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EVO 2020 lineup revealed, Mortal Kombat 11 gets left out

The EVO 2020 line-up of games has been announced, and there were quite some surprises, including NetherRealm falling by the wayside altogether in this year's lineup.

TJ Denzer

February 4, 2020 7:30 PM

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It’s never too early to get ready for EVO, and now we know what we’ll be playing at the tournament. EVO President Joey Cuellar and others from the EVO staff went live to share 2020’s mainstage games, complete with everything you would probably expect, plus a few surprises.

The EVO mainstage game lineup was revealed on February 4, 2020 via an EVO Twitch livestream. During the stream we got to see plenty of interesting inclusions. We also got new details on registration for the game.

EVO 2020 main stage lineup

EVO 2020 is featuring eight mainstage games this year. The list is as follows:

• Super Smash Bros Ultimate
• Tekken 7
• Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition
• Dragon Ball FighterZ
• Samurai Shodown
• Granblue Fantasy Versus
• Soul Calibur 6
• Under Night: In-Birth Exe:Late cl-r

There will be another event at EVO 2020, but instead of a traditional tournament, it will instead be an 8-player invitational tournament of champions featuring Marvel vs Capcom 2. Previous champions Justin Wong, Sanford Kelly, Duc Do, and Michael "IFC Yipes" Mendoza are already announced as the first 4 players and the last four players will be selected via events or methods to be determined later.

The major shocker here is the lack of any and all NetherRealm games on the roster, especially with Mortal Kombat 11 still fresh and in full swing. The last time a NetherRealm game wasn’t on the EVO mainstage was all the way back in 2010. The 2011 Mortal Kombat made its debut at EVO 2011, which kicked off a run of Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, and then Mortal Kombat 11 in EVO 2019 in its first year and maiden voyage. No doubt, there’s a number of reasons Mortal Kombat 11 isn’t making the list, but it’s shocking and unfortunate nonetheless, echoing the strangeness of Super Smash Bros Melee when it was taken off the list in 2019 – except for the fact that Mortal Kombat 11 is a new game with continuing updates and a healthy competitive scene.

Blazblue Cross Tag Battle being taken off the roster is strange too, considering the latest content for the game isn’t very old and more content is undoubtedly going to continue to be added, but being replaced with Granblue Fantasy Versus isn’t such a bad thing. Cygames and Arc System Works’ new baby is stylish and sleek like Guilty Gear Xrd, but with an extremely simplistic control style that is appealing to newcomers and easy to grasp, yet with plenty of room for mastery by veteran players.

EVO 2020 is slated to take place at the Mandalay Bay Hotel Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 31, 2020 to August 2, 2020. If you’d like to get more information, check out rules, register to play or spectate, or book a hotel room for the event, be sure to check out the EVO 2020 website to get the latest news and information.

What do you think about Mortal Kombat being taken off the main stage this year? What are you most excited to check out this year at EVO 2020? Let us know in the Shacknews Chatty comment section below.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.