Earlier this week, William “Leffen” Hjelte won Super Smash Bros Melee gold at Evo, fighting games’ biggest stage, but now he’s cementing himself as one of the greats. Leffen announced that he will donate a portion of his prize money to lower-placing players, who took home cents by comparison.

The eight Street Fighter 5 competitors that made it into Evo 2018’s finals yesterday looked very different from last year’s lineup. Aside from last year’s winner, Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi, every single one of the other finalists wasn’t on last year’s stage.

Everybody assumed Tokido would win. But Evo 2018 finals have proven assumptions to be unwise, time and time again.

At least one American player tends to make it to the Guilty Gear Xrd finals at the Evolution Championship Series, but that’s typically where their journeys end. Joshua “Zidane” Rodriguez and Kyohei “MarlinPie” Lehr achieved this feat in 2015 and 2017 respectively, only to both get knocked out after a single match. But at Evo 2018, Eli “LostSoul” Rabadad bucked this trend, carrying the hope of his entire country to an incredible third-place finish.

While it’s typical for Tekken 7 competition to be dominated by South Korean players, the Evo 2018 finals featured a collection of amazing players from across the world. The eventual champion would have to contend with competitors not only from that Asian peninsula, but also the United States, Japan, and Thailand. Sun-woong “LowHigh” Youn proved he was up to the challenge, even when facing off against one of the longtime legends of the Tekken community.

This year's Evolution Championship Series is almost the same as last year: the Mandalay Bay Convention Center is still packed with countless setups, players reigniting friendships and rivalries and clusters of attendees erupting into screams during exciting matches. But Evo 2018 has one glaring omission in its lineup of official events: Marvel vs. Capcom.

After Dominique “SonicFox” McLean placed third instead of his usual first in the Injustice 2 finals earlier this weekend at Evo 2018, his fans wondered if the multi-game phenom was slipping. His Injustice 2 skills had only wavered because he was focusing on Dragon Ball FighterZ, right?

But then, during a DBFZ exhibition match against his rival Goichi “GO1" Kishida, SonicFox kept dropping combos and lost several matches in a row. It didn’t seem like the blue fox could turn it around and win it all at Evo 2018 this year.

The biggest question coming into Evo 2018’s Super Smash Bros. Melee competition is whether or not one of the game’s “gods” would win a sixth title in a row. And now, we have our answer: the gods are dead, long live Leffen.

Several Bayonetta players made it into the Super Smash Brothers 4 finals at Evo 2018 this year, although surprisingly, last year’s Evo winner and Bayonetta player Saleem “Salem” Akiel Young wasn’t one of them.

Salem’s upset last year coincided with the longstanding debate over whether Bayonetta’s combo-linking abilities make her an unfair opponent, and after tonight’s results, that debate shows no signs of slowing down.

Despite offering a unique take on 3D fighting focused on counters and holds, the Dead or Alive franchise has never quite taken off within the fighting game community. It has a small but dedicated fanbase, but the game also struggles with public perception as the genre's "boobie fighter" (probably thanks to old but memorable commercials featuring slack-jawed dudes checking out the game's female fighters). The game has never quite shaken off that reputation, meaning most folks assume Dead or Alive is all about titillation rather than hardcore competition.

With the Overwatch League’s inaugural season firmly in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to move on to the fighting game world. This weekend’s Evo is the biggest tournament of the year, starring street fighters, smash brothers (and sisters), and a crap ton of Gokus.