EVO 2012: SSFIVAE goes to Infiltration, UMvC3 to Filipino Champ

With the conclusion of the Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition finals awarding a win to repeat champion XXX, EVO 2012 has come to a close.

Soul Calibur V was the first event of Finals day. A Patroklos-heavy final bracket was quickly whittled down to Shining Decopon, who favours Tira, and Shen Chan, a Cervantes fan. In two bouts of three rounds, Shining Depocon took the finals.

Next up was Street Fighter x Tekken. The recent release made it an interesting set of matches to watch as players are juggling the familiarity of both sets of players with the fighter's more unusual features. WW.MCZ|Infiltration and Laugh took the day with a Rolento and Ryu combo; opponents EG|Ricky Ortiz and CVPR|PR Balrog fronted Rufus and Ryu.

Mortal Kombat was a really mixed bag with plenty of unusual play styles and character choices; one final eight qualifier, CoCo|M2Dave, brought Freddy Krueger to the floor. It was Kung Lao who brought KN.EMP|Perfect Legend to victory, though, taking out vVv.NOS|CDjr, who tried Rain and Kabal but only took one of four rounds.

Making its EVO debut, King of Fighters XIII was one of the most commentated streams, with viewers praising the high level play not expected of such a new event - but then again, the KoF community is well-established and practiced. In the end, CafeID|Mad KOF emerged victorious, fronting Duo Lon, Chin and Kim, while opponent IGL|BALA used three different teams, which Takuma and Shen making multiple appearances.

There was quite a lot of discussion of Phoenix during the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 finals; many high level players and commentators believe the character is overpowered. The community will have to settle the debate another time though, as champion coL.CC|Filipino Champ elected to use Magneto, Dormammu and Doctor Doom against LXG|Infrit's Nova, Spencer and Sentinel. Infrint's popularity made the result disappointing for many keen fans, but Filipino Champ's decision to eschew Phoenix seems to have earned a few nods.

The final match of the three-day event was the Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition championship; Japanese favourite Daigo Umehara was knocked out by Human Bomb before the finals, leaving it to WW.MCZ|Infiltration, who took Akuma against AVerMedia|Gamerbee's Adon and won in three straight matches.

Expect replays of the best matches to begin circulating soon. For more details and to view the whole bracket, visit Shoryuken's finals hub page.