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EVO 2019 lineup revealed, Super Smash Bros. Melee left out

The full EVO 2019 lineup was revealed. But Super Smash Bros. Melee is not among the nine games revealed and will miss the event for the first time since 2013.

Ozzie Mejia

February 26, 2019 6:30 PM

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It's that time of year, when the biggest fighting game tournament in the world decides on its lineup of games. EVO takes place every summer and brings in the top fighting game players in the world. While primarily playing home to the Street Fighter franchise, the annual tournament has also hosted a slew of top fighting games over the years, ranging from the Marvel vs. Capcom series, to the NetherRealm fighters, and even to Super Smash Bros. On Tuesday, Joey "MrWiz" Cuellar and Mark "Markman" Julio revealed the games that will take the stage this year.

Here are the games that will be played at EVO 2019:

• Tekken 7
• Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition
• BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Dragon Ball FighterZ
• SoulCalibur VI
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Samurai Shodown
• Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]

The biggest stunner is that this will mark the first time since 2013 that Super Smash Bros. Melee is not featured. Melee first debuted in 2013 as part of a fan vote, where it subsequently broke the EVO viewership record. It still surpassed 200,000 viewers during last year's finals. But with Ultimate bringing multiple Smash communities together, it does not appear that Melee is needed anymore. With that said, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate comes with heighened expectations. Cuellar notes that he expects it to ultimately break the 5,000 entrant mark, a bar only surpassed by Street Fighter V.

Cuellar also addressed EVO Sunday. In response to a question from Dominique "SonicFox" McLean, Cuellar noted that the final EVO day had started to run too long. Therefore, only four games will be featured on the final Sunday this year, as opposed to the five games from past years. Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle will be the four games featured on this year's final Sunday. The shocker here is that Dragon Ball FighterZ is not listed among the Sunday games, despite setting an EVO record for concurrent viewers with last year's Top 8.

Tuesday's stream also revealed that not only would Samurai Shodown be a part of the EVO lineup, but it also unveiled a new trailer, which we'll post as soon it becomes available. Samurai Shodown is set to release worldwide in early summer.

EVO 2019 will run from August 2-4 from Las Vegas, NV. The first two days will unfold from the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, with the final Sunday set to run from the Manadalay Bay Events Center. Tickets will be available on the official EVO website.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?