EVO, one of the biggest fighting game tournaments in the industry, has announced that EVO 2022 would no longer be offline.

In a tweet today, the official EVO Twitter account announced that the series of tournaments would be held in-person, in its usual venue in Las Vegas.

“We have loved the competition through our online events, but nothing beats live, in-person tournaments between players from around the world. It has been too long since we have experienced the spirit of the FGC in person together. Evo is back in Las Vegas August 5-7 in 2022”, the tweet reads.

It’s no surprise that this year’s EVO was lacking considerably in hype compared to prior years. This year’s edition of the tournament was full of firsts, being the first EVO Online, as well as the first event under the stewardship of Sony, who had bought over the tournament.

However, things like connectivity issues, as well as executive decisions like not streaming as many matches as well as confusing schedules  brought down the overall reception to the tournament, leading many fans to miss the more exciting days of in-person events.

Obviously, not being able to hold EVO in person isn’t anyone’s fault- the world has been in limbo for close to two years now thanks to a deadly virus. And that same virus might also have something to say about EVO 2022, so starting celebrations now would be premature.

If nothing else though, it’s good of EVO to give fans something to look forward to.