The dust has settled. The most prestigious and largest fighting game tournament in the world, EVO 2019 has ended on a triumphant note. The final game, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, capped off a historic weekend with peak viewership of 280,000 which is the largest in EVO history.

Not only did the legendary tournament break many of its own and several of the participating games’ records, it was also a historic weekend full of announcements from game developers and publishers. EVO has certainly earned its place as the “Superbowl” of fighting games. Let’s take a look at the major announcements shall we?

Tekken 7 Gears up for more KO’s as Season Pass 3 is Revealed

Bandai Namco’s massively successful Tekken 7 is gearing up for another year of new characters, new moves, new content, and of course new characters!

The company revealed 2 out of the 4 upcoming characters, teased several new moves from familiar faces as well as new Stages and other Features. Zafina, a character from the previous game returns looking to take some names and fight her way into fans’ hearts, and a completely new character Leroy Smith is shown kicking some serious ass in the reveal trailer.

Are you hyped for the new Tekken 7 season pass? It sure is looking very promising after the past year’s content full of crossovers from Fatal Fury, Final Fantasy and the Walking Dead.

Soulcalibur VI Slashes its way into Season Pass 2!

Not to be outdone, Tekken 7’s sibling game Soulcalibur 6 is also gearing up for another season of content with 4 new characters, additional items for its now infamous character creation suite, a new system which looks to mix things up and keep players in the long run.

In addition, the game has announced a new DLC character (outside of Season Pass 2) in Cassandra releasing tomorrow. As fans may know, the inclusion of the series veteran has some serious repercussions for the storyline and some possible time travel elements.

The biggest reveal in the Season Pass 2 trailer is of course Haohmaru from the Samurai Shodown series. Bandai Namco is known for many hard hitting and surprising crossovers from other series and this one is no different. Haohmaru is a perfect fit for Soulcalibur as it’s no surprise that fans have been itching for both weapon-based fighting game series to clash. En Garde!

Street Fighter V Introduces E. Honda, Lucia and Poison

In an announcement which was unfortunately leaked early on Steam (Thanks Volvo), Capcom formally introduced its new lineup of DLC Characters for Street Fighter V at EVO 2019.

E. Honda, the classic sumo wrestler of Street Fighter 2 fame; Poison, a common Final Fight enemy thug-turned-playable character in Ultra Street Fighter IV; and Lucia Morgan one of the playable characters from Final Fight III.

The content from Capcom factory just keeps on churning, and while it’s had a rough launch, Street Fighter V has steadily still been a core game in the Fighting Game Community with new balance patches and new characters. It’s also great that we are getting more love from the dormant Final Fight beat-em-up series. If Streets of Rage 4 can get a new game, perhaps Capcom can do something about their beat-em-up franchise as well?

Dragon Ball FighterZ introduces Janemba as part of FighterZ Pass 2

Dragon Ball FighterZ may have been bumped to Evo Day 2, but that doesn’t mean it’s done throwing Kamehamehas.

Arksys and Bandai Namco have revealed the trailer for Janemba, the ultimate manifestation of evil, and boy does he look awesome. It’s great that the developers are continuing with doing justice to Dragon Ball movie-exclusive characters and villains and this one looks just as good.

For those who have seen Fusion Reborn, all of Janemba’s moves and weapons used in the movie are featured in the trailer and it was a crowd pleaser for them to tease Gogeta in the end as well.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle 2.0 Announced with more Content and Anime Goodness

BlazBlue Cross Tag joins the fray with new DLC and content announcements as version 2.0 was shown at EVO 2019. The fighting game which already features characters from Persona 4 Arena, Blazblue, Under Night In-Birth and RWBY is adding even more content from other series as the trailer has shown characters from Arcana Heart, Senran Kagura and Akatsuki Blitzkampf.

With all of the announcements in the trailer that brings the total list of characters up to almost 50 total! A truly impressive number for an Arksys game. The 2.0 Expansion Pack will release on November 21, 2019 and it will truly be a holiday season to look forward to for anime fighter fans.

Samurai Shodown Showcases 5 DLC Characters in Hype Trailer

The newest game at Evo 2019, Samurai Shodown made a triumphant return to consoles and the grand stage. It was a return to form for the beloved weapon-based fighting game by SNK as it showcased why the new game is so much fun to watch and play.

For fans craving for more, SNK has announced that there will be 5 DLC characters for each remaining month of the year starting with fan favorite Rimururu in August, certified bad-ass Basara in October, hot-headed Kazumi Kazama in November and powerhouse Wan-fu in December.

What about September you say? September is a special treat to Samsho fans as SNK has announced that Samurai Shodown 3 protagonist Shizumaru Hisame will be FREE DLC for everyone!

The new Samurai Shodown has truly been a blessing to the fighting game community thus far. Just throw us a bone about the PC and Switch release please SNK?

New Guilty Gear Announced for 2020!

Talk about a bombshell announcement. Arksys teased a new Guilty Gear game for 2020 and if you thought they couldn’t top Xrd’s already amazing visuals, then they proved everyone wrong.

Ky Kiske and Sol-Badguy fight it out in the scintillating trailer showcasing new generation cel-shading technology and a brand new character with a high tech mask. While Arksys has not revealed anything about the new title yet, 2020 definitely can’t come soon enough!

King of Fighters XV Announced and Teased

The legendary King of Fighters series returns for another round with King of Fighters XV as SNK announced its development at EVO 2019. While it’s just a title reveal and we don’t know anything about the game yet, fans of SNK’s flagship fighting series have some interesting times to look forward to.

The Season Pass Model is here to stay

Wow that was quite a lot of announcements during a fighting game tournament and this didn’t even include the Nightwolf announcement from Mortal Kombat 11 embedded below: (Warning Gore)

The dawn of the modern “season pass” model has certainly breathed a lot of life onto what would be previously games abandoned for 2nd or 3rd editions or rushed sequels. While it sucks that it will mean additional cost for newcomers to the game, it will also mean more complete, robust and a healthy fighting game scene for several of these games for years down the road. EVO has recently been home to big fighting game announcements, but as this year has shown, the scale and hype of the event has certainly been steadily growing.