Esports organizer EVO appoints Rich Thiher as its new General Manager
Here comes a new challenger, as EVO appoints Rich Thiher as their new General Manager. Rick “TheHadou” Thiher will be in charge of supervising the event’s overall vision and direction, as well as the company’s day-to-day operations.
While EVO appoints Rich Thiher as their new GM, “TheHadou” will still keep his position as the Event Director at Combo Breaker, a game apparel brand dedicated to competitive fighting games and community-based gatherings. Previously, Thiher was the Product Manager at Twitch.
“The fighting game community has had an idyllic vision of what Evo could be. As part of Evo’s team, I’m looking forward to realising that aspiration while delivering memorable experiences for our players and fans in the process,” said Thiher. “The fighting game genre has attracted new fans across generations. We want to continue celebrating that legacy through Evo by introducing our community to undiscovered audiences for generations to come.”
EVO, in short for the Evolution Championship Series, was created in 1996 and is one of the more established esports brands. After postponing its 2020 and 2021 tournaments due to the pandemic, Sony Interactive Entertainment purchased the brand in early 2021. EVO is expected to be back on track to stage live events in 2022.
Well known in the fighting game community, EVO appoints Rich Thiher as not only their GM, but as a figure who both the company and the community can trust and depend on. Thiher has deep roots within the FGC and esports spanning for over a decade. At his time at Twitch, Thiher worked on third-party esports and Twitch Rivals for over four years.
With a fresh new batch of fighting games released this year such as Guilty Gear Strive, Melty Blood, and the upcoming DNF Duel, we will be keeping tabs on what’s to come next summer at EVO 2022.