The official twitter account for EVO has just confirmed that there will be no appearance of Smash at EVO 2022. Although the exact reasoning for this is unknown, the statement notes that Nintendo were the ones to make this decision. You can check out the full statement below:
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Formally branded in 2002, EVO is the premier fighting game tournament event for the biggest fighters such as Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, and Tekken. Various different iterations of Smash - including Melee, Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate - have made appearances each year at EVO since 2007, often as one of the featured titles for people to compete in. Sony would acquire EVO in early 2021.
Since 2013 there have only been two EVO tournaments where Smash was not one of the featured games: 2020 which had its online event cancelled due to sexual misconduct allegations, and 2021 which was an online exclusive event due to COVID-19. This year's EVO 2022 is going to be the first in-person EVO since 2019, so needless to say there will be a lot of disappointment from this recent news.
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Author's Note: How do you feel about Nintendo pulling Smash out of EVO? Let us know in the comments below!