EVO 2022 Working to Decrease Ad Quantity Following Criticism
The Evolution Championship Series is back, live and in person, for the first time since 2019. The massive fighting game tournament event moved forward under new guidelines for attendee COVID protections and with new PlayStation ownership and management. Many fighting game fans worried the changes could throw EVO into upheaval, but the weekend has so far gone well — with one notable exception. Viewers on Twitch, and even attendees, have voiced frustrations over frequent, extended ad breaks. EVO is listening, though.
EVO general manager Rick «The Hadou» Thiher posted a message to those watching at home on Sunday morning. Thiher tells fighting game fans that he's «working on getting the ad quantity reduced for the rest of the day.» Unfortunately, a follow-up hasn't been provided since, so it's unclear if any changes have been made to the broadcast or Twitch stream. At the very least, EVO is aware of the criticism and is looking into what can be done.
Super Smash Bros. Will Not Be at EVO This Year
Delays are a traditional part of EVO going through the years. It's understandable that tournaments with thousands of entrants may not be very easy to schedule. However, for many watching EVO 2022 the delays didn't come across as issues with any game's tournament format. Instead, frequent breaks were taken to run advertisements for EVO's partners, as well as Twitch ads. Viewers may have noticed more frequent flashback matches, used to fill time while Twitch ads aired.
It's unclear at this point why EVO 2022 came across as having more advertisements than previous shows. It's possible that the EVO management team and PlayStation's new ownership had higher monetization requirements than in previous shows. It's possible that there were more
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