Overheating has been a known issue for the PlayStation 5 since the console launched. Even the slimmer models which have slightly smaller parts have this issue, because it’s fundamental to the hardware.
While individual gamers can mitigate this issue themselves, by doing things like regularly cleaning the console or playing for only a few hours at a time, there are situations where the console’s shortcomings can appear and affect real life applications.
As reported by PushSquare, EVO Japan’s Guilty Gear Strive tournament got seriously hampered because their PlayStation 5 console started overheating during Grand Finals. US player RedDitto lost in the early rounds and had to make his way back to the finals by winning through the loser’s bracket.
However, when it came time for these last matches, RedDitto ran into issues using his controller. As viewers saw it, the psychological and crowd momentum RedDitto had coming into Grand Finals dissipated as EVO staff did troubleshooting around their setup. In the end, RedDitto lost to Korean player Daru_I-No.
You can watch video of the PlayStation 5 overheating, leading to RedDitto’s character Ramlethal walking backwards against his inputs, below.
To put this into perspective, RedDitto is not some up-and-coming player who almost made it. Guilt Gear Strive’s developer, Arc System Works, interviewed him as this year’s Arc World Tour Finals champion.
We also found a tweet by Livestream Fails that goes into even more context on the situation, at least as the community sees it:
u/TechnoCloud624: A little bit of context: [Players have had issues with the Heat in the Venue for EVO Japan](https://x.com/TSM_Leffen/status/1921170189489442938) and some have mentioned issues with [the PS5s not reading controller inputs anymore](https://x.com/PunkDaGod/status/1920735342891598078).
This happened during game 2 of Grand Finals here, causing RedDitto (girl with big swords) to walk backwards. They agreed to replay the round at 1-1 and ended with Daru-Ino winning game2 and a 20 minute break after. This is Game 3, [where Daru-Ino mistakenly thought it happened again, causing him to stand up (assuming to have won)](https://x.com/reddittoXD/status/1921173801116545144) but ultimately still taking the game.
All of these issues probably completely stopped RedDitto’s momentum as he was playing better and better in his loser’s run up to Grand Finals. All of this could have easily been avoided had the venue been cooler or had they simply swapped out the PS5 on stage with any of the other PS5s in the venue not in active use occasionally. Overall one of the worst Grand Finals I’ve seen.
As PushSquare correctly explains, there is a degree of plausible deniability where the problem could lie with RedDitto’s controller (which looks like a DualShock 4) or his Brook adapter. However, the common consensus around the community is clearly that the problem is EVO’s use of PlayStation 5 consoles.
This also does not necessarily mean that tournament organizers should stop using PlayStation 5 consoles, as this overheating issue could be avoided if they switched consoles around, or if necessary, delayed games to allow them to cool down. But it’s clear that the community has lost their patience with fighting game tournaments, not only Sony-owned EVO, still sticking with PlayStation as the default.
While Sony has worked very hard to sustain a loyal fighting game community on the PlayStation through the decades, here and now, many competitive players and esports athletes practice on PCs, tweaked for maximum performance. There are a lot more players now who want tournaments to move away from PlayStation 5s to PCs. We’ll allow one such player, Punk Da God, to give the final word:
If this PS5 problem consists and TOs just keep making players lose games to things that isn’t them actually losing to the player and rather the console they make us play on because, they decide to run tournaments on this console i will personally stop attending tournaments. I spend tons of hours practicing, traveling, spending money to go to these events and stuff like overheating PS5s controlling the outcome of a set is literally the same feeling as someone spitting on you.
