The fighting game community celebrated on February 15th as the inaugural invite-only Evo Awards powered by Qiddiya Gaming honored winners across 22 categories as voted on by the fans, celebrated its Hall of Fame inductees, and cheered for publisher reveals throughout the evening at the Optimist Studios in Los Angeles. Japanese fighting game player Hayao and American content creator and commentator Stephen “Sajam” Lyon led the list of winners garnering four awards each, followed by Michael “IFCYipeS” Mendoza with two awards.
“We hope players, fans, and everyone engaged with the fighting game community worldwide enjoyed the inaugural Evo Awards,” said Rick Thiher, General Manager of Evo. “Our community has a storied history rich with culture and competition, and the Evo Awards are a tribute to those who have built it and those who are carrying it forward.”
Among the winners, Victor “Punk” Woodley grabbed the Player of the Year Award, and Hayao “Moment 38” closed the evening with the Moment of Year Award, both presented by Qiddiya Gaming. Hayao also won Comeback of the Year presented by NACON. Haute Pad T-Series won the Best Custom Hardware Award, and Attacks IRL won the Best FGC Meme of the Year Award, both presented by Chipotle®. Steven “Tasty Steve” Scott won the Best Dressed Award presented by Zenni, while Noah “NoahtheProdigy” Solis scored the They’ve Got Next Award presented by PlayStation Tournaments. See the full list of winners below.
“I am so boosted by this and definitely gives me the energy to keep working towards everything I am doing as pro gamer,” said Hayao. “I am going to be taking this energy forward into the next year and doing my best.”
“It’s really incredible how many content creators are out there. I have been making content about the fighting game on the internet for 15 years now which is half my life which is a long time,” said Stephen “Sajam” Lyon. “I didn’t go to Evo for the first time until 2014 and I watched all the rest of them online, so creating these kinds of things are so important. There are so many incredible creators out there that are new that are really inspiring me, because anybody who talks about something that they are passionate about, whether its fighting games or anything, I am always inspired by them.”
The Evo Awards also welcomed three FGC Legends – Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, John “Choiboy” Choi, and Alex “CaliPower” Valle – into the Evo Hall of Fame. Starting at the age of 7, Tokido is a Japanese fighting game champion across Street Fighter and The King of Fighters, including 29 Evo Top 8 finishes across various titles. Choi is an American fighting game player with deep roots in the Street Fighter franchise dating back to the 1990s. In 2008, he became the only player to win two Evo championships in the same year. Valle, also known as Mr. Street Fighter, is a Peruvian-American fighting game player and tournament organizer. He is considered one of the most influential people within the FGC.
“It’s so surreal, because thinking back to when I first started playing, this wasn’t on the radar at all. I just wanted to play and have a good time. I never would have thought this in a million years and I feel so fortunate,” said Choiboy. “When I got into this, we had international players come, they didn’t speak English. I don’t speak other languages. But if you sit down in front of a game and just played, you don’t even have to speak words. That’s just a common language.”
Fans also enjoyed a multitude of major announcements from several partners, including Cygames for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Arc System Works for its upcoming title HUNTER×HUNTER NEN×IMPACT and UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes, along with SNK for FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, and Capcom for Capcom Fighting Collection 2.
The list of Evo Award Categories and Winners is below.
Evo Awards Categories:
- Best On-Air Duo
- WINNER: IFCYipeS + Sajam – commentated some of the most watched blocks of the year, including closing the show together for Finals of Street Fighter 6 at Evo 2024.
- Best Pop Off
- WINNER: Hayao – celebrates after using Hugo’s drop kick to beat FrankieBFG at Evo 2024.
- Match of the Year Award
- WINNER: Hayao vs FrankieBFG – Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike losers quarterfinal at Evo 2024 known as “Moment 38”
- Comeback of the Year presented by NACON
- WINNER: Hayao – With only a pixel of life, Hayao parried his way through an air tatsu and found a use for Hugo’s “worthless” drop kick in order to steal the set win over FrankieBFG in Losers Quarterfinals of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.
- Best Custom Hardware presented by Chipotle
- WINNER: Haute Pad T-Series – Offering the community a suite of affordable leverless options with constant quality of life updates through the GP2040, the range of Haute42 COSMOX products took the scene by storm.
- Marketing Campaign of the Year
- WINNER: Chipotle – Evo + SFG + TEKKEN 8 – continued its support of the FGC this year with the return of Chipotle entree cards, custom bags and the Chipotle Community Lounge at Evo, and in-game promotions for Street Fighter 6 and TEKKEN 8.
- Tech of the Year
- WINNER: Pro KO Leverless by Victrix – the newest leverless option is a step above their FS12, offering more gaming options with movable and mappable buttons, alongside even more customization options out of the box.
- Commentator of the Year
- WINNER: IFCYipeS – a mainstay at FGC majors and commentating every week in his own tournaments called the Can Opener.
- They’ve Got Next presented by PlayStation Tournaments
- WINNER: Noah “NoahtheProdigy” Solis – American fighting game player currently representing Twisted Minds.
- Best Dressed presented by Zenni
- WINNER: Tasty Steve – Always encouraging fans to “Make some noise,” TastySteve brought his A-game to each event this year.
- Best Online Series
- WINNER: TNS Online – TampaNeverSleeps holds multiple online fighting game tournaments every single week. Whether you want to play the newest games or some of your favorite classic titles, TNS has tournament brackets for you.
- Best FGC Local
- WINNER: Tatakai Tuesday – Tatakai Tuesday, an offline event at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Tokyo, Japan, has built a place for everyone to play, regardless of their familiarity with fighting games.
- Best Button of the Year
- WINNER: Ken Crouching Medium Kick – An all purpose button that can whiff punish, start combos, start pressure, create space traps, and cause your opponent to have nightmares.
- Best Commentary
- WINNER: “That is a Worthless Button!” by Justin “JWong” Wong – When the worst move on a character becomes the path to victory during Evo 2024.
- FGC Content of the Year
- WINNER: Sajam Slam – Sajam paired fighting game veterans with content creators of varying skill levels to face off in his new team-based invitational series.
- FGC Meme of the Year presented by Chipotle
- WINNER: Attacks IRL – challenges his audience to know your moves.
- Best FGC Cosplay
- WINNER: Chonibu – her cosplay of Kimberly’s alternate outfit 3 from Street Fighter 6 won her the cosplay competition at Evo 2024 in Las Vegas.
- Invitational of the Year
- WINNER: Sajam TEKKEN Slam – Twenty-four Twitch streamers went head-to-head in a Tekken tournament organized by Sajam culminating in a live tournament at Twitchcon 2024.
- Fighting Game Release of the Year
- WINNER: TEKKEN 8 – launched in January 2024 across platforms simultaneously attracting a new generation of TEKKEN players with new mechanics and a massive roster on launch.
- Content Creator of the Year
- WINNER: Sajam – breaks down some of the most complex ideas in fighting games in ways that are easy to understand while hosting tournaments like Sajam Slam and providing day to day content on FGC topics.
- Player of the Year presented by Qiddiya Gaming
- WINNER: Punk – started his year with a first-place finish at Frosty Faustings XVI, and things only went up from there. After adding a CEO belt to his collection, he went on to break a long-standing curse by being the first American player to win a headline Street Fighter tournament at Evo in over 20 years.
- Moment of the Year presented by Qiddiya Gaming
- WINNER: Hayao “Moment 38” – stars aligned for the 20th anniversary of Evo Moment 37. With none other than Justin Wong on the mic, Hayao converts a crucial parry into an unbelievable comeback using a “worthless move.” And he puts on a hell of a show doing it.
“I really appreciate everyone for giving me this award honestly. I am so used to having to win a tournament beating so many people to collect an award,” said Punk. “The fact that the community voted me in with the 7,000 men I had to go through at Evo who helped me get this award, I hope to become the player of the year every year until I decide I don’t want to play competitively anymore.”
Evo returns to Japan on May 9-11 at Tokyo Big Sight and will also feature two five-on-five tournaments with STREET FIGHTER III 3rd STRIKE -Fight for the Future- and Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Its flagship and biggest event, seeking to become the largest tournament in esports history once again, returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center on August 1-3 with Chipotle® as presenting partner. Registration to compete is open at evo.gg in the eight featured Arena tournaments with spectator tickets on sale on Feb. 15. Evo will make its European debut at the Palais des Expos in Nice, France, on October 10-12 and also announced it will expand to Singapore in 2026.
