Three Storylines To Watch Out For During Evo 2025

Starting today, thousands of fighting game devotees will descend on Las Vegas, Nevada for the most prestigious fighting game tournament in the land: Evolution Championship Series 2025. Over the last 20 years, it has grown into the biggest open bracket tournament in the world, letting average Joes go up against the titans of the game. With 8,541 players from more than 60 countries competing across 16 games, it’s fair to assume that we’ll get our fair share of human drama across three days of competition, with comebacks, upsets, and maybe even a legendary moment or two.

But considering the historic number of games this year (there are usually only eight main titles, not 16) and the many Twitch channels that will be streaming them, you’d be forgiven for feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of uppercutting, fireball-chucking digital violence on display—who are these people, and which of the 1 billion streams do you watch? Luckily for you, we’ve created a list of three storylines to keep an eye on over the weekend, whether it’s rivalries, unexpected games making a return, or the Top 8 brackets you don’t want to miss.

Punk Vs. MenaRD With A Side Of Beef

Just like last year, Street Fighter 6 is the game with the most entrants at 4,228 competitors, with a significant lead on Tekken 8’s 2,521 in second place. And as you can imagine, that means it will be one of the most difficult brackets at the event, with many of the best players in the world in attendance. As for the competitors, there will be Fuudo coming off his wins at Blink Respawn 2025 and Topananga Champion 6, Leshar, who won this year’s CEO and Combo Breaker, Red Bull Kumite winner Big Bird, Asian Champions League winner Tokido, Capcom Cup 11 winner Kakeru, and many, many more.

However, out of the dozens of top-level players in attendance, two worth highlighting are Saul “MenaRD” Leonardo Mena II and Victor “Punk” Woodley, the winners of the previous two Evo events. Punk won Evo 2024 in dramatic fashion after overcoming his rival Tokido and many others, becoming the first American player to win a main entry Street Fighter game in 22 years in the process. Then, earlier this year, MenaRD, one of the most dominant Street Fighter players in the modern era, won this year’s Evo Japan, edging out many extremely skilled players on their home turf.

And if you need some beef, this matchup very much provides. While there’s been a long back and forth between these two, the recent history is that Punk’s team beat MenaRD’s team in the Street Fighter League last year, causing Punk to pop off and call out Mena’s supporters during his victory speech—he had previously claimed that Mena’s fans would flame his Twitch chat when he was streaming. Afterwards, MenaRD responded on a podcast by saying that he intends to beat Punk in every tournament match they play to make sure he doesn’t qualify for the Capcom Cup. After his interviewer described Punk as the king of American Street Fighter, Mena disagreed, saying that he is the “king of nothing.” Then Punk angry-Tweeted, calling out Mena for refusing to play a first-to-ten money match against him and accusing him of being the “Jake Paul of the FGC” for turning down his exhibition match while doing one against the 44-year-old Daigo. Considering how stiff the competition is, there’s no guarantee that Punk and MenaRD will face off directly during this year’s Evo, but if they do, sparks will definitely fly.

According to start.gg’s bracket projections, it appears that if the two stay on the Winners’ side of the tournament by taking every match, they wouldn’t meet until the Winner’s Finals in Top 8 (the final eight players in the tournament). Is it likely that everything goes exactly as that projection predicts? Absolutely not! But regardless of what actually happens, you will certainly be able to catch some of MenaRD and Punk’s individual matches on stream throughout the event. Street Fighter 6 will continuously run on the Evo2 Twitch channel from 10 a.m. PDT to 10 p.m. PDT on August 1 and August 2, before switching to the main Evo channel for its Top 8 at 8 p.m. PDT on August 3.

Can Arslan Ash Land a Consecutive Three-Peat in Tekken?

It’s hard enough to win a single Evo, but what about winning it on American soil three times in a row? Justin Wong is the only person to do this in the same game, having dominated Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (he actually won four in a row from 2001-2004). Meanwhile, if you count games developed by NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat, Injustice) as a single series, Dominique “SonicFox” McLean won from 2014 to 2016. Unsurprisingly, these two have won the most Evos of all time, with 9 and 7, respectively.

Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique, the legendary competitor who introduced the world to Pakistani Tekken, is looking to join this extremely exclusive club with a win in Tekken 8 this weekend. In 2023, he took home first place in Tekken 7 (while also winning Evo Japan that same year), and last year, he won in Tekken 8 in Las Vegas.

And while he’s a top pick to win this year’s tournament, there’s a bit of a complicating factor: a few months ago, Tekken 8 received one of the most hated fighting game patches of all time. Basically, the ire came from how it took a game that was already viewed as overly geared towards offense and made it even more aggro. Casual players complained, pro-players complained, and as a result, Tekken 8’s Evo entry numbers are almost half of what they were last year. Will Arslan continue to adapt, as he’s seemed to do with impressive showings throughout this year, or will someone else take better advantage of this new form of Tekken?