Photo: Robert Paul for Evo; Thanks also to @Nexusprimorvis and MetalQueerSolid for helping with this article
The UK secured three top-8 finishes at Evo 2023 across a host of fighting games, including Mortal Kombat, Guilty Gear and Marvel vs Capcom.
Esports News UK understands this equals the current record of three top-8 finishes.
This year, the top six in each game played on the arena stage, with the top eight receiving a medal and prize money.
F0xy finishes fourth at Evo 2023
First up, veteran Mortal Kombat 11 UK player, A F0xy Grampa, finished in fourth place at Evo 2023 with Team Panther.
He reached round three of the lower bracket, where he fell to eventual winner, Ninjakilla_212 from the United States.
Sparty takes the UK’s Marvel vs Capcom throne
In Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, UK player Spartan Throne (aka Sparty) reached the main stage and finished in the top six.
This was especially interesting given that the game had returned to the Evo main stage after several years of absence, with it setting a new franchise registration record for competitors. And it was Sparty’s first ever Marvel major. AND he eliminated the previous Evo champ for UMVC3 in his run – RyanLV – as seen in this clip on the Esports News UK TikTok.
After the event, Spartan Throne said he was thrilled with his amazing run and thanked the viewers.
UK fighting game player MetalQueerSolid also told Esports News UK that Spartan Throne has been competing for over a decade and ‘is a legend’.
“He plays a weird team and is a fan favourite because of it, works full time and is a legend,” MQS said. “And fun fact – the first ever event Spartan travelled to was Parmo vs Capcom 4, which was ran by NFC’s predecessor, Teesside Fight Club.”
Spartan Throne also told Esports News UK:
“The competitors at Evo 2023 were amazing, I’ve admired them for more than a decade, my thanks to them for inspiring me; but I can’t help feeling I could have gone further. Vs me in FT3, tournament setting…? No one is safe.”
Spartan Throne
There’s another important story – and people – to recognise here too.
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is an old game with not-so-great netcode.
So UK Marvel 3 commentator ChromeAlchemist began using AWS (Amazon Web Services) via Parsec to allow players to compete with one another, which ultimately revived the game in the UK.
About a year and a half after this, and for the past couple of years, former Bandai Namco UK community manager Edwin ‘TalesOfMrE’ Chuah, took over, in effect. TalesOfMrE has been turning on an AWS server every evening for the European community to have high quality netplay. This has enabled players like Spartan Throne to practice and play against other players online.
Both of these individuals contributed enormously to what Spartan Throne and other players had the opportunity to do.
TalesOfMrE also said about Spartan Throne’s achievement at Evo 2023: “This is the first time EVER anyone from Europe has made top 8 in any Marvel game at Evo!”
Another individual, Tong Lee, Play & Compete product manager at ESL Faceit Group, CEO Gaming event organiser and Tampa Never Sleeps founder, also recognised Sparty’s talent and flew him out to Vegas for it, as well as giving opportunities for top players to be seen competing in UK-based tourneys, giving them an extra reason to train.
Tong is widely credited (and officially recognised by Evo) with the revival of Marvel, getting it back to Evo and getting the fourth most entered place.
US player Jibrill won the UMVC3 Evo 2023 tournament overall, with the tournament drawing more than 80,000 viewers on the Evo main channel and 40,000 on Maximilian’s co-stream, according to Dexerto.
UK’s top ten trio in Guilty Gear
Next, looking at Guilty Gear Strive, and UK player Setchi finished 7th, while fellow Brits Tiger_Pop and Dejojo finished 9th/10th. Swedish player Leffen won the tournament overall.
Setchi thanked Fly Fighters for the sponsorship.
How did other UK players fare at Evo 2023?
In Street Fighter 6, unfortunately no British player made it to the top 16. However, ProblemX signed up, and he won Evo back in 2018, and Imstilldadaddy also took part.
In Tekken 7, UK’s AyoRichie became the highest-placing player from Europe.
He narrowly missed out on reaching the finals bracket, after falling to South Korea’s Meo-IL 2-1 in round three of the lower bracket.
AyoRichie has a string of achievements to his name, including the 2022 Red Bull Golden Letters win.
The UK also had representation in Dragon Ball FighterZ at Evo 2023, with OBAssassin taking part.
Looking ahead to UK Street Fighter players at Gamers8
Evo 2023 might be over, but now all eyes look to another major tournament. The $1m Gamers8 Street Fighter 6 Invitational will feature three UK players: ProblemX, EndingWalker and The4Philzz.
They will be going up against some other world-class talent, including Big Bird, Takamura, Daigo Umehara, Luffy and more.
Related article: Top five finish for Team UK at Gamers8 Tekken 7 Nations Cup
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
