On May 1st, 2026, Victor “Punk” Woodley put out a tweet saying that Evo Japan has been a bad experience every single year for him, that it might be his final time going to the tournament due to his experience.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated problem, as a bunch of top players from across fighting games have shared his sentiment.
From Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzalez to William “Leffen” Hjelte, they all share the opinion that the tournament simply did a bunch of things wrong for the players, which also affects the viewing experience of those watching it at home.
Evo has been the crowning glory of the FGC for years now, and it comes with the expectation that the event would run smoothly and that every viewer at home would have a fun time. In recent years, however, the tournament has undergone expansion, driven by the Saudi government-owned RTS’s purchase of the tournament.
What was once held only in Las Vegas has now become a worldwide circuit, making it available to hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the FGC. While it has been criticized by some of the top players in the FGC, such as Tekken player Arslan “Arslan Ash” Sidiqque, there’s no doubt that the tournament’s global expansion has shed light on some local legends that don’t have the monetary support to travel to Las Vegas.
With that being said, each of the new tournaments still has “Evo” in its name, and that carries the same expectation: A smooth tournament and a smooth viewing experience. Evo Japan did not deliver in any of those.
The Symptom: Evo Legends Live: Daigo vs MenaRD
It should’ve been apparent that the tournament would be a nightmare when the event the day before it started had technical difficulties. The event was Evo Legends Live, featuring the main event: Daigo vs MenaRD, a first-to-10 match between two Street Fighter legends.
Now, before the main event, there are a couple of undercard matches. Guess what? The first one took over an hour just to start. The second one? Pretty much the same case. This kind of waiting time is wild, considering each match wouldn’t even take that much time. Basically, the whole streaming time was doubled because of it.
With that said, it’s safe to assume that the staff has learned from their mistakes and carry the momentum of being able to salvage a pretty major FGC event and hold the best tournament this year has yet to offer, right?
Well… not really.
Evo Japan Doesn’t Deserve the “Evo” Name
The very next day, top players from across a variety of games voiced their disappointment regarding the tournament. Punk mentioned that the tournament’s consoles overheated, causing him to lose games because his character would walk back and do nothing.
Players like Benjamin “Problem X” Simon, on the other hand, have complaints about the TO’s decision not to allow players to warm up before their matches.
Perhaps the most scalding criticism of all comes from fighting game veteran NYChrisG, who wrote a wall of text highlighting his experience in the middle of the tournament. To give you a rundown, he opens his rant by saying that he’s heard that every Evo Japan was a “garbage tournament,” but “I had to see it for myself.”
“Instantly, I had issues,” said NYChrisG in the rant and highlighted the fact that “Dqs [sic] and stuff were so late, I was able to show up almost an hour later.”
And because things were so late, his games have overlapped.
He continued: “The way the Japanese people run the tournament, it seems everything has to be done so professionally and precisely, that even a simple thing has to go through three chains of command. Nobody here makes their own decision (even if it’s super tiny). So you can tell, things took long, and sometimes can get a little annoying.
“I just wanna play the game and be on my way. I don’t care about anything else.”
He then went on to ramble about how the 2XKO tournament “was oooof in general,” admitting that he’s never seen a 2XKO tournament that ran well. This is also backed up by Leffen with a tweet, saying that his Winner’s Semifinal match with Supernoon in the Top 8 of 2XKO had huge lag spikes for some reason.
The downtime was cut from the video Evo uploaded to YouTube, but it’s pretty obvious because there’s a transition before cutting to the casters.
Finally, NYChrisG ended his rant saying that: “Overall, I think if this tournament wasn’t in Japan, it might be safe to say this event would be a wash. Sucks cause there’s a lot of good people involved. Too bad, realistically it doesn’t/didn’t matter.”
This is pretty huge coming from a two-time EVO champion.
It’s not just those who flew over who were having trouble. Cosa, a Street Fighter 6 player from Japan who finished 9th in this event, also mentioned that the PlayStation 5 settings for Street Fighter 6 weren’t correct.
Another part of Evo Japan that had a problem was Betty’s OG Hunt, in which a female Japanese Street Fighter 6 content creator, Betty, plays against the game’s legends. She has been consistently taking down legacy Japanese players, including legendary caster Ryutaro “Aru” Noda, who was also a strong fighting game player before switching to casting.
Last year, at Evo Vegas, she expanded her content to try to take down those from overseas, with Justin Wong as her first target. That didn’t go well for her as Justin took her down, being the only opponent who survived her “hunt.” This year at Evo Japan, she had her sights on Ryan Hart, a real legend of the fighting game community, and successfully took him down.
But since this was Evo Japan, the feed had errors, so the cameraman tried to broadcast the match by pointing the camera at one of the monitors on stage. One commenter said, “This is so OG, they’re throwing it back to filming a TV screen.”
While the comment is hilarious, this kind of technical difficulty should not be anywhere near a premier event in the FGC. Her important moment was destroyed.
What’s even worse is that this isn’t the first time Evo Japan has had technical problems. Evo Japan 2025 also had some of them throughout the top eight of Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. This lasted until the Grand Finals, which is just unacceptable for an event this important for the FGC.
The fact that this has been happening for years should be a cause for concern for the Evo Japan staff. These should’ve been ironed out days before the actual tournament, and everything should’ve been tested and checked to make sure that every single competitor in the venue will have a great time.
But time and time again, Evo Japan continues to disappoint.
So, What’s the Fix?
So, what’s the fix? To be quite honest, I’m not so sure. Last year, neither Evo Vegas nor Evo France had any major technical difficulty. If there was, it’s so minuscule that pretty much nobody has talked about it. However, whenever it comes to Evo Japan, there’s always a problem with the console and the management.
Personally, I would look to Intel Extreme Masters for Counter-Strike 2 for inspiration. Every time I sit down and watch an IEM tournament, I know I’m in for a good time and that everything will be as seamless as possible. I’m not saying that fighting game tournaments should copy everything IEM is doing; I’m saying the Evo Japan staff could learn from the IEM staff.
With the RTS purchase, I think Evo should have some extra funds to send the Evo Japan staff overseas for training by professionals to ensure nothing like this happens again.
Because in my eyes, Evo Japan 2026 was an embarrassment, and it doesn’t deserve the Evo suffix at all.
