EVO to return to France in 2026 after successful event

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 14/10/2025

The Evolution Championship Series (EVO) has announced that EVO will return to France following the event’s EU debut, EVO France 2025 in Nice.

The 2026 edition will take up a similar spot on the calendar, running October 9-11 in 2026, and will return to the French Riviera at Nice once again.

The announcement follows three days of hectic action, which saw winners crowned in Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Fatal Fury: City of Wolves, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and HUNTERxHUNTER NENxIMPACT.

The tournament was also home to several side tournaments, most notably the 2NICE KO tournament, which had its prize pot provided by Rio’s First Impact initiative, which provides funding for over 20 initial esports outings for the new League of Legends-based tag fighting game.

Marwan ‘Wawa’ Berthe won the 2XKO side tournament, winning a prize of $2,000. The French fighter is a Dragon Ball FighterZ specialist. Perhaps the win is an early indication of which backgrounds can adapt to 2XKO the best.

The event also had a stall where players could play 2XKO casually.

Evo France 2025 winners:

Street Fighter 6: Leshar
Prize: $10,688.92 (the Capcom Cup 12 spot for the winner was passed on to runner-up, 15-year-old Derek Blaz, as Lesher had already qualified for the event.)

Tekken 8: Arslan Ash
Prize: $8,597.61

Guilty Gear -STRIVE-: Tiger_Pop
Prize: $7,668.14 & spot at the AWT 2025-2026 Finals

GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising: Usagi
Prize: $6,971.04 & spot at the AWT 2025-2026 Finals

Fatal Fury: City of Wolves: Xiaohai
Prize: $6,041.57 (the SWC 2025 Finals spot for runner-up was passed on to third place AbuOmar, as Xiaohai and runner-up, Kindevu, had already qualified for the event.)

Dragon Ball FighterZ: Hikaru
Prize $3,253.15 (the DBFZ Masters Showdown spot for the winner was passed on to runner-up, Gropis, as Hikaru had already qualified for the event.)

HUNTERxHUNTER NENxIMPACT: Shinanochan
Prize: $3,238.34

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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