EVO Japan 2023 took place from March 31 to April 4, marking the first time the event has been held in Japan since 2020. Held at Tokyo Big Sight, expectations were high for the return of the world's premier fighting game tournament, but ...... The results were mixed.

In the end there were still plenty of great fights to be seen, but the problems were piling up. Lack of staff, cramped venues, and confusion over brackets in some matches caused a huge amount of downtime between games, and many players complained that the setup of the games was laggy.

Some fans thought the players were unfairly salty about losing, but Evo's general manager, Richard Tihar, later confirmed the technical problems. 'It is important to confirm that the EvoJapan2023 stage setup had a negative impact on the players,' he said. We also need to confirm that the problem was not with the INZONE monitors, but with the stage and stream design itself. We will prove that at other events this year."

Now Evo has issued an apology, acknowledging the problem and promising to make improvements in the future:

"Evo Japan 2023 excited an incredible number of players and viewers with the new location, presentation, and expanded activities this year. We also know that there were flaws in the competitors' experience throughout the competition. Such imbalances will not happen again.

"We are committed to providing a great global athlete experience. Our US team will work closely with our Japanese partners to ensure that this event series lives up to the expectations of the community, and Evo Japan has unlimited potential as an experience and destination. Evo Japan has unlimited potential as an experience and destination, and we will make sure it reaches everyone."

As several fans have pointed out, what is surprising about this is that Evo is a well-established tournament with a pretty impressive track record: if anyone knows how to do a fighting game tournament, you would think it would be this team. But players should at least take Evo with a little grain of salt this time around: all event companies are struggling to cope with post-cobid realities, and budgets are tighter than ever. Evo says it will improve next time.