Evo, the world's highly-anticipated premier fighting game tournament that is slated to take place this coming July, has announced its lineup for this year's upcoming event, and there are a number of notable surprises.

As it turns out, last year's favorite fighting game, "Ultra Street Fighter IV," has been completely removed from this year's roster of games. Instead, it would be replaced with its successor, "Street Fighter 5." This year's lineup also features not just one, but two "Smash" games, "Super Smash Bros. Melee," and "Super Smash Bros. Wii U," according to The Comment.

What is particularly interesting is the organizer's decision to cut "USF4" from its lineup, seeing as the game drew thousands of participants in the previous years' tournaments. In fact, since it headlined the tournament back in 2009, it has remained a big fan favorite. Last year alone, 2000 players signed up for the game's tournament, hardly a negligible number.

Some, however, believe that the fighting game's removal is simply indicative of Evo's desire to push its successor, "Street Fighter 5." After all, with "USF4" headlining the event for a number of years, it might be time to let it go.

However, it must be noted that older games have been included in the year's lineup as well, such as "Super Smash Bros. Melee," a 15-year-old title from the Nintendo Gamecube platform. Then again, the two Smash titles, "Melee," and "Wii U," are vastly different, as compared to the two "Street Fighter" games, which are largely similar, reported Eurogamer.

Nevertheless, with nine fighting games that would involve thousands of players intent on virtually beating up each other, this year's Evo would undoubtedly be a blast. Besides, with all the controversy on "Street Fighter 5" and "USF4," as well as the two "Smash" titles, many fans have neglected the other interesting additions to this year's lineup.

Among these is "Pokken Tournament," a "Pokemon"-themed fighting game created in the spirit of the popular "Tekken" franchise. Such a game brings the classic style of games such as "Tekken" using characters from the massive "Pokemon" franchise. Seeing as there are countless "Pokemon" fans around the world, it would not be a surprise if the game draws a lot of participants in this year's Evo.

Other games featured in this year's Evo includes "Tekken 7," "Mortal Kombat X," "Guilty Gear Xrd - REVELATOR," "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3" and "Killer Instinct."

With new games, and the lack of a classic title, this year's Evo definitely marks the end of an era for fighting game tournaments and the start of a new one.