The 2004 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2004 or EVO 2004) was a fighting game event held at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Pomona, California from July 29 to August 1. The event featured nine fighting games on the main lineup, including Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. While in previous Evolution events all competitions were held on arcade machines, most tournaments at Evo 2004 were played on video game consoles.

2004 Evolution Championship Series
Tournament information
LocationPomona, California, United States
DatesJuly 29–August 1
Tournament
format(s)
Round-robin/Double elimination
Venue(s)California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
← 2003
2005 →

Evo 2004 featured the first Street Fighter match between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong, in which Umehara executed the "Daigo Parry". The controversial final match of the Soulcalibur II tournaments held at Evo 2004 motivated the implementation of a collusion rule still in use today.

Background

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Evo 2004 was held at Cal Poly Pomona.

The sixth Evolution Championship Series was held at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Southern California on July 29 to August 1. Evo 2004 featured approximately 700 participants from over 30 nations, each competing in one or more of the nine tournaments held at the event. In order to create an easier situation for staff and increase the average play time of participants, the double-elimination-style tournaments of previous Evo events was replaced with a round-robin/double-elimination pool system. In the old system, some players would find themselves being eliminated from a tournament after losing two games, but because of the newly implemented system each participant would face off against at least nine other players during the preliminary pool.[1]

2004 was in the middle of what Tom Cannon would later describe as the "Dark Ages" of the fighting game community, when fighting games were largely abandoned by game developers. However, the Evolution Championship Series grew steadily every year, and had become the largest fighting game tournament of its time.[2]

Up until Evo 2004, every Evolution event relied almost entirely on arcade cabinets. However, arcade hardware has always been relatively difficult to get a hold of, especially for games that do not run on Capcom's CP System II system boards. Furthermore, arcade hardware would commonly offer up technical issues. Lastly, competitors often complained that the arcade hardware available at Evolution was different from the hardware they have trained on. In order to solve these issues, the Evolution organizers opted to switch to using video game consoles only at the tournament, where participants have to bring their own game controllers. Only the Street Fighter III: Third Strike tournament held at Evo 2004 was played on arcade hardware, because the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection release date was pushed back to August.[1]

Tournament organizers opted to turn the team tournaments, which were traditionally exhibition matches, into a main part of the event. Two specifically seeded team tournaments in Capcom vs. SNK 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and a Pair Play tournament for Tekken Tag Tournament were held at Evo 2004. Evo 2004 also featured a "Bring Your Own Console" area, where people were able to set up smaller-scale tournaments of games not on the main roster.[1]

Evo Moment #37

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Despite having never matched off against each other before, the Japanese Daigo Umehara and American Justin Wong were known for having a supposed rivalry with each other due to their differences in gaming philosophies. The two players met each other in the loser's finals of Evo 2004's Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament. Umehara, playing using the character Ken, was down to his last unit of health and any special attack by Wong's Chun-Li could knock Ken out. Wong attempted to hit his opponent with Chun-Li's consecutively hitting "Super Art" move, forcing Umehara to parry 15 attacks in a very short period of time. Umehara did so successfully and went on to counter a final kick from Chun-Li in mid-air before launching a combo move himself and winning the match. The clip of Umehara parrying Wong's multihit attack became hugely influential and has been compared to famous sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Miracle on Ice.[3][4]

The Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament was won by Kenji "KO" Obata, playing as Yun. He beat Umehara in the finals, just as he did a year prior at Evo 2003.[5]

Soulcalibur II incident

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The final match of the Soulcalibur II tournament at Evo 2004 was held between the friends Rob "RTD" Combs and Marquette "Mick" Yarbrough. The two were widely accused for collusion and not taking the fight seriously, playing using different characters than usual and playing on a "sub-par level". The two disputed these claims when asked about it on Game Show Network's Games Across America. Though Combs and Yarbrough were not punished directly, Evo went on to implement a "collusion rule", stating that players who purposely manipulate a match or intentionally underperform would forfeit prize and title. Speaking with GiantBomb in 2013, Evo-founder Tom Cannon stated that "they broke the spirit of the tournament. ... We were like 'fine, this happened, let's make sure this is never gonna happen again.'" Evolution's anti-collusion measure was further expanded in 2013 and is still in place.[6][7]

Results

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Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Justin Wong jwong Storm/Sentinel/Commando
2nd   David Lee KingDavid Magneto/Cable/Sentinel
3rd   Desmond Pinkney Xecutioner Sentinel/Storm/Commando
4th   Chris Schmidt Magneto/Storm/Sentinel
5th   Tong Ho Genghis Storm/Sentinel/Commando
5th   Randy Lew Sentinel/Cable/Captain Commando
7th   Sooyoung Chon SooMighty Storm/Sentinel/Commando
7th   Peter Avila Potter Storm/Magneto/T. Bonne
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Kenji Obata KO Yun
2nd   Daigo Umehara Daigo Ken
3rd   Justin Wong jwong Chun Li
4th   Toru Hashimoto Raoh Chun Li
5th   Keisuke Imai KSK Alex
5th   Katsuhisa Ota Kokujin Dudley
7th   Hsien Chang hsien Ken
7th   Mike Watson Ken
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Daigo Umehara Daigo O. Sagat, Ryu, Balrog
2nd   John Choi Choiboy O. Sagat, Guile
3rd   Kuni Funada Kuni Zangief
4th   Justin Wong Jwong O. Sagat, Chun-Li
5th   Alex Valle CaliPower Ryu, O. Sagat
5th   Wes Truelson Ken, Balrog
7th   Jesse Howard Ryu
7th   Seth Killian S-Kill E. Honda
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Yosuke Ito Kindevu A-Sakura/Bison/Blanka
2nd   Ricki Ortiz HelloKitty A-Vega/Sakura/Blanka
3rd   John Choi choiboy C-Ken/Sagat/Guile
4th   Dan C-Ken/Ryu/Sagat
5th   Justin Wong Jwong C-Vega/Chun-Li/Sagat
5th   Campbell Tran Buktooth N-Iori/Morrigan/Hibiki
7th   Eddie Lee A-Mai/Eagle/Vega
7th   Ryota Fukumoto RF A-Sakura/Bison/Blanka
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Robert Combs RTD Xianghua, Ivy, Voldo, Nightmare
2nd   Marquette Yarbrough Mick Cassandra, Sophitia, Voldo
3rd   Mystic Senior SowNemesis Sophitia, Cervantes
4th   Christian Gonzalez Vicious Suicide Yoshimitsu
5th   Steven Luong B:L Mitsurugi
5th   Rob Nagaro XCTU Talim
7th   Jonathan Soon Binkley Cervantes
7th   Steven Hanna Eternal Fighter Nightmare, Xianghua
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Daigo Umehara Daigo Sol
2nd   Yosuke Ito Kindevu Eddie
3rd   Ryota Fukumoto RF Faust
4th   Kevin Turner Shin Kensou Chipp, Eddie
5th   Soh Miura Miu Sol
5th   Saif Ebrahim ID Sol
7th   Daniel Realyvasquez Ruin Eddie
7th   Peter Shou Xenotiger Faust, Axl
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Hiromiki Kumada Itabashi Zangief Shun Di
2nd   Eric Chung ShouTime Sarah
3rd   Kurita Vanessa
4th   Ryan Hart Prodigal Son Kage, Akira
5th   Toru Hashimoto Raoh Lau
5th   Adam Rana adamYUKI Jeffrey
7th   Che Dunkley Cappo Pai
7th   Jimmy Byun Maddy Akira
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Anthony Tran Jackie Tran Jin
2nd   Joshua Molinaro JinKid Jin
3rd   Thomas Kymn TomHilfiger Nina, Steve
4th   Nikos Fourikis Aenica Julia
5th   Ryan Hart Prodigal Son Heihachi
5th   Jason Greeson USMC Ogre Paul
7th   Chetan Chetty ChetChetty Paul
7th   Robert Warren Qbert Jin
Place Player Alias Character(s)
1st   Ryan Hart Prodigal Son Jin, Kazuya
2nd   Shaun Rivera Unconkable Armor King, Devil, Anna
3rd   Brad Vitale Slips Julia / Eddy
4th   Nick Shin Shin Julia / Michelle
5th   Fabrizio Tavassi Bode Michelle / Julia
5th   Thomas Kymn TomHilfiger Devil / Jin, Bruce / Julia
7th   Chetan Chetty ChetChetty Jin / Devil, Armor King / Anna
7th   Joshua Molinaro JinKid Devil / King

References

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  1. ^ a b c Kleckner, Stephen (2004-08-18). "Spotlight on the Evolution 2K4 Fighting Game Tournament". GameSpot.
  2. ^ Learned, John (2017-07-17). "The Oral History of EVO: The Story of the World's Largest Fighting Game Tournament". VG247.
  3. ^ Markazi, Arash (2016-08-26). "Daigo and JWong: the legacy of Street Fighter's Moment 37". ESPN.
  4. ^ Baker, Chris (2016-07-21). "Flashback: Why 2004 'Street Fighter' Match Is Esports' Most Thrilling Moment". Rolling Stone.
  5. ^ Aquino, Andrés (2020-03-25). "The top 10 Street Fighter players of all time". Ginx TV.
  6. ^ Klepek, Patrick (2013-08-08). "The Collusion of Money, Drama, And Pride". GiantBomb.
  7. ^ Guerrero, John (2015-07-14). "Virtua Kazama covers the EVO Soul Calibur scandal of 04' and the famous Moment 37 in 'The History of EVO (Part 2): 2003-2005'". EventHubs.