EVO 2011: MVC3 and SSFIV: AE champions crowned, Daigo eliminated early in huge upset

In one of the largest EVO tournaments ever, yesterday's grand finals saw new champions for almost every game, most notably Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, where reigning champ Daigo "The Beast" Umehara was sent to loser's bracket in spectacular fashion by Korean newcomer Poongko. Poongko's almost telepathic Seth completely dominated Daigo's Yun, dizzying him multiple times, and much to the crowd's elation, scoring an unheard of Perfect on The Beast himself. Poongko also started the match off with a bang, ripping his shirt off and chugging a Red Bull to amp the crowd up.

AE finals were surprising, with both Yun players failing to make it to Grand Finals. Despite his massive success against Daigo, Poongko was eliminated by Japan's Fuudo, who played an incredibly patient and solid Fei Long. America/Saudi Arabia's Latif put in some fantastic play with C. Viper,eliminating Daigo from th tournament,but by the time Grand Finals arrived he looked significantly less confident against Fuudo’s Fei Long, losing three straight sets.

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 saw fighting game veterans Puerto Rican (PR) Balrog and Viscant go toe to toe, the highlight being an amazing come from behind victory from PR Balrog. Reduced only to Tron Bonne, a character who is generally used for her assist, PR Rog managed to defeat Viscant’s Dark Phoenix with an amazingly timed level 3 Hyper Combo grab. While Viscant lost that battle, he ultimately won the war, shutting down PR Rog with his deadly Wesker and Dark Phoenix play, bolstered by some incredibly effective use of Haggar’s lariat assist. Despite Viscant’s skilled play, some booing was heard in the crowd after he won, no doubt a result of his use of Phoenix/Dark Phoenix, an extremely contentious characterwithin the MVC3 community.

MK9 also had its EVO debut, generating a lot of hype from the crowd with some incredibly well played matches. Perfect Legend took the crown withhis brutal Kung Lao skills, makinggreat use of his block strings and teleport.
Other winners included Spark taking the Gold (or glass if you're literal minded), for BlazBlue Continuum Shift II, and Kor taking first in Tekken 6.

EVOwasn't just all about the tournament action, it also saw the debut of a new short filmBalrog: Behind the Glory, a hilarious take on the origin story of Balrog/M.Bison/boxer. The short also featured a quick shot of GamesRadar’s very own The World According to Street Fighter map. Watch the short in its entiretyright here. Other video debuts included the latest from fighting game glitch masters, Desk and Error1, and anotheramazing combo videofrom the guys at SonicHurricane.com

We've got interviews with SFIV/ Street Fighter Cross TekkenProducerYoshinori Ono,Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Producer Ryota Niitusma, Tekken Tag 2Producer Katsuhiro Harada, and Soulcalibur V Producer Daishi Odashima (phew) all on the way later this week.

Aug 1, 2011