There have been a few big Losers runs at Evo 2025 so far, but none have been bigger than what Kojicoco pulled off in the Evo Arena Saturday night.

The American Beatrix player was sent to Losers just before Top 8 by Monarch. A win over Elsa put him into Top 8 for the second straight year at Evo. Down 2-0 against Ryazo in Losers Round 1, he looked finished, but nothing could be further than the truth. After pulling the reverse 3-0, Kojicoco took out Zenith 3-1, Fukunaga 3-0 ,and Tororo 3-2 to punch his ticket into Grand Finals. There, he took down Zane 3-1 to reset the bracket and earned his first Evo Championship with the same score in the reset. He won seven sets in a row in Losers, the most by an Evo 2025 champion thus far.

Since finishing 17th at Evo 2024, Zane had been on a roll for the last year, racking up results like 2nd at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2024, 3rd at Frosty Faustings XVII, 2nd at COMBO BREAKER 2025, and 1st at CEO 2025. His improvement continued to show at Evo 2025. He rolled through Winners with his Grimnir, dropping just one game to Bepaw on the way to Top 8, locking in his first Evo finals stage appearance. And he kept going, taking a 3-0 win over Zenith in Winners Semifinals and a huge 3-2 win over tournament favorite Tororo in Winners Finals. Even though he couldn't quite close it out in Grand Finals, his 2nd place finish at Evo 2025 is an excellent cap on what has been a brilliant year of Granblue for Zane.

As the reigning ARC World Tour champion, Tororo was the favorite entering Evo 2025. He certainly played like it on the way to Top 8, not dropping a game until Ryazo drew blood in Winners Quarters. In Top 8, he was pushed to the brink in a Game 5 set against Monarch, and when Zane pushed him to a fifth game in Winners Finals, he finally cracked. In Losers Finals, Kojicoco got him in yet another Game 5 set. After an exhausting run, Tororo adds this third place medal to a stacked collection, thanks to a 7th place finish at Evo Japan 2025, 2nd place finishes at Evo 2024, Evo Japan 2023, and Evo 2022, and a 3rd place finish at Evo Japan 2024.

After falling to Zenith in Winners side, it looked like Fukunaga's Top 8 dream might be over. If he wanted to keep it going, he'd have to get past three-time Evo Champion Gamera to get there. That's exactly what Fukunaga did, and he didn't stop there. His Versusia kept it rolling on the Losers side, taking out Vermillion and Monarch before finally falling to Kojicoco for fourth place. Despite having an ARC World Tour championship under his belt from 2023, Fukunaga was still looking for his first Top 8 at an Evo, having finished 9th at both Evo Japan 2024 and Evo Japan 2025. After this weekend, his wait is finally over.

This was Monarch's first Evo for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, but nobody was surprised by his presence in Top 8 after his performances at events like ARC World Tour 2024 Finals, where he finished 4th, and COMBO BREAKER 2025, where he finished 3rd. It was just another couple of days at the office for Monarch at Evo, as his Metera rolled through Winners bracket all the way to Top 8, taking out PPMAN, Vermillion, and Kojicoco to get there. The run stopped there, as he fell to top seed Tororo in Winners Semis and Fukunaga in losers, but with the fifth place finish, Monarch earned his first Evo medal.

Zenith broke out in a huge way at Evo 2025. Prior to this event, his best placing at an Evo was 49th, which he achieved at both Evo 2023 in Granblue Fantasy: Versus and at Evo 2024 in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. This weekend, Zenith dropped all of one game in a Winners side run that saw him make it all the way to Winners Semis, with wins over Paid Actor, ABEGEN, and Fukunaga. The Japanese Grimnir player couldn't keep it going on the finals stage, falling to Zane and Kojicoco for 5th place, but he made sure the GBVSR community will remember his name.

Vermillion didn't let a Top 24 Winners loss to Monarch stop him from reaching his second straight GBVSR Top 8. After falling to Losers, he took out CPU, Jing, and Bepaw. A Game 5 loss to Fukunaga ended his run at 7th place, but Vermillion will take home a second Evo medal for his collection. Not only that, he reigns as the highest-placing 2B player for the second year in a row.

Ever since placing 17th at Frosty Faustings all the way back in January, Ryazo has been on fire, placing no worse than 5th at eight major events leading up to Evo, including wins at Texas Showdown, LVL UP EXPO, and Get On My Level: Forever. That momentum absolutely carried through to Evo, as he dropped just one single game as his combination of Katalina and Seox rampaged its way to Winners Quarters. Despite falling just short against Tororo in Winners, he clawed his way into Top 8 with a win over ABEGEN. His run was stopped at 7th by Kojicoco, but Ryazo's improvement since placing 17th at Evo 2024 has been incredible, and he'll take home an Evo medal this year as proof.