Evo 2014
The 2014 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2014 or EVO 2014) was a fighting game event held in at Westgate Las Vegas on July 11–13. The event featured a major tournament for eight fighting games, including "Ultra Street Fighter IV" and "". The event was part of the first Capcom Pro Tour. Background. Evo 2014 was announced in September 2013 and was slated to feature primarily Xbox 360 versions of fighting games. As the first Capcom Pro Tour was announced in March 2014, Evo was scheduled to be one of its ten first "Premier Events". Capcom  announced a month later that the company would provide a bonus $10,000 USD to the prize pool of Evo's "Ultra Street Fighter IV" tournament. Nintendo also sponsored the event, which was noted as a surprising shift in policy after the company tried to shut down the "Super Smash Bros." portion of the event in 2013. All of the tournaments held at Evo 2014 were livestreamed and available for free on the Twitch online video service. Evo 2014 broke the record for the largest "Super Smash Bros. Melee" competition up to that point, with 970 entrants. The "Ultra Street  Fighter IV" tournament also broke its record, with nearly 2,000 players competing for the title. The event, held at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on July 11–13, had a total prize pool of US$100,000 and was described by "IGN" as "the 'World Cup' of competitive fighting games." Games. Eight major tournaments were held at Evo 2014. The games played were: 2014 was the first year to feature "Killer Instinct" as a main title at the Evolution Championship Series. The 2013 Xbox One release of the game was well received by both critics and the fighting game community. "Injustice : Gods Among Us" failed to impress audiences at Evo 2013, and Ozzie Mejia of "Shack News" suggested that, if the game were to disappoint again, it was likely it wouldn't return in 2015. Reveals. Bandai Namco revealed the first trailer for "Tekken 7" at Evo 2014. NetherRealm Studios announced that the character Raiden would return in "Mortal Kombat X", which was to be released the following year. Meanwhile Microsoft announced that Maya would be the next character to be added to "Killer Instinct". Nintendo showed a video of Reggie Fils-Aimé thanking the fighting game community for their dedication  to the "Super Smash Bros." series during the "Melee" finals. Tournament summary. The "Ultra Street Fighter IV" tournament was won by Olivier "Luffy" Hay, playing on a PlayStation gamepad rather than a more traditional arcade controller. Luffy, playing as the character Rose won against Japanese player Bonchan in the finale. Daigo Umehara finished outside of the Top 8 at Evo 2014 for the first time in the tournament's history. Playing as the character Litchi, Japanese player Garireo won the "BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma" tournament. Coming out of the loser's bracket, Garireo's final match against Dogura's Azrael was  considered highly impressive by journalist. Mike Fahey of "Kotaku" described his 3-to-2 win as "the most intense battle Of EVO 2014" up to that point, and Earnest Cavalli of "Engadget" called it the "most thrilling competitive drama" of the weekend. Garireo won over US$23,000 at the tournament. The "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom" tournament was won by Justin Wong after making a high-tension comeback against Filipino Champ in the winners finals, and would go on to defeat Chris G in the grand finals. Meanwhile, the "Super Smash Bros. Melee" tournament was won by Mango, who defeated Hungrybox in  the finale and won US$5,820.