^^ I agree it was better than Injustice and IMO even better than USF4 (too much dancing from fei’s and gief’s and rose was more overwhelming to me than spamming flame iori’s and karate’s)
But sadly according to a lot of people KOF had the worst Top 8 of this year’s evo, and call in conspiracy but i guess the stage and odds were really stacked against KOF’s favor, no sunday spot crappy commentators and a crowd of crickets from start to finish.
Theyre just scared to learn kof and drank too much sf4 juice. i HATED ultra’s top 8, everyone i know who doesnt play the game thought it was boring and everyone who plays sf4 thought it was great. long story short, people are sheep.
KOF XIII is old compared to Ultra, so people have figured stuff out. I think Ultra has a lot of things in it we didnt see at Evo, I was hoping for people to show some crazy things, but the only thing we really discovered was that Rose is awesome. 
Ultra’s top 8 was a very technical performance, and really it is pretty intense to see such precise footsies on display. The only problem I really had with it was that I was rooting for Ricky to beat Snake Eyez (since I also knew Zangief would get blown up by Fei, which is what ended up happening).
My problem with that top 8 is that Fei Long is super boring to watch, and that Bonchan seemed like he had no Rose experience.
KOF Top 8 was fun except for GF, which I feel was the worst part of it. Honestly, Chin, Karate, and Kim are characters that I can’t stand to watch. It’s like I can’t be excited for what happens when a character’s options are just so good, and that risk-reward is so skewed for doing something that’s so simple and really doesn’t even require a real read. Moves like Chin’s EX roll punch or his EX reversal, or Kim’s air hangetsuzan are just silly to watch. Not to mention things like the use of Karate’s sweep OS, or OS drive-cancelling a palm (if it whiffs or gets blocked, drive-cancel won’t come out so whatever…) it just makes things uninteresting for me to see. Personally, I really wanted a Woo vs MadKOF GF.
I kinda felt i preferred Ultra’s Top 8 at first but prefer KOF’s at replay
I don’t mean to compare but i guess these are the only tourneys i give a **** about in Evo (watched the others so didn’t like them cuz i can’t relate)
I was rooting first for Sako, and then he was out so my choice was Snake Eyes, and then he was out so my choice was Bonchan… i loved Bonchan’s attitude like he’s not like Ryan Hart or Xian that complains about their characters getting nerfs, he goes out there and he puts boots to a$$es sagat style like nerfs don’t matter, but indeed fei long matches can be a drag even when you’re analyzing it from a technical standpoint (even if i do use Fei myself in USF4) but i was surprised Rose had even a fighting chance against Sagat, i always thought Sagat destroys her in all versions, well i stand corrected.
Going to KOF, i was rooting two men only… Tokido AND Misterio, i guess my story behind this is that i have followed Tokido’s rise to KOF fame since last year’s evo, he was second place at Canada Cup, won IGT, won Northwest Majors (THE BEST KOF TOURNAMENT for me this year so far) won SEAM and he treats KOF almost like a main game when i thought it was his THIRD game (1st is SF, 2nd is Mahvel, 3rd is KOF) and with Reynald out he was my favorite to win it (yes even if Romance had been there), That First to Ten against Reynald was an instant classic (juicebox even did review that set) and although Reynald won the set, Tokido won the NWM tournament itself which for me is a stamp of his legitimacy even compared to IGT since IMO Reyald > ET
And then there’s Misterio, the new monster on the rise bodying both Reynald and Luis cha in FT10/FT15 sets, also had a FT15 victory against ET arguably going into Evo with a lot of momentum which he eventually was eliminated by Woo (but i do see a video of Woo being massacred by Misterio in a FT5 set as well dunno if it was after or before the EVO KOF top 8)… and the dream match for me (Tokido vs Misterio) was over
But the torunament itself told a story, Tokido was sent to loser’s at the first round and thus had to rise up, ET destroyed almost everyone at the KOF challenge II tournament in Tijuana and had his runback against Misterio ina FT10 rematch so he was no joke, it was great to see seasoned vets Yoshi and ChrisKOF rise to the main stage, Woo and MADKOF for me remained as the players to beat, and Xiaohai became Shin-Xiaohai.
Indeed it was full of Top Tiers but we did see some variety with Daimon, Chin (to me he’s still below Flame Iori, Karate, and Kim), Clark, Duo lon, Billy, Claw Iori, Saiki, Takuma, Yuri, and King.
Grand Finals was a bit of a drag especially when the commentators gave zero f**** and almost “No-Sold” the reset, but Seeing Tokido rise from being put to losers to beating Woo and Madkof (The primary threats for me) and then ET was a story that was intense when i was watching it, and the back and forth downloading between him and Xiaohai was awesome, i don’t mind the mirrors since i saw the same story last year when Tokido’s akuma went against Infiltration’s akuma in AE 2012 top 8, the part where Tokido was at a disadvantage on a Iori Mirror made me care for what he would think of to counter this deficit, Xiaohai winning for me honestly was Anti-climactic for me but again that’s coming from someone who was following tokido’s story and was rooting for him, but it was nice to see him reclaim his KOF throne, they talk about Justin Wong’s “Return of the King” Story in winning Mahvel but Xiaohai did it first a day earlier dammit 
I guess I just prefered USF4 when watching it live because it was less of a downer for me, but when viewing them again (as long as i turn off the volume for KOF) i find myself skipping a lot of USF4 moments which i don’t in watching the KOF Grand finals.
I Still want TOKIDO vs MISTERIO Dammit 
!!!
Then again not like I can stomach those tournaments where everyone seems to be playing EX Kyo all that well either
Best KOF XIII Brasil…
Kleber Yagami and CDA Team…