Evo 2015

Of all the emotions I expected to find at Evo 2015, the last one I thought I’d find among the crowd I was new to was love. Love for games, love for competition, love for the event itself, but most of all love for the community. The people I bumped into — once just personalities to me, now people — were always happy and cordial. Each player who beat me in the tournament was friendly before and after. Each random person, each vendor, each top 8 finalist and champion, just bursting with energy.

I don’t quite know what I expected to encounter at my first Evo, but the community outdid whatever it was I thought. It was amazing to just wander the floor and see what people were excited about, to see the crowds gathering (in the purest FGC fashion) around a console station to watch an interesting game or two marquee players go head to head. Beyond the games themselves being amazing, Sunday night’s energy among the crowds before and after the games was infectious. I could have chanted “EVO” for hours, but we were all set free.

Frankly, this is the best I’ve felt after a convention vacation in a long time. It’s going to be hard to go back to normal life, and it’s going to be hard to wait a year for the next Evo. I want to do better in games, and I want to do better in the community. Thankfully, in all this, new fans are born and new interests sparked. I want next year’s Evo to be the best for everyone. Join me!

Only vaguely related to Evo itself, but here’s a picture outside of the basic motel, in Hawthorne, NV, that my friends and I stayed at on the way to Vegas.

And my friends, playing some BlazBlue…

And, an actual picture of Evo, from Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Top 8.

The short article above was originally posted to my site on 2015-07-21. It’s nothing special, but I decided to keep it because I loved the Evo experience.