EVO 2020 lineup revealed, Mortal Kombat 11 gets left out The EVO 2020 line-up of games has been announced, and there were quite some surprises, including NetherRealm falling by the wayside altogether in this year's lineup.

It’s never too early to get ready for EVO, and now we know what we’ll be playing at the tournament. EVO President Joey Cuellar and others from the EVO staff went live to share 2020’s mainstage games, complete with everything you would probably expect, plus a few surprises.

The EVO mainstage game lineup was revealed on February 4, 2020 via an EVO Twitch livestream. During the stream we got to see plenty of interesting inclusions. We also got new details on registration for the game.

EVO 2020 main stage lineup

Fresh released Granblue Fantasy Versus from Cygames and Arc System Works will be one of the all-new showcase games of EVO 2020.

EVO 2020 is featuring eight mainstage games this year. The list is as follows:

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Tekken 7

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Samurai Shodown

Granblue Fantasy Versus

Soul Calibur 6

Under Night: In-Birth Exe:Late cl-r

There will be another event at EVO 2020, but instead of a traditional tournament, it will instead be an 8-player invitational tournament of champions featuring Marvel vs Capcom 2. Previous champions Justin Wong, Sanford Kelly, Duc Do, and Michael "IFC Yipes" Mendoza are already announced as the first 4 players and the last four players will be selected via events or methods to be determined later.

The major shocker here is the lack of any and all NetherRealm games on the roster, especially with Mortal Kombat 11 still fresh and in full swing. The last time a NetherRealm game wasn’t on the EVO mainstage was all the way back in 2010. The 2011 Mortal Kombat made its debut at EVO 2011, which kicked off a run of Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, and then Mortal Kombat 11 in EVO 2019 in its first year and maiden voyage. No doubt, there’s a number of reasons Mortal Kombat 11 isn’t making the list, but it’s shocking and unfortunate nonetheless, echoing the strangeness of Super Smash Bros Melee when it was taken off the list in 2019 – except for the fact that Mortal Kombat 11 is a new game with continuing updates and a healthy competitive scene.

Mortal Kombat 11 has continued to have a stellar year of competition from EVO 2019 through 2020. It's exclusion from EVO 2020 feels absolutely bizarre to say the least.

Blazblue Cross Tag Battle being taken off the roster is strange too, considering the latest content for the game isn’t very old and more content is undoubtedly going to continue to be added, but being replaced with Granblue Fantasy Versus isn’t such a bad thing. Cygames and Arc System Works’ new baby is stylish and sleek like Guilty Gear Xrd, but with an extremely simplistic control style that is appealing to newcomers and easy to grasp, yet with plenty of room for mastery by veteran players.

EVO 2020 is slated to take place at the Mandalay Bay Hotel Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 31, 2020 to August 2, 2020. If you’d like to get more information, check out rules, register to play or spectate, or book a hotel room for the event, be sure to check out the EVO 2020 website to get the latest news and information.

What do you think about Mortal Kombat being taken off the main stage this year? What are you most excited to check out this year at EVO 2020? Let us know in the Shacknews Chatty comment section below.