EVO Japan 2020 Day 2 champions

EVO Japan is off to a great start, with day one concluding the tournament pools for BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Samurai Shodown, and Soulcalibur 6. Day two featured the Finals for all three of these games.

Just as expected, many top tier players for all six games showed up to prove their supremacy. It’s still early days in 2020, so things could swing anyway by the time each game’s competitive circuit comes to an end, but the headstart is still worth it.

This year’s event attracted huge numbers like usual, with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate receiving about 3,000 registrations. Street Fighter V: Champion Edition’s signups were just around half Smash’s number, while Tekken 7 received just under 1,000.

Here are the top 8 standings for BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Samurai Shodown, and Soulcalibur 6:

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle 

• 1. YG|Tsutomu "kubo" Kubota 
• 2. GRPT|Utsumi "DoraBang" Ryuji
• 3. nk_P
• 4. SPB|Noble
• 5. Shiroitori 
• 5. LOK|Shige 
• 7. Sakura Yukke 
• 7. Pizamayo 

Samurai Shodown 

• 1. Gamera 
• 2. Emujima 
• 3. AMTRS|Akihito “Score” Sawada
• 4. 7144|Hishow 
• 5. Betel 
• 5. KROne|Kota “AbaO” Suzuki
• 7. Katsuji 
• 7. Teru “Teru” Kazu

Soul Calibur 6 

• 1. BDG|Zain “BlueGod” T.
• 2. Yuttoto 
• 3. Illusion|Nathan “Linkorz” Mandell
• 4. PG|Jovian ”Shen Chan” Chan
• 5. Oplon|Jérémy “Skyll” Bernard
• 5. ASL|MoonSu “TheKura” Jang
• 7. Jashin 
• 7. PULSAR| Venceslas “Noobicyde” M.
  

Things at EVO Japan this year had some interesting developments that will make it one to remember. Probably the biggest is the fact that nearly 40% of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate participants were disqualified for not showing up to compete. Considering the event features open tournaments (free to enter), there’s no monetary commitment, so it's not uncommon for players to change their minds about competing. However, another big reason could be the tournament’s prizing, which has only first place receiving a special Nintendo Switch Pro controller. As underwhelming as it sounds, many top-tier players still showed up to the event like ProtoBanham, Shuto “Shuton” Moriya, Takuma “Tea” Hirooka, and Ishiguro “Raito” Tetsuya.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate wasn’t the only game that suffered large numbers of disqualified players, though. Tekken 7 EVO Japan 2019 and EVO 2019 champion Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique managed to scale through pools without playing a single match. Other players had a lot fewer matches than expected in the pools as well. Unfortunately for the champ, he didn't make it out of the Semifinals.

The big three fighting games at the event, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Tekken 7, all concluded their Semifinals today. With their top 8 determined, everything is set for the Finals tomorrow.

Here are the top 8 players competing in EVO Japan 2020 Day 3 events:

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 

• 5. SST|Shuto “Shuton” Moriya 
• 5. R2G|Yutaro “Paseriman” Nagumo
• 5. Kome 
• 5. Takuma “Tea” Hirooka
• 7. GW|Sota "Zackray" Okada 
• 7. Kengo “KEN” Suzuki
• 7. TG|Ishiguro “Raito” Tetsuya
• 7. Shky 

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition 

• 5. FAV|Naoto "sako" Sako
• 5. Kenryo "Mago" Hayashi
• 5. Seonwoo "Infiltration" Lee
• 5. DNG|Sato “Nauman” Ryo 
• 7. Du "NuckleDu" Dang
• 7. DNG|Hiromiki "Itabashi Zangief" Kumada
• 7. YG|Masahiro "Machabo" Tominaga
• 7. Kensuke "Trashbox" Ishikawa

Tekken 7 

• 5. Talon|Nopparut "Book" Hempamorn
• 5. Liquid|Genki "Gen" Kumisaka
• 5. THY|Yuta "Chikurin" Take
• 5. ITO|Ryoto “Mikio” Ikeda
• 7. COOASGAMES|Takumi "Noroma" Hamasaki 
• 7. EQNX|Soo-hoon "UlsanGoDing" Lim
• 7. Masa 
• 7. Enokawa “Zeugal” Futoshi

Asian players have dominated each tournament at EVO Japan 2020. Yet, that was always a strong possibility, considering the level of competition in the region. Catch all of tomorrow’s action via EVO's channels here, here and here.