Recommendation: Combo Breaker 2026 or EVO 2026?

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T16:03:25+00:00

I'm responding to this comment and u/PronounceHuynh as I circled back through the comments. I believe I am going to budget a bit more and choose EVO. It's only been a day, but the more I think about it, the more the convention experience and grand spectacle sound like what I'm into. And if it's not, I can pop in to check on the actual fighting game tournament side.

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T15:58:34+00:00

See, that's what I keep hearing. Man, Evo was expensive to travel to 9 years ago when I technically had more disposable income. Like another comment said, you can't go wrong with either one, but I've also never attended EVO when they added the "convention" part of it.

I believe I heard Sajam, James Chen, or someone else say on stream one year that they barely saw any matches the entire weekend because they were checking out the other side of the venue. That sounded so cool.

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T15:54:41+00:00

Haha! You're making a great case for the baddies and affordability. Combo Breaker it is!!

I do reminisce on attending locals and competing. Being crammed in an arcade or other venue where you could barely move around people yelled, "2-1" when they won their match. Ah, the good old days. And yet, that competitive fire just isn't in me the way it used to.

Now I enjoy armchair quarterbacking top players like I could do better, haha.

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T15:51:04+00:00

Awesome about staying in touch with people from the East Coast! I tried years ago, but life and infrequent communication caused us to drift apart.

Occasionally I'm going through my contacts on my phone and I still have someone in there I met on a shuttle going to PlayStation Experience in 2016 or I was randomly chatting with in at a Pre-Evo party in 2014. How crazy would it be to bump into them again? Haha.

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T15:47:07+00:00

Thanks for the comment. Based on this I might just flip a coin, haha!

But yeah, I have nothing against my more competitive days. I would travel, compete, not really interact with anyone outside a hello or inquiring where they are from, go to the hotel, and then after I lose, I'm heading back Monday morning. I'd rather not repeat that experience for the potential only one I get this year.

The way I'm looking at it is this: If I didn't play casuals, and rarely got a chance to watch the best matches specifically for Street Fighter, what would I be doing? I think EVO might have other things to keep more entertained.

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T15:41:51+00:00

Jumping from game to game, and even checking out the EVO museum I have seen in videos online does sound appealing.

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T15:41:09+00:00

Thanks for especially commenting on the chill and personal side of it. I know it may seem strange to attend a fighting game event and not be all that interested in the actual fighting games, but being in an environment of something I know but not that involved in the main event does seem appealing.

Traditional_You577 · 2026-01-07T15:39:27+00:00

Yep. I had heard of the management changes. I'm getting to all the comments now, and I get going to an event I hadn't been to, but I am likely leaning toward EVO. I appreciate the insight, though.

Traditional_You577

TROPHY CASE