In the past month, Skullgirls had returned to Evo, dropped new information on Marie, announced the return of the Championship Series Tour, and to top it all off, we found out there are huge ideas in mind coming to the game. With all this in mind, one would have to wonder about the future of Skullgirls, Is the launch party still going, or is this its last hurrah? I can safely say that this party never stops, and there are huge things being hinted to come to Skullgirls in the coming years.

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Evo was pretty good

While we had our first showing at Evo offline last year as one of the main games, and was a great way to close the chapter in the Skullgirls legacy, the fact it returned to Evo this year was a surprise to the entire community. The Skullgirls community was not expecting Skullgirls to be back at Evo. We figured we would go back to our main 3 majors we attend to usually to for Combo Breaker, Frosty Faustings, and CEOtaku. But what shocked us was that not only did it return for Evo as a community game, but an even higher pot bonus for Evo by adding $5000 to the tournament. This past year for Combo Breaker, Hidden Variable added $3000 to the pot, which to me indicates that Skullgirls is in a much better place than I initially thought.

While the announcement of Skullgirls being back at Evo was made a month before the event, we still managed to gather up 64 players to compete in this year’s Skullgirls Evo tournament. While you still had the heavy hitters like Dekillsage, and Reis competing in the bracket for this year, because of the last-minute announcement, not many of our top players were not able to show up to compete. Notably, Sonicfox was there and did sign up, but decided to focus on Street Fighter 6 this year, and that left the door wide open to be this year’s Evo Champion. Regardless of these setbacks, this year’s Top 6 for Skullgirls was still one of the best tournaments to watch. There were a lot of new faces in this bracket, and it showcased the new blood coming into Skullgirls scene. Players like BicepsatMid, Dawn Hibiki, and many others showed up to showcase the new generation of Skullgirls players coming to the game at this year’s Evo. It ultimately did come down to between Dekillsage vs. Reis in the Grand Finals for Evo, but the way it ended was one of the most fast-paced Skullgirls tournaments I have seen in my life. It felt like I was competing in the Grand Finals, without giving me much time to breathe in-between games. But after a hard-fought battle between Dekillsage and Reis, the winner ultimately went to Dekillsage! Very fitting since back-to-back years both Sonic and Dekillsage take home the gold representing Evil Genius. Of course, while telling you a shorthand version of the tournament is nice, be sure to check out the entire Top 6 of Skullgirls below, and enjoy the hype.

What’s Marie been up to?

Previous to our last newsletter, we were getting updates through the Skullgirls Twitter account regarding the status of where Marie was in development. This year at Evo, we got a showcase of her on stage between Sonicfox and Dekillsage showing what Marie can do. Much of the details were commentated by both Munozscyther, and Kai Kennedy on stream, while many on-goers were looking at every detail of Marie. Many try to decipher what exactly is her move list, the properties of her normal’s, and how much damage can she do. From the looks of things, she seems to be able to care for herself quite well. Showcasing what Marie can do in certain situations, having armored moves, and now a big skeleton to help her approach the natural with several options to approach. If there is a good comparison of her gameplay to what she can do, it would be a mix of Shadow Labrys from the Persona 4 Arena, and Rachel Alucard from Blazblue. The gameplay remains the same as described in the last newsletter, but we got more details about her from our interview with Drexo who not only played Marie at Evo but was given footage to record on top of an interview he conducted with the Hidden Variable Staff.

To give a primer to the video, Drexo describes what Marie is now and how far along she is in development, In his own words, he describes Marie as a set-up character while still being a mid-range type of character that we have described in the last newsletter about her. He goes into detail about how each super mechanic works, and the emphasis and idea of using meter to buff her supers. Hidden Variable is looking to expand on what Marie can do in the game, and looking into inventing new ways a Skullgirl character fits into the new meta that makes her not only fit right in but open new ideas for what can do with the rest of the cast. I would highly suggest checking out the video below in regard to the interview and what Marie is shaping up thus far.

Not to mention, in the interview, Drexo goes into details on Hidden Variable wanting to improve the netcode for Skullgirls, another character possibly coming to the game that hasn’t been announced, and some behind-the-scenes conversations on what it’s like to work on both Skullgirls 2nd Encore, and Skullgirls Mobile.

Skullgirls Championship Series is back!

One of the big surprises we got was that the Skullgirls Championship Series has returned! Officially coming in 2024 with no date exactly, but unlike last time, we are getting the full treatment of the SCS tour both online and offline. It is being handled by a different production team, so goodbye to the cartoon drawings of some of our players that showed up during the first iteration of the tour. From the interview we had with Drexo, the season-ending event will be Combo Breaker, and will be both online and offline events for players to play to be part of the tour. No other details in regards to how the format will work for getting qualified, how many points you must earn, and other details are yet to be released. Those details will be released in 2024. But with the Championship Series back, of course, this could lead to Hidden Variable having its own tour to promote future announcements of any sort. We’ll keep an eye on when the tour starts, and who will be the players to look out for!

The First Ever Skullgirls Only Major

During Evo, Munozscyther mentioned he is planning to host a Skullgirls Major-only event. The event will be in New York at the venue, OS NYC, this year on December 9th as the first big Skullgirls-only major. Registration is now open for anyone to buy tickets starting at the early bird fee of 10$. Sign-ups are now live on the Mix Masters x OSNYC Start.gg page. The official Matcherino page is also live for anyone wanting to donate to the prize pot for the big end-of-the-year event.

To add to this news, Also announced at Evo is the addition of two other regions to the lineup of Mix Masters Online Series. Mix Masters Online has added both Europe and South America to the line-up! So now every week you have not only US Mix Masters, but now every other week you have EU and South America Mix Masters Online. It’s always great to see other regions showcased on a big stage like Mix Masters for those to see.

Spotlight: @Skugsmoment

Possibly one of the coolest ideas I have seen come along in the Skullgirls scene, is the Twitter account, @skugsmoment. A Twitter account dedicated to hype, and funny Skullgirls moments for people to see. Most of the clips seen on the account are made by the person in charge, but also users submit their own to have them showcased on the Twitter account. It is similar to what the SGMolly Twitter account does for the competitive scene, but this account caters more to anyone who wants to take a peak into what shenanigans are happening in any given Skullgirls match or event. Be it a major, online tournament, or casuals with other players, this account is very much worth following to have on your timeline of some great clips of Skullgirls. If there was another account to compare this to, this is the Skullgirls version of @HiFightTH

Editorial Corner

So behind the scenes, I recently got a new job, and starting back school this week so when it comes to making the weekly content for sgmolly will be a bit harder for me at this time. Nevertheless, the content will still be flowing in one way or another. Streaming times for Opening Night will change week to week, due to my work schedule changing every week. I already changed the time postings of the weekly Skullgirls tournaments and events schedule to fit my schedule. But other than that, plans of working on playskullgirls.gg are still in the works to hit our goals of other ideas we want to implement to make the site the best place for all things Skullgirls.

With that aside, expect some ideas to pop up as we get closer to 2024 as we ramp up for the start of the Skullgirls Championship Series. This newsletter as well as on playskullgirls.gg will be essential to keep an eye on what event will be a qualifier for upcoming points for the tour. If you’re a player looking to compete, I would suggest following this newsletter, following our socials, and as stated above, keeping an eye on playskullgirls.gg!

As always be sure to support the work we do not only here but on our Patreon over at patreon.com/sgmolly!

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