With all of the high quality fighting game action available at EVO 2018 it’s difficult to think that something could have been missed. Ask the Marvel vs Capcom community, however, and they’ll tell you exactly what sort of hole leaving Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite out of the main lineup created. MvC:I still saw a side tournament with 128 entrants, but we spoke to a few fighting game pros that think the game got the shaft.

Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzalez, one of the most prominent MvC players in the scene today, wanted Infinite to see at least one year in the main EVO roster. “The game was new, when it first debuted in its first tournament it was really hyped and it was really big,” he explained. “Yeah there were some problems, the whole Capcom “shilling” thing people say, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. It’s still Marvel. At the end of the day it is still going to be hype. Honestly I don’t know what they wanted. Maybe Mr. Wizard [the head of EVO] wants money.”

When I asked him how he felt about MvC:I being cast aside, he was clear in his disappointment. “It’s just weird to me how a game that wasn’t even out yet [referring to BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle] was allowed a spot, or Injustice 2 which barely saw any entrants was allowed a spot,” he said. “I feel like there was more politics involved instead of listening to what people want. Anyone who knew anything could have told you we raised money for a spot last year, which is crazy in itself. We had to earn our spot and it was still the second or third biggest viewed game. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Despite the game’s mostly negative reception in the FGC, ChrisG is hopeful Capcom will comes to its senses and make something of what’s already been shown. “The game is 100% salvageable in terms of tournament play,” he tells us. “This year 128 people entered [the side tournament]. They capped it almost instantly, and so many people were there to watch it, so at that point you just have to wonder like why wasn’t it a main game. ”

Not everyone is high on the game, however. Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez, a longtime Marvel vs Capcom 3 player and EVO 2011 runner-up, is not a fan of how MvC:I turned out. “I definitely don’t like MvC Infinite,” he said, about as plainly as possible.” In my opinion, they need to take some time to think about what they want to do instead of rushing things out. I wish they would release a new version or something that is a little bit better. I’m not sure on the specifics, since I don’t play Infinite much, but for one thing they definitely need to update the graphics. I think Infinite looks terrible.”

However, if there’s one person out there whose passion for Marvel cannot be denied, it’s Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez. When we asked him about MvC: I and the current state of the community, his desire to see this new game succeed within the community came out almost immediately. “The Marvel community has done so much work,” Champ said to us. “We are running our own events now. We are raising so much money for a good cause. We raised hundreds of thousands for breast cancer just to put our game into EVO last year, just to grab a spot at a main event, but this year we have a new game and they didn’t even give us a chance. Like, did they just forget about the last 15 years’ worth of audiences that Marvel has given them?

By leaving out Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite from the main roster, Champ says, other games were hurt as well. Players like Job “Flocker” Figueroa didn’t travel to EVO this year because of Marvel’s absence, and according to Champ “they also enter other games. They enter Street Fighter. They enter BlazBlue or Tekken.” Leaving Marvel out of the main scene impacted the rest of the events, in Champ’s opinion, and hurts the scene on a grand scale.

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite’s 128-man side tournament didn’t exactly go off without a hitch, and in Filipino Champ’s opinion it was a slap in the face to the community. “We had to cap our tournaments to 128, they set a limit on us and put us in Friday Finals, and that’s disrespectful,” he laments. “They wouldn’t even give us top 8, we got a Top 4 which was scheduled to be 8PM but we didn’t play until like 10:45 and they put other games like Sailor Moon before us. We felt like we got shafted. Is a Top 8 so hard for you to give the community?”

The last question we had for Marvel’s outspoken champion is what the future holds for the community and the game at large, and Filipino Champ summarized his entire point in a short slogan the community has adopted: never give up. “We have been fighting, and I am like their spokesperson,” he says.”I’ll speak up. I would not be held back by somebody who would tell me that I can’t talk about what I feel. I’ve always been an influencer and outspoken for the fighting game community, and I feel like I am not talking for myself in this case because I didn’t even enter the tournament,. I am just supporting the game. I’m not even going to personally benefit if there is a tournament, but Marvel is something that I love. I love the community, so I can’t let them down. They have been very supportive of me throughout my career, so I owe them a lot. I got their back all the way through.”

With prominent fighting game community figures speaking out in support of Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, it’s clear that the community is more than willing to keep supporting the game. Now it’s up to those with creative control to figure out how to better MvC:I not only for the game’s fans, but for the entire fighting game community. Not seeing any Marvel game on the main stage was supremely weird, and one can only hope Capcom won’t let it happen again. With ambassadors like NYChrisG and Filipino Champ, the community’s concerns will definitely be noted.

For more on EVO 2018, check out our op-ed on the event’s overall security, as well as a look at the Super Smash Bros community’s less than stellar showing during the event.