Evo 2016: The Real Winners and Losers of the World's Best Fighting Game Tourney

Evo 2016 came, it saw, it kicked...butt. The 20-year-old annual fighting game tournament put on an amazing show for eSports fans with nine massive tournaments for some of the world's most popular fighting games. 

In addition to all the fast-paced action and nail-biting drama that comes with fighting games, Evo upped the ante this year by teaming up with ESPN, renting out Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Events Center—a venue that has hosted the UFC, NBA, LCS and a number of boxing matches—and packing it full. The result was a massive, exciting and, above all, hyped show. 

But as the eSports world tries to recover, it's worth taking a deeper look at what was an electric show. So join Bleacher Report as we take a deeper look at the show.

Who really won Evo 2016 outside of the people who took home medals, trophies and checks? Who lost? Read on and find out.

Real Winner: The Fighting Game Community

Fighting games as a whole have always inhabited a strange space in the video game world, and more often than not they've been behind the times.

As the gaming industry shifted from arcades to home consoles, Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat kept quarters as the most precious form of currency.

As PC shooters like Quake and Rainbow Six began popularizing online multiplayer, fighting games were just starting to see consistent console releases on par with their arcade equivalents.

Even when online play finally became standard fare for console gamers with the advent of Xbox Live in 2002, it took years for publishers to figure out how to create a code that allowed a solid user experience over the internet. 

It wasn't until 2005 with Dead or Alive Ultimate that it was shown fighting games still had a place in an industry defined by MMORPGs and first-person shooters. It wasn't until 2009, with the release of Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger and King of Fighters XII that fighting games showed the world they still offered everything a gamer could want. And it wasn't until 2016 that fighting games finally hit the mainstream again.

Evo 2016 was a long overdue coming-out party for the original eSports genre, and it showed off how exciting, how intense and how amazing fighting games truly are. The matches were intense, the drama was heavy and the broadcasts on both Twitch and ESPN2 were clean and well done. 

This was a home run for fighting gamers and this writer cant wait to see what comes next.

Real Winner: The Smash Bros. Community in Particular

The entire fighting game community reaped the rewards of a successful Evo 2016, but the biggest beneficiary was most likely the Super Smash Bros. community. The turnout for both Melee and Smash 4 broke records and delivered some of the best, hottest action of the event.

And capping it all off? The electrifying matches between Team Liquid's Juan "HungryBox" Debiedma and Adam "Armada" Lindgren of Alliance. 

Street Fighter V was the main event, and rightly so. But Smash Bros. is what stole the show.

Real Losers: Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara

When all is said and done, Justin Wong will most likely go down as the best fighting game player of all time. His longtime rival, Daigo Umehara? Well, he could very well go down as the greatest Street Fighter player of all time. That simple fact made it sad that both men fell short of the Street Fighter V top eight and, as such, never had the chance to shine under the bright spotlight of the ESPN2 broadcast of the tournament.

In Umehara's case, it wasn't especially surprising. Despite being the unquestioned king of SF2—building a resume as one of the top SF3 players for the game's entire lifespan and enjoying elite status in SF4 for years—he hasn't fared especially well in SFV to this point.

He recently discussed his frustration with the lack of an arcade release for the title and questioned its longevity without one, per Shoryuken's Zavian Sildra. Few were expecting Umehara to make an especially strong run, and few eyebrows were raised when he was bumped to the losers brackets by Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi before being sent home by Wong.

However, many were taken aback by Wong's struggles. After getting sent to the losers bracket by an upset loss to Henri "Chi-Rithy" Oung, Wong worked his way to the round of 16 portion of the tournament before being eliminated by eventual fourth-place finisher Goichi "Go1-3151" Kishida. It was a sad ending for Wong's SFV run at Evo, and a less-than-emphatic rebound effort following a 2015 that saw him fail to make the top eight in any title.

It's worth noting that neither man played poorly at Evo. Umehara's two losses came against the No. 2- and No. 3-ranked players in the game, according to Shoryuken's rankings. Wong's loss to Chi-Rithy stemmed, at least in part, from a difficult matchup for his character, Karin. Still, there's no question that Wong, Umehara and fighting game fans in general wanted to see two of their legends throw down on national television.

Hopefully Evo 2017 is even bigger than 2016 and Wong and Umehara can get some of the recognition they so richly deserve.

Real Loser: Nintendo

Nintendo has a well-earned bad reputation among competitive gaming fans.

In 2013, the Big Red Machine sicced lawyers on Evo organizers in an effort to shut down the return of Super Smash Bros. Melee to the world's largest fighting game tournament. That, by the way, came after the game was readded through a competitive charity drive where Smash fans donated over $94,000 USD to breast cancer charity research in order to have the game added to the Evo lineup.

Then, in 2015, came an internetwide crackdown on Let's Play channels that forced content creators on YouTube to adhere to a number of guidelines while also giving Nintendo a substantial cut of any revenue generated by the videos. The policy, if this writer is being generous, was received poorly.

Despite all of Nintendo's efforts, the Smash Bros. community has thrived over the last three years, and alongside them, a new community is rapidly developing around Wii U title Pokken Tournament. Evo 2016 was Nintendo's chance to finally show some long-overdue support for the people that play their games and, well, they didn't.

While they didn't actively try to ruin the event as they did in 2013, they did little to support the people that have dedicated their lives to their games. While NetherRealm Studios and Capcom both sent $50,000 checks to bolster the prize pools of their games, Nintendo couldn't spare a dime. While Guilty Gear director Daisuke Ishiwatari and Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada both appeared on stage to thank their fans and make announcements for their respective games, Nintendo was conspicuously absent from the proceedings.

An on-stage appearance for a Reggie Fils-Aime or Masahiro Sakurai would have done a lot of work in rebuilding bridges with the communities that surround their games. So, too, would a five-figure check for the winners.

Yes, Nintendo did something to acknowledge Evo, featuring some players on their social media channels and giving a shoutout to both Smash Bros. winners. They owe their fans and players more, though. Much, much more.

Real Winner: Dominique "SonicFox" McLean

Dominique "SonicFox" McLean is quickly becoming one of the top stars of Evo. Known for his fuzzy tuque and marauding play in NetherRealm Studios-made games, he posted arguably the strongest performance across all of Evo this year in his run to the top of Mortal Kombat XL. 

After making his way to the upper half of the top-eight bracket, SonicFox posted back-to-back 3-0 matches to earn his way to the grand finals. While he briefly seemed fazed after dropping a game to runner-up Sayed "Tekken Master" hashim Ahmed in the grand finals, he quickly composed himself and returned to form, dominating his way to the No. 1 spot.

That is the third straight championship year for SonicFox, having also come out on top of 2014's Injustice: Gods Among Us and 2015's Mortal Kombat X tournaments. With his now-iconic hat and magnetic personality, he could easily become an eSports star if competitive Mortal Kombat can gain more traction in the mainstream.

Real Winner: The Korean eSports Scene

First it was StarCraft. Then it was League of Legends. Now it's fighting games. South Korea, once again, proved itself to be an absolutely unstoppable force in eSports at Evo 2016.

After generally dominating the field in Tekken 7, with four players in the top six spots (including a first-place finish for Jin-woo "Saint" Choi), Korea followed up with a seventh-place finish in Gyung-woo "TopGaren" Yu in Guilty Gear Xrd and, of course, a first-place finish for Seon-woo "Infiltration" Lee in Street Fighter V. 

That, of course, only speaks to the games represented at Evo. Korea has produced top-eight finishes at previous Evos in games like Street Fighter X Tekken and King of Fighters XIII. That success will almost certainly continue to grow and, depending on the lineup for Evo 2017, we may see Korea take over yet another genre.

And that speaks to how amazing Evo 2016 was. It's hard not to already be excited for next year.