Sunday: Top 8

All the tournaments came to their conclusion on Sunday, when the top 8 players from all games played it out. EVO organizers shot interviews with each of the competitors who made top 8, all of which were shown before the players' matches on Sunday. The interviews' tones ranged from friendly - with Mike Watson telling Joey Cueller "Fuck you" - to prideful - with Justin Wong saying that two words defined his skill in MvC2: “Justin Wong.”

The first scheduled game of the day was CvS2. Many US players predicted that the Americans could finally win from the Japanese, and the first match truly set that tone when Northern California's John Choi sent Japanese player BAS to the loser's bracket. From there, BAS had to fight his way back up into loser's finals to get a chance at winning this tournament. He faced his close friend Gene Wong, as well as top players Justin Wong and Ricky Ortiz along the way. After beating Ricky Ortiz in a nail biter finish, BAS got his chance to face John Choi again. Because he was coming back from the loser's bracket, BAS had to win two sets, each consisting of best of three matches, against John Choi to win the tournament. BAS dominated the first set, outplaying John Choi, and making another Japanese victory seem more imminent. However, during the second set, Choi turned his juice on and won against BAS in a close match. The close match seemed to set the tone for a close grand finals, but Choi thoroughly beat BAS, using only two characters to plow through BAS' team. With that, the US won its first victory over Japan in CvS2 at a major tournament. The room was on its feet, cheering for the new, and possibly last, CvS2 champion, John Choi...an American.

John Choi celebrating his victory

The second scheduled game was T5DR, one of the few games that didn't feature a strong presence from both American and Japanese players. In fact, the grand finals featured Gandindo, a player from Puerto Rico, and Ryan Hart, who hailed from the UK. The grand finals featured something that nobody could have foreseen: somebody pressed the Playstation Home button during the last round of the last match just as Gandindo was going to make a comeback from the loser's bracket. Because Hart's controller did not have a home button, the judges ruled that Gandindo would have to lose by default. Later, however, they discovered that an audience member who had previously synced his controller with the PS3 in use pressed the home button. At this point, despite it not being Gandindo's fault, Hart could have been declared the winner. However, he was unwilling to take this empty victory and declared that he will replay the whole match. The room roared and cheered for Hart, who had previously garnered everyone's disdain during his money match with Rodriguez in 3s. Instead of having a close match with Gandindo, Hart easily won, taking all three rounds.

Then came 3s, the game with the most entrants of any game at EVO. At first, the crowds were energetic; they got to see Amir Amirsaleh, a Southern California player, take on and beat Japanese player Tokido. Then, they got to see JR Rodriguez, an Akuma player from Southern California, play in top 8. However, cheers quickly died down as JR Rodriguez was taken down by Justin Wong, and subsequently Ohnuki. Things got even worse when the crowd and commentators realized that only four players remained: Amir, Wong, Ohnuki, and Tokido... all Chun Li players. For the most part, the remaining matches bored the crowds to sleep, because the sight of Chun Li mirror matches was too repetitive for anyone to stomach. Grand finals came down to Justin Wong and Ohnuki, with Wong in the winner's and Ohnuki in the loser's bracket; this gave America a chance of victory and 3s a chance to redeem itself from the most boring top 8 in EVO history. Sadly, the matches were anticlimactic; Ohnuki outplayed and beat Justin almost every match of the first set, sending the finals into a second set. During this one, Wong played his best and pulled out several comebacks, reminiscent of Choi's victory earlier on in CvS2. Having won and lost two matches against Ohnuki in the second set, Wong set the stage for the final 3s match at EVO 2008. In two more rounds, Wong could become the first ever American EVO Third Strike champion, just as Choi had become the first American CvS2 champion. Crowds of Justin's friends ran up to the stage where Justin was playing, hugging him and hyping him up for the possibilities that awaited; the staff had to actually push them back and restrain them from their excitement! The previously asleep crowds woke up to see possible history in the making. During the next two rounds, everyone witnessed an uncharacteristic Wong - he played impatiently, walked into many attacks, and was unable to execute. After all the hard work and comebacks, Wong lost the grand finals and Ohnuki was once again champion of 3s.

Brawl is the newest game featured at EVO 2008 this year, and as such, the EVO organizers took liberties with creating the rules for it. The biggest difference between EVO’s rule-set and other Smash tournaments’ rule-sets was the inclusion of items, which was frowned upon by much of the Smash community. Many players in the Smash community predicted a random tournament, dominated by luck. However, that was hardly the case. The matches were exciting through this aspect, since it allowed for many brilliant uses of items to make comebacks and also to devise counters for them. Many people thought certain final smashes were unbeatable, like Falco's land rover or Sonic's final smash, but several players were able to avoid the land rover and there were no Sonic players in the top 8 either! The crowds witnessed an evolution in gameplay as players who were formerly unfamiliar with items adapted to them mid-game. The finals came down to 14-year-old unknown player CPU and tested veteran Ken, with Ken coming back from the loser's bracket. Although he was a rookie to tournament play, CPU displayed smart play, sniping Smash Balls from full screen away and rolling through Marth's final smash in the grand finals. CPU took the finals and won, despite never playing in a tournament before. EVO attendees have just witnessed one of the most exciting and innovative Smash tournaments ever run.

After Brawl came the oldest game of the series in the tournament: ST. The top 8 featured a broad range of players, from gamer turned developer David Sirlin to Japanese E. Honda expert Kusumondo. The matches were filled with howls coming from the crowds that imitated Vega's howl as he dived off the walls. This was a reference to EVO 2007, when Tokido abused Vega's wall dive, a technique Japanese players have dubbed, "Hyou Bal." Without fail, Tokido did it again, taking out both Sirlin and Justin Wong until he had to face John Choi in loser's finals. Everyone thought that this would be a replay of the grand finals from EVO 2007, but Choi used his experience to inch out a victory and avoid elimination at Tokido's hands again. Grand finals came down to Choi and Ohnuki, in loser's and winner's bracket respectively. So far, no players have come back from loser's bracket in EVO 2008, making this an uphill battle for Choi both mentally and physically. However, Choi's character, Old Sagat, has the best fireball (short of the banned Akuma's air fireball); the match was in Choi's favor and he definitely made good use of the fireball. Although the grand finals were filled with repeated tiger shots, it was one of the most exciting games of all. Every time Choi fired off a tiger shot, Ohnuki could have jumped over and countered, or simply built meter. Either way, Ohnuki was making a terrible match work in his favor by building up his offense against Old Sagat. In the end, Ohnuki's efforts didn't work; Choi caught on to Ohnuki's tactics and countered them with his own, making him the EVO 2008 ST Champion. WIth that, Choi became the first to ever champion of multiple games at EVO.

The last game of the day is traditionally the one that always garners the most hype every year. MvC2 has consistently been that game for the last three years, and it continues to be that game at EVO 2008. While the classic rivalry between America and Japan is ever present in the majority of the games, there's a different rivalry in Marvel vs Capcom 2: one between the US' east and west coast. The rivalry's tone is different; while America always wanted to surpass Japan as a sign of improvement, the east and west's rivalry was about glory and regional pride. The Americans and Japanese always shook hands between their matches, but the Marvel vs Capcom players were loud, talked trash, and generally more rowdy than other players. This is the atmosphere that makes MvC2 the most hype game at EVO every year. The two favorites this year were Justin Wong, five-time EVO MvC2 Champion, and Chunksta, top player from Northern California, from west and east coast respectively. This would have set up a dramatic match between east and west for grand finals, but Chunksta sent Wong to the loser's bracket early in top 8 in total domination fashion; this was his and the west coast's year. To make it back to grand finals, Wong had to face fellow east coast player Smoothviper in loser's final. After plowing through Smoothviper two matches in a row, Wong was ready for another chance to both win EVO and beat Chunksta. Everyone in the audience was screaming. They were ready for Chunksta to repeat his performance from earlier and finally win EVO. Instead of winning, Chunksta lost all three matches in the first set. Just like that, Wong had a second chance to become six-time champion again. In the first match of the second set, Chunksta seemed to have a second wind, almost beating all three of Wong's character with just Magneto. A couple of mistakes however, almost gave Wong and his Cyclops the comeback he needed, but Chunksta pulled through and survived that first match. Resident MvC2 player and commentator Potter said, "Can we have a choke-free match, please?" Sadly, that would not be the case, as Wong swept through Chunksta in the following three matches to become six-time MvC2 champion.

Till Next Year...

After the Marvel vs Capcom 2 tournament, EVO 2008 concluded. The audience cleared the room so that the EVO organizers and volunteers could begin to clean it. Although the event is the biggest fighting game event in America every year, the scene of EVO staff and volunteers picking up trash, stacking up chairs, and moving TVs around is a reminder of the event's humble beginnings. EVO has shown promising growth and will surely continue to grow. Things only look brighter for EVO, considering the new games about to come out, such as SF4 and Tekken 6, amongst others. With so many new games coming out, some games from this year's lineup, like CvS2 and others, will have to be taken out in the future. For many players, this was a sad tournament, because it would be their last chance to win or even place in top 8. For others, however, it was a chance for celebration, because they'd be the last ever EVO champions for those games. For final top 8 results, check EVO's website at www.evo2k.com.

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