By Olivia Richman
Copyright escapistmagazine
The first-ever European-based Evo event is bringing the top FGC competitors to France from October 10th to October 12th. The final registration numbers have been revealed, showing some unsurprising trends. First, Evo France will be nowhere near as large as Evo 2025 or even Evo Japan 2025. Still, it’s a good showing for one of Evo’s new locations. Second, Street Fighter 6 will have the most competitors, another unsurprising reveal. However, Tekken 8 is not far behind. Here are the totals for the six biggest titles at Evo France. Image Credit: Evo Is Evo losing its prestige? When Evo announced that it was going to expand its tournaments to include France, Singapore, and maybe others, the FGC didn’t react similarly to how maybe the VALORANT or Dota community would. Top Tekken 8 player in the world, Arslan Ash, took to X to say that the event was losing its prestige by creating more events. “Evo used to feel like one legendary event where the whole world came to compete,” Arslan Ash tweeted. “Now with three Evo’s (and four next year), it’s slowly losing that prestige. I miss the days when there was only one Evo, one champion, one moment that defined the year.” The FGC had mixed feelings about the expansion at the time, with some agreeing that being an Evo champion means less the more opportunities there are to claim that title but others saying that creating more accessibility could expand the fighting game fanbase. The thing is, the FGC isn’t like other esports communities. They don’t want to be popular. Mainstream sponsorships have been met with hate now and in the past, with the FGC wanting to hold on to authenticity and high-level competition more than welcoming new fans. Chipotle, you can keep your money! While Evo expanding still seemed largely positive for the growth of the FGC, it was then announced that Sony Interactive Media was stepping down and a Saudi Arabian company, Qiddiya, is taking over. Does Saudi Arabia have a ton of money? Yes. Does Evo now feel like just another pawn in Saudi Arabia’s plans to take over the esports industry? Yes. The fighting game scene used to feel like its own little bubble of genuine grit and grassroots passion, but now it’s just going to have a ton of money thrown at it like everything else. More money is always a good thing when it comes to paying the players. They frankly deserve way more for winning these fighting game tourneys. But is it as prestigious as before? No, definitely not.
