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NEWS: Saudi Arabia's RTS Acquires EVO Fighting Game Tournaments




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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2947
PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 3:30 pm Reply with quote
Whelp, EVO's dead.
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TheRealMaria



Joined: 09 Jul 2025
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 3:58 pm Reply with quote
"Under RTS ownership, Evo's traditions, values, and identity will remain unchanged, with a continued focus on serving players, fans, and publishers at every level of the industry."

And here I was hoping this mean they'd abandon their infamous "core values" with this. Oh well.
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EmeraldSaucer



Joined: 31 Jan 2025
Posts: 936
PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 5:12 pm Reply with quote
Evo will certainly remain unchanged, just like how 96% ownership of SNK "doesn't affect us [SNK] in any way" and they would never include Cristiano Ronaldo of Al-Nassr and the prince's pet DJ in one of their games

But it's sad how much the FGC has been torn apart by flagrant sportswashing. We're basically down to Frosty, Combo Breaker, and CEO as the only majors with grassroots ties (and it's pretty sad when you're having to look to the event in the ass-end of Florida as your bastion of light). Even if Capcom Cup wasn't compromised by corporate greed trying to get people to spend money to watch a top 8 stream, they've so thoroughly gutted it from being THE big event for Street Fighter in the year to just being another feeder for the tourney that actually matters (the EWC, gotta boost that Riyadh tourism) that it kinda doesn't matter
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sdsichero
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Joined: 15 Oct 2009
Posts: 188
PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2026 3:14 am Reply with quote
Oh boy. Golf, this. They are certainly getting a foothold in entertainment
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Nekbone



Joined: 28 Dec 2023
Posts: 210
PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2026 11:42 am Reply with quote
EmeraldSaucer wrote:
But it's sad how much the FGC has been torn apart by flagrant sportswashing. We're basically down to Frosty, Combo Breaker, and CEO as the only majors with grassroots ties (and it's pretty sad when you're having to look to the event in the ass-end of Florida as your bastion of light). Even if Capcom Cup wasn't compromised by corporate greed trying to get people to spend money to watch a top 8 stream, they've so thoroughly gutted it from being THE big event for Street Fighter in the year to just being another feeder for the tourney that actually matters (the EWC, gotta boost that Riyadh tourism) that it kinda doesn't matter


To be fair the FGC has represented all the worst aspects of video games for over a decade now and EVO is the chief culprit in modern times. If this does end up being EVO's "downfall" then I say good riddance. But I doubt it will. Maybe it'll change, but I can only see it improving for the better if it does. At the very least maybe game companies will no longer have to chase EVO's approval and tailor make their games around that like DoA6 did and ensured no one - not even DoA fans - liked it. But I'm sure Street Fighter will still have their $100 season passes with or without EVO.
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Hellsoldier



Joined: 21 Jun 2013
Posts: 1149
Location: Porto,Portugal,Europe,Earth,Sol
PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2026 3:06 pm Reply with quote
They are everywhere, it seems. Sportswashing at its finest. I mean, they're even getting the FIFA World Cup, so...
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 7196
PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2026 3:13 pm Reply with quote
Nekbone wrote:
At the very least maybe game companies will no longer have to chase EVO's approval and tailor make their games around that like DoA6 did and ensured no one - not even DoA fans - liked it.


You mean by toning down the fanservice that wasn’t really toned down the same thing people complained about with 5 which also was not toned down?

Nekbone wrote:
But I'm sure Street Fighter will still have their $100 season passes with or without EVO.


Same way I’m sure DoA 7 will have it’s $90 dollar ones.


Last edited by BadNewsBlues on Mon Feb 23, 2026 4:08 pm; edited 1 time in total
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EmeraldSaucer



Joined: 31 Jan 2025
Posts: 936
PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2026 3:45 pm Reply with quote
And not even a day passed and they're already cooking up terrible decisions. First we got them making even more Evo events (read as: Evo Saudi Arabia) to distill its brand down even fruther from THE prestige fighting game event to a lame nonstop world tour with zero prestige. Then we got them wanting to do a decathlon where players have to play a bunch of different fighting games from different companies, something that could only be cooked up by people with no idea what fighting games are (because they don't, they just see it as another arm of sportswashing interchangeable from all the other ones)
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2947
PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2026 6:17 pm Reply with quote
Oh, so EVO isn't just dead, it's overkilled. What next, they put Mario Kart and Call of Duty into the mix because they wanna expand behind fighting games?
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Nate148



Joined: 24 May 2012
Posts: 656
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2026 12:28 am Reply with quote
BadNewsBlues wrote:
Nekbone wrote:
At the very least maybe game companies will no longer have to chase EVO's approval and tailor make their games around that like DoA6 did and ensured no one - not even DoA fans - liked it.


You mean by toning down the fanservice that wasn’t really toned down the same thing people complained about with 5 which also was not toned down?

Nekbone wrote:
But I'm sure Street Fighter will still have their $100 season passes with or without EVO.


Same way I’m sure DoA 7 will have it’s $90 dollar ones.

and that evo blocked because of "core values" doa 6 did not change anything really it was bad timeing some small system changes gatcha for hair changes and netcode
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TheRealMaria



Joined: 09 Jul 2025
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2026 1:42 pm Reply with quote
EmeraldSaucer wrote:
And not even a day passed and they're already cooking up terrible decisions. First we got them making even more Evo events (read as: Evo Saudi Arabia) to distill its brand down even fruther from THE prestige fighting game event to a lame nonstop world tour with zero prestige. Then we got them wanting to do a decathlon where players have to play a bunch of different fighting games from different companies, something that could only be cooked up by people with no idea what fighting games are (because they don't, they just see it as another arm of sportswashing interchangeable from all the other ones)


Don't see how this is "terrible" myself. Did you never play multiple games with your friends as a kid? We'd go from Street Fighter to TMNT Tournament Fighter to freaking PVP in Battletoads Laughing

They literally did this for NES World Championship back in the day but I doubt they'll have non-fighting games.
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Alphael



Joined: 19 Jun 2025
Posts: 70
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2026 2:03 pm Reply with quote
EmeraldSaucer wrote:
And not even a day passed and they're already cooking up terrible decisions. First we got them making even more Evo events (read as: Evo Saudi Arabia) to distill its brand down even fruther from THE prestige fighting game event to a lame nonstop world tour with zero prestige


The "prestigious fighting game event" that was founded by a sex pest who got exposed soliciting minors and paying them for sexual favors. The "prestigious event" that refused to have DOA as a main game for DOA5's entire era despite the game growing in spades at the tournament level and instead would have Tekken 7 tournaments when the game wasn't even released outside of Asia yet because they had a massive hatred of DoA that eventually led to the infamous "core values" blowup which people need to be reminded that it was said by the same founder who was outed as a genuine pedophile and had zero room to be making moral judgements of anyone or anything.

EVO never had prestige. And if it did, it was prestige from people who no one in the right mind wanted prestige from. It was a detriment and embarrassment to video games as whole let alone how it somehow became the focal point for everything wrong with modern fighting games kowtowing themselves for appeal from it Maybe under new profession ownership it can be something somewhat respectable and return to the good old days. I'll gladly take a DJ or soccer player some CEO likes having a cameo if it leads to an actual good event and all the worst aspects of it get flushed down the drain.
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EmeraldSaucer



Joined: 31 Jan 2025
Posts: 936
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2026 2:47 pm Reply with quote
TheRealMaria wrote:
EmeraldSaucer wrote:
And not even a day passed and they're already cooking up terrible decisions. First we got them making even more Evo events (read as: Evo Saudi Arabia) to distill its brand down even fruther from THE prestige fighting game event to a lame nonstop world tour with zero prestige. Then we got them wanting to do a decathlon where players have to play a bunch of different fighting games from different companies, something that could only be cooked up by people with no idea what fighting games are (because they don't, they just see it as another arm of sportswashing interchangeable from all the other ones)


Don't see how this is "terrible" myself. Did you never play multiple games with your friends as a kid? We'd go from Street Fighter to TMNT Tournament Fighter to freaking PVP in Battletoads Laughing

They literally did this for NES World Championship back in the day but I doubt they'll have non-fighting games.


There's a difference between messing around as a kid and the NES World Championship (which is barely a few steps above kids messing around) and presenting it as an actual competition with actual prize money on the line. It's something that already exists in the FGC in the form of Mystery Tournaments, but those are randomly picked games ranging from Street Fighter to Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale where the goal is just to have a fun side event, not "uncover who is truly the Grandmaster of fighting games". That can only come from someone who has zero clue on how difficult fighting games are and how few people actually accel at playing multiple wildly different games

Alphael wrote:
The "prestigious fighting game event" that was founded by a sex pest who got exposed soliciting minors and paying them for sexual favors.


MrWizard was not the founder of Evo, that was Tom Cannon (who got it off the ground after Battle by the Bay was a success, which was primarily organized by his brother Tony Cannon). That you would think this tells me that you know very little about this subject and just want a reason to complain about perceived censorship and thus don't need to be taken seriously (though you make that very clear by the end, where you say you'd rather back the country that's buying out these sporting organizations to try to clean up their image, due to them still practicing slavery among countless other human rights violations, because that doesn't involve them not showing boobies on stream)
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2998
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2026 3:50 pm Reply with quote
EmeraldSaucer wrote:
There's a difference between messing around as a kid and the NES World Championship (which is barely a few steps above kids messing around) and presenting it as an actual competition with actual prize money on the line. It's something that already exists in the FGC in the form of Mystery Tournaments, but those are randomly picked games ranging from Street Fighter to Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale where the goal is just to have a fun side event, not "uncover who is truly the Grandmaster of fighting games". That can only come from someone who has zero clue on how difficult fighting games are and how few people actually accel at playing multiple wildly different games


I don't think there's anything wrong with having a tournament to determine who's the greatest "Jack of All Trades" in the competitive FGC scene, but a JOAT (by its very definition) is also a "Master of None", so therefore the best JOAT can never also be a "Grandmaster".

The concept is fine, but the way it's being promoted is ridiculous.
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lufia2rocks



Joined: 22 Aug 2025
Posts: 63
PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2026 1:22 am Reply with quote
I look forward to seeing how they can fix and improve EVO. Maybe it'll be worth watching again.
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