OFFICIAL: Evo 2024 Report

Last weekend, the FGC descended upon the Las Vegas Convention Center to throw fists and feet (digitally, mind) in the 2024 iteration of the Evolution Fighting Championship (Evo). For three scraptastic days, some of the FGC's finest players came together to lock horns across a plethora of the genre's biggest and best games. And, of course, Skullgirls was in attendance and in full effect - with both Hidden Variable and members of our community proudly flying the flag for The Canopy Kingdom!

At the Hidden Variable booth, attendees were able to pick up a veritable rainbow of trading cards, representing the heroes and villains of the Skullgirls universe as well as their Skullgirls Mobile variants. Also available to purchase were a range of exclusive prints and posters, along with some spiffy merchandise courtesy of our friends at Eighty Sixed.

Setups at the Hidden Variable booth gave fans the opportunity to throw down in Skullgirls 2nd Encore, while also showcasing the pint-sized power of Skullgirls Mobile in all its glory. Whispers from the event have suggested that there maaay have been a couple of as-yet-unrevealed surprises on show... But I can neither confirm nor deny such rumors…

Over the course of the weekend we welcomed many visitors to our booth, among them some fantastic Skullgirls-themed cosplays, including acupoffelicity as superstar Annie, lena_exe as the murderous Black Dahlia, and The_Disney_Kat as the Skullgirl herself, Marie. Kat's Marie (complete with glowing, smoking Skull Heart!) would deservedly be selected as a finalist for Friday's Cosplay Competition. If all that wasn't enough, then Beowulf himself (well... voice actor Kai Kennedy), generously spent time at our booth signing cards, chatting with fans, and posing for pictures.

We always love seeing the creativity of our community, and events like Evo allow us to appreciate your passion for the franchise first-hand - passion that is showcased through your cosplay, artworks, or simply your enthusiasm when chatting with our team. Sincerest thanks to everybody who stopped by the Hidden Variable booth!

On the competitive side, Skullgirls 2nd Encore offered up another thrilling bracket of tag-fighting action, as some of SG's finest battled it out for a cut of an impressive prize pool and the all-important bragging rights as Evo's 2024 Champion. Following pools - held on a bleary-eyed Sunday morning - the Top 8 bracket saw Clawmaster, Dawn Hibiki, Koco, Reis, Dekillsage, Negus Eyeol, SwingBeatz, and SonicFox hitting on all sixes in a series of gripping matches. The fast-paced action was relayed to audiences via top-tier commentary from Kai Kennedy and Maguma (himself bedecked in fab Beowulf cosplay!)

As the party of eight slimmed down to a party of two, the Grand Finals saw former Evo champions going head-to-head, with Dekillsage's team of Filia, Cerebella, and Big Band squaring off against SonicFox's crew of Annie, Ms. Fortune, and her metallic doppelganger, Robo-Fortune. When the dust settled, Dekillsage emerged the winner, defeating SonicFox 3-1 to claim the tournament and the title of Evo 2024 Skullgirls 2nd Encore Champion! To round off the fightin' festivities, audiences were treated to a trailer spotlighting Skullgirls Mobile's upcoming 'Guest Stars' mechanic, which included new footage of Minette and Brain Drain in action, along with the reveal of our third Guest Star, Roxie!

You can always count on Skullgirls to deliver a thrilling competitive experience, and the Evo 2024 offering was no exception. Congratulations to Dekillsage on their stellar victory, and applause to both our Top 8 finalists and all competitors who showed out for a great tournament. If you missed all of the action and would like to catch-up... Well, spoilers. Sorry...

But you can watch the pools and the Top 8 bracket via VOD on bgcallisto's Twitch channel!

Our thanks to everybody who made Evo 2024 such a memorable event. We're grateful to Mark Julio, Rick Thiher, and all of the Evo crew for putting together another magnificent weekend. We'd also like to thank the team at RTS for their smooth operation of the event itself and to our very own Justine (@jujublu1) and Tarik (@sixteenbits) for the photos and videos featured here.

And, of course, we'd like to thank you, our beloved community. From players to commentators; audience members to stream watchers; cosplayers, booth visitors, and folks following along on socials - It's your support and passion that has kept the Skullgirls titles an FGC mainstay for over a decade, with many more memories still to be made.

Until next time, that's a wrap!

- Hidden Variable Studios