As announced in January, finally Mortal Kombat has returned to Las Vegas for the Evo World Championships! After a years hiatus from the official July line-up, the most brutal US fighter has made its comeback - challenging the world's greatest kombatants in the multi-variation system of Mortal Kombat X! More than 1.000 players are registered to contest this year's World Championship - with unofficial 2014 winner Sonic Fox charging the tournament as the overwhelming favourite! Looming over him will be the official defending Mortal Kombat World Champion DJT - whose victory at the 2013 World Championship ended the streak of Evo powerhouse Perfect Legend!
Take in all the sights and sounds of the tournament on the main Evo stream [embedded below], including the Mortal Kombat X Championship Sunday, 11:00AM! Saturday Semi Finals feature at 8:00PM, with more Mortal Kombat X streaming on the 7th Evo Stream.
This year's Mortal Kombat X Evo World Championship is contested on the PlayStation 4 console with standard best of 3 games at 99 second rounds. Recent DLC addition Predator has been ruled illegal, with versions patched up to July 8th. This includes recent patch tweaks to modify Tanya and other characters. Winners must retain the same character and variation.
SonicFox5000 will be looking to convert his dominance over ESL Season One, East Coast Throwdown and The Common Wealth 2015 to follow his monumental cash win with more dollars and his first official Evo Championship. Royal Storm Kitana has been his instrument of destruction of late, evolving from his much talked about Erron Black that left many victims in his wake!
Defending 2013 World Champion DJT got into form at the right time, capturing CEO 2015 in the final major on the road to Evo. DJT was absent from the ESL finals - setting up an exciting possible meeting with the unofficial 2014 champ - SonicFox. DJT told Mortal Kombat Online, "I will definitely be competing in MKX to try and be the first one to win the biggest tournament. Then I will have bragging rights for an entire year and be called EVO champ every other day.
I'm going for nothing but top 8 minimum. I want to be on that big stage. I love the feeling and excitement even though my face is so calm all the time when I am playing."
2-time Evo World Champion Perfect Legend may be limping slightly after finishing 4th in the ESL Season One Final. His online focus leaves question marks about his readiness to challenge the field he swept in 2011 and 2012. His Kung Lao struggled with new school rival Sonic Fox and classic arch-rival REO!
REO took runners-up honors in the final of ESL Season One, stumbling in two encounters with SonicFox. A switch from Kobu Jutsu Tanya to Bone Shaper Shinnok helped REO prove the SonicFox could bleed, but will he be able to convert a single game win to a World Championship under the intense lights of Las Vegas? He's been there before, losing out to World Champions in 2011 and 2013. Some say he's overdue, with a pedigree of titles in the last Mortal Kombat that proves he has what it takes to hold the gold!
Another man who put Sonic Fox under pressure is Mortal Kombat Online favourite Pig of the Hut. In 2014, he was responsible for organizing the unofficial Evo Championship. This year he brings his mastery of the blind sword saint Kenshi in the hopes of again forcing the scene's most dominant new force to make a desperation decision. When the game was announced for Evo, Pig of the Hut told Mortal Kombat Online, "I will be extremely focused on MKX and only MKX for EVO. I have a list of immediate "TO-DOs" and training regime already written out for it when it drops... " He will bring with him the humility and knowledge of past experiences, "Lessons learned and the journey i went through from rock bottom to damn near almost winning EVO (placing 2nd) in Injustice are lessons i will take into MKX." Don't think that means he'll be playing it safe, though: "Sooner or later Im going to be a massive problem for anyone in my bracket."
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