Another year, another awesome Evo experience in the rear-view mirror. It was an incredibly fun event as always, but particularly draining and exhausting this time around. Two weeks have gone by since Evo2k11 wrapped up – and in all honesty, i’m still recovering.

Somehow i managed to catch some nasty cold/flu bug (aka Evola, as jchensor calls it) which has taken its sweet time burning through my system. Having three meals and an energy bar over a 96-hour period with under fifteen hours of sleep probably didn’t help matters.

I’m not proud of that rookie mistake, but there was a lot to take care of during Evo weekend and throughout the day after i drove home. In hindsight, it’s probably a minor miracle that both the DAMAGE exhibition v.one and Balrog: Behind the Glory premieres went off without a hitch. Huge thanks to everyone involved with those projects for actually making them happen; although hopefully we won’t have to cut it so close next time.

The tournament itself was amazing as usual. There were countless clutch moments, upsets, comebacks, and unbelievably creative gameplay tactics on display. The SSF4AE top 8 lineup was surprising, but every single one of those players proved they belong. How crazy is it that Yun didn’t make top 3 and that there was only one mirror match in the whole top 8 bracket?

Witnessing Viscant finally winning Marvel at Evolution had to be the highlight of the weekend for me though. In my opinion, it was the best possible result. Everyone in the community respects that guy and he’s been a legitimate contender since the MvC1 era. Literally every oldschool player was cheering him on, and he came through in decisive fashion.

He certainly didn’t have an easy bracket either. He had to go through JWong and PR Balrog, clearly the two strongest challengers in the field on Sunday. Viscant beat them both rather convincingly. He was undoubtedly the best MvC3 player on the planet for the weekend of Evo2k11. Putting aside the fervent Phoenix hate, how can anyone argue that point?

Look, we’re talking about a CvS2 K-Geese/Yamazaki/Hibiki player here. He mained Blanka in SF4 and Dee Jay in SSF4. Personally, i’m proud of Viscant for not limiting himself with awful character choices like he always does. He believed Phoenix was the best option in MvC3 and he proved himself to be the overall best player with her.

It was not a fluke and Phoenix isn’t an automatic win button. This weekend’s Sin City Heat tournament had one Phoenix in top 4 who ended up placing third, and she never even went Dark. When things go wrong for Phoenix, they go all the way wrong in a hurry.

I’ve said before that adopting an underpowered fan-favorite character is a pretty reliable way to become famous in this community. That’s all well and good, but we’re seeing an alarming trend of sponsored players getting a little too image-conscious.

Everyone seems to agree that Fei Long and Yun are the best characters in SSF4AE. Can you name the top Yun or Fei Long player in America? Why is everyone suddenly backing away from the consensus strongest characters in the game? Is it just to look cool? Why doesn’t Japan seem to have this problem?

These are intriguing questions, and i look forward to watching their answers unfold as players settle into SSF4AE, and as MvC3 continues to evolve until UMvC3 arrives. If nothing else, the “Phoenix experiment” has been fascinating to observe. She should probably be weakened slightly for UMvC3, but i hope the game doesn’t lose its aggressive edge.

Last but not least, i want to thank everyone on Evo staff for hosting yet another memorable event and somehow setting the bar even higher. And thanks to everyone who attended for bringing the energy and the hype! See you all next year.