Iron Galaxy at Evo 2025

The summer of fighting game events have almost wrapped, but not without the world’s ultimate fighting game tournament, Evo. With the debut of Evo’s Extended Lineup came the return of Killer Instinct at Evo Vegas. 118 entrants registered to compete in this year’s biggest KI tournament. Read on to hear about the experience from our Lead Combat Designer, Adam “Keits” Heart.

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‍Keits: I went to Evo for the first time in 2007 after being a long-time local-only player. I attended every Evo after that until 2016. 10 straight! I missed out on 2017 to 2024, but was able to finally return this year to provide play by play commentary for KI. It was a blast to catch up with old friends and see how the event has Evolved, as well as check out all the awesome game demos our friends were showing. Saturday was KI day at Evo. After pools wrapped up, I had the pleasure of co-commentating with Thrash Heavy through the Top 24 and then Top 8 on stream.

Keits: There were so many great moments throughout the entire competition. I was especially fond of FrodoTBagginzz’s bracket run. As always, getting to see so many characters competing at the top level shows just how interesting the Anniversary Edition balance update has been. Characters that people had counted out in the past were here in force, changing minds and opening eyes. Our top 8 at Evo included nine different characters, with three players showing off multiple inspired counterpicks, while a character specialist took it all the way to a shocking win. Congrats to everyone who competed and thanks for playing KI!

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‍Killer Instinct Top 8:

🥇roman22s (Sabrewulf), 🥈DaaChronicle (ARIA), 🥉Carnitas (Glacius & General RAAM), 🏅FrodoTbagginzz (Maya), 🏅Bass (Spinal, Eagle, & ARIA), 🏅WolfSlayerNinja (Arbiter), 🏅Raven is Raw (Spinal & Sabrewulf), and 🏅TrashBaby (Kim Wu)

 
Run back all the action. Check out Twitch for the community chat reactions and YouTube for jumping straight into each fight.

YouTube – Evo 2025: Killer Instinct Top 8
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Twitch - Evo 2025: Killer Instinct Top 8
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Twitch - Evo 2025: Killer Instinct Top 24
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Keits: After KI wrapped, I spent the rest of my weekend talking to indie fighting game developers and checking out the massive free arcade. I also got to spend some time talking to other fighting game developers about their games, and I’m excited to play more of them. I love fighting games!

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Keits: I didn’t get to try everything in the Evo indie section, but I wanted to shout out three specific games that I absolutely loved. All the games I tried were cool, but these were my standouts.  Please check out Scramble Heart City, a 3v3 tag game with a classic feel, Hyper Fight 2, a game that carries the spirit of Divekick, and Pip Puzzle, a puzzle-fighter like.

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‍Keits: Evo 2025 hit every mark for me. If you are a fighting game fan, you gotta come check it out. It has a huge con feel, lots to see and do beyond tournaments, and the entire event hall stayed open on Sunday! The arcade was gigantic. Checking out each publisher’s demo booth was so cool. They even had a mini arcade stick and art museum.

Big thanks to Rick and the Evo 2025 staff for the memorable weekend. I hope to come back in the future. #PLAYKI‍