EVO 2024 Weekend Recap 

RIP Jiyuna. He would've loved EVO

Lily vs. Harada was legit one of the most exciting matches of the whole event. The slo-mo Matterhorn at the end of game 2 was the hypest shit ever holy crap.

This was one of my absolute favorite Evos. Genuinely don't have a single complaint, and those Sunday Grand Finals all ended up being insanely fun to watch.

I started tearing up when Punk started tearing up😭

someone who worked on evo - sunday situation happened because the fire marshal got involved due to the crowd in the final stage

2nd evo attending, 1st evo competing. Didn't go 0-2 in anything (3S, 6, T8), had a great time. Wish i coulda stopped by during your meet and greet.

The arena on Sunday was a disaster! There were no water stations in the arena section, so we were stuck with $6 waters or free red bulls, and the lines to the 2 bathrooms in the section were an hour long. At one point I was at the end of the line for the bathroom and Jebailey came up to a group of us and asked what the line was for, and he responded with "Jesus fing Christ" and just walked backstage. A minute later a worker from the convention center led us to a roped off section in the front. so that was pretty cool lol

I was impressed by you and Yipes filling time during the controller issue thing. I was chuckling the whole time.

My main takeaway was the unbelievable performance from endingwalker at only age 17. That kid is winning next year for sure, what a beast.

This year's Evo was incredible both on a professional and casual level. Must've been so fun for lots of the Sajam contestants and their first times there!

I was in the food line during Tekken finals for about a hour and 20 minutes watching on twitch. I had to get my friend to switch in my friend since I had to go to the bathroom and right when he got to me, the finals ended. So the line just ballooned from like 8 people to like 50. I was really anticipating they get another hall for the arena and just have it massive like longways.

Haha "Do not perceive me" is absolutely crazy 🤣.

To be fair to Evo staff, the reason they were turning away even someone like sajam was at one point the fire Marshal told the staff "if you let a single person inside we are shutting down the ENTIRE event"

The ad breaks were WAY better this year, than it has been since Playstation took over. Previous years, I use to feel like every stream I was watching would just be ads around a certain time. But, this year I had TOO many stuff I wanted to watch happening at the same all the time. I had to watch one stream while listening to the audio of another, then immediately switch to a third when one of the first two ended.

As someone who attended Evo for the first time ever, I had a great time; you and Yipes killed it on Sunday for the Street Fighter finals......but flights suck like hell

Was watching max the whole time. Incredible show.

Punk crying this EVO, but he won, broke those wack accusations, and SvC Chaos dropping out of nowhere was crazy.

I truly love your willingness to talk shit about the events you work

The energy inside the arena Sunday was electric, so glad i made it inside

my second time at evo and it was even better than the first. meeting all my favorite creators and playing tekken with a few of them was beyond dope.

I've been going to EVO for a while (since 2016, the first year at the arena) and while I'm glad that they kept the convention part of the venue open on Sunday (my friend who didn't care about any of the Sunday games just played UNI all day), I do have to say that as someone who does want to watch the big Sunday games, the experience of Sunday wasn't any different from previous years, get to the arena early and never leave. The issue comes from the much smaller space, leaving me having to wait 1.5 hours for food in the middle of Tekken and long bathroom lines, and because of the capacity issue, you either couldn't get into the arena or were effectively trapped inside it. I was nursing a headache all day and couldn't get Advil out of fear of not being let back in. Overall, they were clearly missteps, and I hope that they can fix them for future years, because I'll still come back every time. (It was nice getting a picture with you, glad you liked the domino effect meme I made)

Just wanna say u did a great job, Sajam. You are one of my favorite commentators.

Mad appreciate all the work you put in, this was the first EVO for the group I was watching with at home, you were everyone's fave.

Evo was awesome this year. It was supposed to be a boys weekend out before I got married. I was the only one to make it. However I played a ton of casuals and got a crowd most of time. Definitely boosted my confidence in my gameplay. Can’t wait for next year. I’ll definitely be bringing my wife and friends.

It was awesome to be in the crowd live for the Slam segment. My wife had a blast rooting for Lily.

Those Rock Paper Scissors segments need to be removed. I don't know a single person who looks forward to seeing those.

As hype as the Strive final was and Punk's moment and other stuff, Lily vs Harada was easily the top moment for me (and the rest of that event was fun too). That I was watching Max's stream at the time and it was a surprise "Wait, what's happening?!" moment made it that much better. That Tekken top 6 was still really good, but also the one that wasn't at the same level (to me) says how good the whole weekend was. The whole thing also felt a lot closer in production and sponsorship to a "mainstream" sport or similar event, bigger and bigger. Oh wait, Heihachi coming back was the low point and ruined the whole event for me. Thanks Harada, now fix MK1.

That staff story is so relatable... I genuinely do not understand people who don't even bother to try to understand where or when a protocol should and shouldn't be enforced and just blindly follow them...

Just wanna take this time to appreciate what you did with Sajam Slam and wishing even more success in the future Truly an advocate to get more ppl into fighting games

Loved the Beat A Pro you did. Good work at EVO 2024 Sajam.

having your cat sitter secretly being a beast at SF is some anime level bullshit.

I know that dealing with massive events is complicated, but you have people who do this for a living. I know some issues are inevitable, but it's mind-boggling that literally every Evo has at least several massive issues revolving around basic things (e.g. bathroom, water, seeing the finals, etc).

The food line in the arena was massive as well. Thankfully my friends and I made a bunch of sandwiches the night before so we just brought them into finals so we didnt have to wait in line

Omega banger evo glad this was my first to watch in person, im definitely competing next time.

Getting into the arena took a lot of friendship and a little bit of trickery.

The Sponsored Rock Paper scissors pissed me off so bad. The one during SF6 was after 11pm Eastern and some of us had to work Monday morning. It 100% should have been done during the 30 minutes of downtime between each game.

honestly yeah the biggest issue was how the finals was handled, it was insane that if you wanted to watch tekken you needed to be in before guilty gear even started or earlier and just hope you never have any bodily functions from then on.

EVO was amazing but I think the biggest suggestion I would have for staff is communicate that the smaller stages are set up to watch the tournament much sooner. It seems like that was an audible that was made at some point and communicated but folks were already lining up. If there was a way to incentivize folks to go to those as opposed to staying in line in hopes of getting into the mainstage, that would have made things go much smoother, IMO.

First Evo for me, had a great time. Loved the venue outside of the arena issues. Didn’t feel too crowded and I loved being able to walk in and out of the arena on Saturday. Loved the layout for booths, pools, artist alley, and the arcade. Sunday was a shit show though. I lucked out by getting a seat in the morning with my friends and they got me back in after I left to go to the bathroom, but there was like 100 other people who had seats and bags inside who were just stuck waiting. Loved the venue but they need to figure out the arena thing, either increase the space or cap the tickets.

The best QOL thing for someone who can only watch was the breaks. There were multiple mini documentaries and interviews running. Like a 30 minute yipes feature. I was like „damn“ 50 minutes break? And then i watched the whole break, because they filled in with these interviews and stuff. Super cool.

Next year is the year I can finally reasonably afford and have time for an Evo trip, but with how bad the logistics ended up being I would not want to risk it all being ruined until I see 2025 Evo being well-run

EVO was slappin this year!! Wit both hands👐

Season 4 of Strive could be very funny to see play out with Dizzy the projectile queen, Venom the projectile King, a new character with a gun and a guest character who could be anything they want. What a ride~

Had a group of friends rotating seats for finals day was the best decision I made. Evo was incredible definitely will do it again

An amazing experience. I loved it. Sad when it all ended. Have to wait another year. Nothing can replace the first time attending Evo but Evo is so special. I trt to go every year.

I played in EVO for the first time ever this year, and it was a blast. I missed a lot of the cool things other people were doing because I volunteered and I made a deep run in UNI (25th, Sajam hit me up when you get back to playing the game). I spent Sunday playing casuals/demos and honestly didnt even realize the line was for the arena until they announced the fire marshall wasnt going to let anyone in. Just playing so many cool, serious matches and getting to meet international players from Japan, SA and EU was enough to make it my favorite event.

I'm really glad you mentioned Jiyuna. Acted responsible and took one for the team.

I think this Evo was a markedly better viewing experience than last year's (and Evo Japan), particularly with respect to pools. However, has everybody just accepted that Top 8 is never coming back? I understand that running an event of this scale must be incredibly hard, but the amount of down time between sets/games on the main stage made it even harder to swallow (not even getting into JWong playing RPS in between sets). The fact that not every game is Bo5 all the way through Top 6 just feels like insult to injury when it's supposed to be the biggest, baddest fighting game tourney around. Also, the prize pools are just sad, especially when they're continuing to grow both in attendance and number of events (I don't really understand what's up with the HoF/awards show, but the new tourneys sound cool). As an aside, I think it would be nice if some of the downtime between games was used to try and familiarize the more casual audience with each game's system mechanics before the sets begin (maybe with pre-made videos or using the live commentators). Looking forward to the next one!

I’m glad to hear that a lot of the problems were caused by evo being more popular than ever

i will not forget the 30 minute long bathroom line

A finalist not being able to get in is crazy I knew something was up but I didn't know it got that bad

Going to Evo for the first time was an absolute dream come true, and I would completely recommend it to any folks interested in experiencing the true essence of the FGC! To add on my own experience, there was no line to get into the arena on Saturday (even with the hype AF Third Strike finals), and on Sunday morning before noon. All of a sudden, a line started forming during the Guilty Gear Strive tournament, and it took us 4.5 hours to get into the arena, and we missed seeing the T8 finals, but we're luckily able to grab seats for SF6. Thankfully, the EVO staff repurposed a bunch of the screens in the venue so that people could watch the finals in the convention hall/if they were waiting in line.

The Granblue lady does look like a Arcsysystem character.

I straight up started screaming and tearing up when i watched that Heihachi trailer

This Evo was without a doubt one of the coolest weekends of my life. Absolutely unreal. The only thing was Sunday just as you said. We couldn’t watch the finals for tekken or SF6 and that was a huge bummer. I think they just need to extend the hall and make a few more large monitors. Prioritize having well over the amount of required chairs necessary. But despite the huge mess up for the Sunday arena, it really was a near perfect weekend.

I got so excited for a second because I thought they were about to include Silverhand

The arena bathroom line wasn't THAT bad. It was super long when I went through during Tekken but it went fast. That being said I was totally flabbergasted when I got in there and saw it was only two urinals and two stalls. Two tiny bathrooms for that many men was criminal.

As someone who would likely never get the chance to travel from SEA to the states, people clowning on new locations like EVO Singapore is wild

I spent all of sunday at the arcade until sf6 finals. I watched the finals from the MK vendor area, and it was pretty hype. I don't regret my decision not to go into the arena. The vibes in the arcade were immaculate.

This evo was one for the books for spectators. I didn’t attend in person but talking to people that did sucks to hear there were so many issues with the venue

While having an Evo in Chicago would be dope as hell, I gotta agree, we do kinda have it pretty good with tournaments in the Midwest. Frosty and CB are the two tournaments I can for sure go to every year since they're both about an hours drive south of me. Besides, it's about time our EU brethren get some Evo love.

13:00 If they make an EVO in South America, SNK games entrances numbers would be wild.

Aside from thr finals line. EVO was great and improved in the spots I enjoyed from the past (arcade and casual setups) But yeah they needed to make the arena bigger or just reorganize the general area so people could watch the arena feeds better. Like how past Evos had the "free rooms"

Strive was insane.

Lmaoooo I said EVO Chicago in chat and got absolutely roasted for it! My apologies Sajam I’m new here! I’ll do some research next time 😂

Sunday finals was only hard to get into for people who didn’t show up for GBVSR and people who showed up late to Strive. I left after grands went to the bathroom, bought a shirt, came back and got a seat with no problem.

Between the gigantic stature and all of the ranged attacks, Versusia reminds me of Blackheart from MSH

I’ve never come close to getting GranBlue, but they just had to add a huge four armed lady with DBZ power levels.

When I got there on sunday and saw the line I just went to the game booths that were packed the previous days. no lines at the booths when everyone is stuck trying to get into the arena xD

Saturday was nearly perfect for the arena, for the first 3 of the 4 top 6's, I was able to walk in and out at any time, it only became kind of dicey for the last game (SF3). I had the same thought that they need to move the curtain back and have more seats next year. If the loss of main floor space is an issue, it looked like there was some second floor space that can also be used.

I did notice the ad breaks were a lot more manageable. However they still annoy me as I pay for premium to get no ads, but I still have to put up with them on these kinds of events. Whatever shillings Evo gets from ads, I wish I could just give them that cash and get an ad free viewing so I don't need to keep muting and unmuting the stream. As far as "Evo Winter" in LA, I feel like Atlanta would be a better location. It's on the east coast and they don't have a big event already.

Sajam slam stuff, tons of great tourneys, sick storylines, overall just a fantastic evo

I got a new theory, Sajam's cats are actually masters of fighting games and taught him and their sitter everything they know.

Nemo taking 20 minutes to get a new controller and then proceeding to get killed instantly was hilarious.

@17:00 that gran blue character, between her hight, the pillar attacks, and her frame, it reminds me a lil of MvC blackheart

I was so sad to hear that Jiyuna got sick because I always wondered what it'd be like seeing 2 Sajams commentating a game

Damn how the turn tables, the story of Jiyuna being sick is either drama or RIP you will be missed.

EVO was incredible. I think it was one of the best I've watched. A huge part of that was due to Third Strike, man it was awesome. This game is special in putting up a show, the community is something else. If I have one complaint is that I'm not a big fan of the top 6 format, it should've been top 8 and all of top 8 being ft3 at least.

They should put screens streaming the finals outsode where the line to get in was or around the venue.

Our group ended up just watching the Sunday Arena games from the hotel room, it was just too much hassle getting in. Would have loved to have the energy from the arena in person but it just wasn't gonna happen. The rest of the event was fantastic though, lots of hype stuff to do even though I went 0-2 in pools

"Do not perceive me" is hilarious.

Best decision i made all weekend (which is saying something cause i actually won the burrito this year) was to say screw even trying to get into the arena and parking my butt nearlyfront row center on max's watch party. May not have been the main stage but I got that at the third strike finals anyway and the watch party still gave the aocial experience of it all. I definitely agree that next year they need to expand the arena size and work out a better situation there....but also i think the watch parties need a bit more structure. The impression i got was that they were mostly winging it and that would have been fine under different circumstances...but they basically became how a lot of us had to experience the finals and they got crazy packed. Next year they should probably coordinate and have more material.

watching fd signifiers community posts was one of the most heartwarming thing I've seen in a while

Loved the third strike tournament if they add Hugo now, as much as i want Makoto, Its respectable

That security issue sounds really stressful. EVO has to implement some clear guidelines with lists on names of staff that will ALWAYS be allowed to re-enter. Should also apply to players who are still playing in the tournament.

Legit thank you for the honesty Sajam. This pretty much cements that I'll never try to attend EVO, sounds like a spectacular logistics failure. Imagine bringing a friend or significant other who's not a die hard to just enjoy a cool convention, and instead they have to put up with that garbage. And hopefully me and all the others who won't accept conventions run like this staying home might drive attendance low enough to make it less miserable for the rest of yall. I do legit hope it gets better.

I like the Granblue character because her name is Versus, she really is the Grandblue Fantasy Versus

I'm going to mention it because I was there in person witnessing the main hall as tekken and sf6 finals were happening, even though the watch parties are cute and nice, not all of them were on the same page. The heihachi trailer happened and T6 finals were starting and RDCworld decided to do a match in MvC2 against Justin Wong and I cannot tell you how many people turned around to find another stage. The Tekken only stage literally broke and cut the heihachi trailer off for two minutes. That's most the trailer. DNF finals were happening at the same time and the people watching DNF literally had their chairs stolen so people could sit down in front of a Tekken only stage, Casual set ups also had no chairs because again people were stealing them to watch Tekken finals. It was a bit of a mess in the main hall while you were working.

Was in the arena from gran blue to end of t8 and left during sf6 and honestly watching where they did pools wasn’t bad.

“This won’t happen next year” isn’t that what you said last year?

Sajam! Can you do a SF6 guide, that runs through the weaknesses of each character or each character type? So many people say ‘this character has obvious strengths and weaknesses’ when to me even low characters feel so dangerous sometimes because I don’t see how to deal with them! I need anti-character guides 😭

Are the finals not in the Mandalay bay anymore? There's so many entrances there and plenty of bathrooms. Where did they move it? Sounds like a good damn disaster. I left after sf, went to my hotel, and came back for gg. No issues.

The Twitch experience this year was nearly immaculate, except for some of the Day 3 weird breaks. If they can smooth things out IRL for Day 3, next EVO's golden.

The sunday arena situation was completely fucked. They need to find a way to prevent that next year for sure. I don't wanna have to camp my seat and dehydrate myself for half a day next time. Other than that, my first EVO was amazing. Everyone in the Artist alley killed it and I was in there buying a lot more shit than I thought I would've like a kid in a candy store.

The audio on the setups were terrible, they used really cheap splitters. Is that what they used last year? I had no audio for my 10am sf6 pools

Lucy for strive ❤️

At least Jiyuna was sick for real this time 💀

It's crazy that GranBlue said that the story will be updated "When Tomorrow Comes." They must have some serious balls to say something like that.

Oh, so you're a Jiyuna fan now?

WE NEED EVO SOUTH AMERICA