Evo competitors claim heavy use was breaking PS5 USB ports

Competitors in this year’s Evo fighting game championships have claimed that heavy use at the tournament meant that the USB ports on the PS5 consoles being used were coming apart.

Fighting game tournaments like Evo – which is now owned by Sony – often see players bringing their own controllers, most of which are fight sticks with USB connections.

However, players have been reporting that part of the PS5’s USB port has been getting stuck in their controllers, with some blaming the excess heat generated by the console.

The most common reports centered around a blue piece of plastic which was reportedly detaching from the PS5’s USB port and getting stuck in the gap in the controller’s USB connector.

Competitor SabreAZ claimed on Twitter: “Evo is proving that PS5 is not the answer. USB ports are melting like cray. Kyoku236HS’s USB on his controller melted. This is not isolated.”

User Kyoku236HS then posted a photo clarifying that the USB connector on their controller didn’t actually melt – rather, that a piece of blue plastic had come loose from the PS5 and got stuck in the connector.

Fellow competitor Eduardo Cuervo then shared a photo of his “melted controller”, though it once again didn’t show that the controller had melted.

Instead, it showed the controller’s USB connector, with the same blue piece of plastic stuck inside it. Cuervo said he didn’t know if it could be removed with tweezers.

“It does come out with tweezers,” Kyoku236HS replied. “I used a screwdriver to get it out, but the USB port on the PS5 is no longer usable. The PS5 is more broken than the stick, at the end of the day.”

“This exact same situation happened at our local a few weeks ago”, replied user Matter_oFact. “Brand new PS5 too.”

It should be noted that there is no evidence that the issue is a result of anything melting.

It could be that the USB ports were coming apart after repeated inserting and removing of controllers over the course of one day (especially if some players are doing so aggressively). It’s not clear if excess heat makes this more likely.

Regardless of the reason, the fact that multiple players have reported it during one tournament will be a concern for event organisers, especially if the issue breaks the console’s USB port and renders it unusable for the rest of the tournament.

As such, players have been requesting solutions for future contests, ranging from the use of USB hubs to even switching to Xbox or PC as the main format.