While the FGC has been hyped over the giant MultiVersus tournament at Evo, not everything has gone according to plan. Attendees noticed that friendlies were not allowed on the MultiVersus setups.
Friendlies are a big part of any FGC tournament or event. While the main tournaments have the spotlight, fighting game fans also enjoy playing some casual games between watching the pro players compete. Sometimes top players will even play some friendlies with fans, making it a staple of any FGC tournament. That’s why it was shocking to see that MultiVersus wasn’t allowing friendlies on their setups.
Riot Games employee Greg Adler tweeted on Friday, August 5 that attendees were apparently not allowed to play MultiVersus friendlies. Adler included a photo of the setups that were apparently reserved for bracket matches only.
After seeing the setups, Adler found out from the MultiVersus tournament organizer that the setups were for bracket only, confirming his concerns.
“Pretty disappointed. There are so many open setups and people just wanted to play,” Adler said. “Feels like a missed opportunity to active (sic) the community here.”
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player Luis “Lui$” Ramos confirmed Adler’s claims as well. He entered the MultiVersus bracket and was also told that friendlies were not allowed. Not even for competitors.
“Came two hours early to warm up just to find out warming up doesn’t exist due to their million open setups not allowing friendlies,” Lui$ tweeted, calling it unfair.
All other fighting games at Evo allow friendlies on the side, something that’s listed as part of the spectator experience. This made it all the more upsetting that MultiVersus decided not to allow friendlies at their first-ever tournament.
Many pro players in the FGC community have asked MultiVersus TOs to change the ruling in the future. One of those pros was Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma, one of the most prominent Smash players in the scene. There may have been a reason this time around.
Brawlhalla pro Wrenchd was another competitor in the MultiVersus brackets. He explained that there may have been setup issues being worked out, including problems with keyboard players. According to Wrenchd, the controls took about 40 minutes to set up using controller emulation software.
Of course, this is all speculation for now. The MultiVersus TOs have not come forward to explain the unpopular decision to remove friendlies from Evo.
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