Much like last year, this year's tournaments took place in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Every Top 6 of the mainline tournaments took place in an arena built within the building.
Announced on February 6, 2024, the following games returned as a mainline game: Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive and King of Fighters XV. Four games from previous franchises made their debut as a mainline tournament: Tekken 8, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Under Night In-Birth II and Mortal Kombat 1. Street Fighter III: Third Strike returned as a singles tournament for the first time since 2008. The game was last featured as a 2v2 tournament in 2009. Several other tournaments took place as part of the EVO Community Showcase as well as many more unofficial tournaments.[1]
Namco announced the return of Heihachi Mishima, thought to be dead after the events of the story of the previous game, to playable status with a gameplay trailer for Tekken 8. Capcom released a teaser trailer for Terry Bogard, someone who was previously announced as a future playable character for Street Fighter 6. Lucy from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was revealed as a Season Pass 4 for Guilty Gear Strive, the first guest character in franchise history. Venom and Dizzy were also revealed to be characters set to be part of the season pass. CyGames released a gameplay trailer for Versusia as the next character for Granblue Fantasy Versus:Rising. The trailer teased Vikala and Sandalphon as future characters for the game. A gameplay trailer for Samurai Jack was released for Multiversus with a release date of July 23 as well as a teaser for Beetlejuice. SNK revealed a gameplay trailer of Kevin Rian for Fatal Futy: City of the Wolves as well as Vice and Mature for King of Fighters XV. The company also announced a new Art of Fighting game as well as a Samurai Showdown action RPG. Uzuki was revealed in a gameplay trailer for Under Night In-Birth II.[3]
Victor Woodley
Adel Anouche
Samuel Arm
Yusuke Momochi
Kuang Zhen
Arslan Siddique
Lim Soo-hoon
Raef Alturkistani
Atir Yosef
William Hjelte
Ismaila Gueye
John K.
Clairet Jocelyn
Jaden E.
Mario Silva
Nicolás Martínez
Pedro Ribeiro
Javier Alonso
Lin Chiahung