Saying that EVO is the world’s biggest fighting game tournament might be an understatement. What began as “Battle of the Bay” in Sunnyvale, CA in 1996 with a meager forty-person bracket for Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter II Turbo eventually moved to much bigger venues in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it’s been held ever since, with thousands of participants from all over the world, growing in attendance every year since.
Unlike 2016, when the tournament was split between two venues, this year’s Evolution Championship Series will be taking place entirely in the Mandalay Bay resort, with Sunday finals taking over the main sports arena all day.
Fan favorites like Justin Wong, Eduardo “PR_Balrog” Perez, Kenneth “K-Brad” Bradley, Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez, Daigo “The Beast” Umehara, Lee “INFILTRATION” Seon-woo, and”Hello Kitty” Ricki Ortiz, as well as literally thousands of other contenders will be eyeing the top dog spot in their respective games, in what should be a very exciting weekend.
This year’s tournament picks are Guilty Gear Xrd REV2, BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Super Smash Bros. WiiU, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Injustice 2, Tekken 7, Ultimate MAHVEL (I mean, Marvel) vs. Capcom 3, The King of Fighters XIV, and of course, Street Fighter V. Ultimate MvC 3 was included thanks to a donation drive promoted by the Make a Wish Foundation, leaving Pókken Tournament as the runner-up. But don’t feel discouraged if your favorite fighting game did not make it into the official event, though. There’s usually “unnoficial” brawls that go on during EVO weekend, so keep an eye peeled for any eventual streams for those, like AnimeEVO.
As for the EVO tournament itself, it’ll be starting in just a few hours, at 12 PM PST, with a host of round 1 pools for each of the games. You can check out all of the official times and channels below, but keep in mind that there might be some delays.
For quick reference, here are the links for the official channels:
twitch.tv/EVO
twitch.tv/EVO1
twitch.tv/EVO2
twitch.tv/EVO3
twitch.tv/EVO4
twitch.tv/EVO5
twitch.tv/CapcomFighters
twitch.tv/Tekken
twitch.tv/Netherrealm
If you are completely insane like me, you can use Multitwitch and watch all of these at once, on a single screen. Just use the url www.multitwitch.tv/ and add all the stream names after the bracket. It’s completely bonkers (read: a lot of fun) to watch EVO this way! I personally wholeheartedly suggest watching all of the finals, even for games you might not know — they might just surprise you.
And hey, Disney XD will be airing the Super Smash Bros. WiiU on Sunday at 3PM PST. ESPN 2 will be doing the same for the Street Fighter V finals at 7 PM, so be sure to check your local listings for those.
LET’S PICK UP THE PACE! FIGHT! /
