Evo 2026 wrapped up a weekend of high-level competition with a flood of announcements across the fighting game landscape, covering new DLC characters, surprise shadow drops, and a revived classic from SNK.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Locks In Its Launch Roster
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls revealed the final pieces of its day-one lineup. Blade, Loki, and Deadpool are joining Ghost Rider as the last confirmed launch characters. The PlayStation Blog offered some flavor on Deadpool's in-game style, describing him as "somehow obtaining a game strategy guide from beyond the fourth wall, granting him access to a variety of unique attacks from fighting games of legend" — a fitting hook for a character built around meta-humor.
SNK Goes All-In With Shadow Drops and a Classic Revival
SNK had arguably the busiest Evo of any publisher. Right after the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament concluded, the company shadow-dropped Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star directly into the game — no waiting, no preorder, just available. On the revival front, SNK announced Art of Fighting 3 is coming back as
The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3R
, a rebalanced version of the 1996 entry that adds a new character in King. The company also quietly dropped the more obscure
Ninja Masters
onto Steam, a pleasant surprise for fans of the publisher's deeper catalog.
2XKO Confirms Lux and Samira
Following the 2XKO tournament final, Riot Games dropped a trailer confirming the next two League of Legends champions headed to its team-based fighter: Lux and Samira. No additional details on timing were provided.
Invincible VS Launches Monday
Invincible VS announced that Season One goes live June 30, bringing two new playable characters — The Immortal and Universa — alongside multiple new skins for the existing roster.
Virtua Fighter Crossroads Teases a New Fighter
A character called the Bakunawa Killer is joining Virtua Fighter Crossroads, with some established connection to series veteran Pai Chan. The announcement stopped short of revealing an identity, and early fan theories are pointing to either Pai's father Lau Chan or her rival Lei Fei. Tekken 8 Brings Back Bob — and Teases Roger Jr. Bob is confirmed as the next DLC character for Tekken 8. The reveal trailer closed with a brief teaser for Roger Jr., the series' iconic boxing kangaroo, riffing on a viral kangaroo-and-dog video. Whether Roger Jr. follows Bob into the season pass remains to be confirmed.
Robo-Ky Returns to Guilty Gear Strive
Guilty Gear Strive players won't have to wait long: Robo-Ky joins the roster on July 2.
Avatar Legends DLC Gets a Community Vote
The Avatar Legends DLC Season One fighter lineup is nearly set. Four characters are confirmed — Iroh, Ty Lee, Lin Beifong, and Bolin — with a fifth spot going to a community vote. Fans are choosing between Tenzin, Kuvira, Amon, King Bumi, and Asami. Between shadow drops, revival announcements, and a packed slate of upcoming DLC across nearly every major title, Evo 2026 delivered one of the denser news weekends the genre has seen in years. Most of this content is either already live or arriving within days, so the wait won't be long.
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