videos on one channel and Brian_F does just that.

Best Meme

For me, the winner of the Best Meme would have to be something which isn’t just self-contained in the fighting game community. The Best Meme has to cross over to the mainstream consciousness. So, is it any surprise I have to pick Justin Wong‘s alter-ego, The Wazzler, when Marvel vs. Capcom 2 got re-released with the Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics bundle?

It’s not entirely surprising how news about Justin Wong/The Wazzler’s rampage online making news in gaming news websites. However, to see websites like Rolling Stone reporting on The Wazzler destroying fools in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, that means it’s more than just an insider joke. So, yeah. It deserves to win in this category.

Best Pop-Off

There were a lot of hard-earned wins in 2024 so there were a lot of pop-offs worth considering… except for Punk‘s mouthing off during Street Fighter League as this was just too brief and, hoenstly, not that entertaining to watch. Among the rest of the nominees, once again, I have to give the win to Hayao here.

Not only was the pop-off an explosion of emotion from both the player and the crowd, Hayao’s antics and just general good vibes simply elevated the experience. He was just having a good time and that joy infected the live audience as well as all the viewers around the world to start cheering him on. So, when he did make that comeback, the energy was over 9,000, to say the least.

Content of the Year

2024 was a super good year for content and most of us in the fighting game community were eating good. However, practically all of that content was geared specifically for the fighting game community and didn’t really try to bring new people in. This is precisely why I have to say the Sajam‘s Sajam Tekken Slam deserves to win Content of the Year.

The Sajam Slam is a pretty fun idea as it’s kind of an outreach program from Sajam, one of the biggest fighting game content creators and commentators, to those outside the fighting game community. He tries to get other content creators who may have never touched a fighting game in their lives to compete in a team tournament against others like them. This is an extremely good idea as, through these other content creators, he tries to get gamers from different walks of life to see if fighting games might be fun through these popular content creators.

While I did get into the Sajam Slam when they did Street Fighter 6, I was interested enough to see the earlier session when Tekken 8 was the game of choice. This tournament was fun to see as you can see beginners enjoying the learning process as well as see them slowing improving throughout the entire tournament.

Match of the Year

Oooh, this was a tough one. All of the nominees in this category were bangers. You would think I would give Hayao his 3rd vote for his performance but, no. As good as it was, I do think the other nominees were better matches overall. Heck, most of them were down to the wire, reaching the final game and final round. With all of that to consider, I will say the Street Fighter 6 finals at EVO 2024 has to get my vote.

Ever since the inception of EVO, America has been wanting to see one of their hometown heroes win the Street Fighter tournament. Punk came very close but he was denied in 2017 thanks to Tokido. It was a heartbreaking loss as he was the favorite and you could even see how upset he was during the awarding ceremony.

Punk could not be denied in 2024, however, as he beat Big Bird in a nailbiter of a Grand Finals. Not only did Punk get some form of redemption this time, he was able to give America their very first win at Street Fighter at EVO. How can this not be the Match of the year?

Moment of the Year

Among all of the categories here, this would have to be my most controversial pick yet. All of my votes have some kind of logical reasoning as to why I’m picking them to win. Here, I’m picking with my heart and my heart tells me LiliPichu vs Tekken’s head honcho, Harada, during an EVO exhibition match has to win.

Despite this being a match of very little significance, this is my pick simply because it was super fun! Seeing Harada getting beat in his own game is always fun but he always has a good sense of humor about it. Seeing LilyPichu’s face start from being nervous to being elated at the end after winning a close match also put a huge smile on my face. So, yeah. I have to pick this one because of how happy this made me.

Byee!

Who did you pick to win during the EVO Awards? Let me know in the comments section below!