EVO Championship Series

Overview

The Evolution Championship Series, founded by Tom and Tony Cannon, started in 2000 under the name of Battle by the Bay, becoming the EVO Championship Series in 2002. The event has become famous for examples of the highest-level of play in Capcom and Namco fighting games as well as perpetuating rivalries between North and South California, the West and East coasts of the USA and USA vs Japan. In charge of EVO are Tom Cannon, Tony Cannon, Joey Cuellar and Seth Killian.

Double Elimination Bracket Tournaments

A player can only be eliminated by losing at a tournament twice, once in the winner's bracket and once again in the loser's bracket. The tournament starts in single elimination fashion with players aligned in a column to play against one another. The winner of the first match remains in that bracket, known as the winner's bracket, while the losers are transferred over to another bracket, the loser's bracket.

In the instance of EVO, which attracts over two hundred entrants for each game, players are split into pools. One player from the winner's bracket and one from the loser's bracket from each pool will advance to day two, in which they will play one final set of tournament brackets until a winner is crowned. In 2011 over 1500 players entered Super Street Fighter IV.

Road to EVO Tournament Season

Through the rising popularity of live-streams of competitive gaming like Starcraft II the fighting game community has several streaming groups who have been involved with local events. Through these groups, tournament events have been held that are watchable by anyone, with the purpose of gaining seeding points. The more seeding points you have, the better your chances of not facing the most well known players such as Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong.

Seeding Points

In 2011, points were only given for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Tekken 6 was added half way through). 4th place would get 8 points, Two 5th place players would get 4, two 7th place players would get 2. 9th to 16th would get 1 point, known jokingly on the award certificate as "1 lousy point."

In 2012, all six main tournament games will feature seeding points and the benefits that go with it. Players who finish inbetween 4th and 16th will only receive 1 point.

2013 saw the amount of USA events gaining Road to EVO status drop significantly due to incidents at EVO 2012 in which some seeded players were playing fellow seeded players as early as the first round.

EVO 2013

EVO 2013 has been confirmed to be taking place from July 12th to July 14th, 2014, at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

USA events

Event	Date	Location	Streaming group
SoCal Regionals	January 6-8 2013	South California	Level|Up Series
Winter Brawl 7	February 23-24	Philidelphia	Team Spooky / 8WayRun / Kombat Network / bifuteki / Team Stickbug
NorCal Regionals	April 26-28	California	Team Spooky / iPlayWinner
Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 9	May 24-26	Chicago	Level|Up Series / VGBootCamp
CEO 2013 Championships	June 28-30	Orlando	Capcom Fighters / iPlayWinner
EVO 2013	July 12-14	Las Vegas	TBA

Featured Players

Daigo Umehara (JPN)

Champion:

• Guilty Gear XX (2003)
• Guilty Gear X2 (2004)
• Street Fighter IV (2009)
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo (2003, 2004)
• Super Street Fighter IV (2010)

Runner-up:

• Capcom vs. SNK 2 (2003)
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (2003, 2004)

Despite never actually being a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike champion, Daigo became it's most known player due to the infamous "Daigo parry" video in 2004. Daigo has played as characters who aren't normally considered top-tier characters in the respective games he plays (such as Ryu in Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV), yet his skill and knowledge has seen him through many tournaments as winner. Citing the reason that some people have been underestimating him, Daigo played Yun in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition during 2011, only to switch back to Ryu after the 2012 balance patch.

Justin Wong (USA)

Champion:

• Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)

Runner-up:

• Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2001, 2007)
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (2005, 2008)
• Street Fighter IV (2009)

The king of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the man taking the fight to the Japanese players in recent years. Justin Wong maintained a record of reaching the Top eight finals in two separate games for seven years, from 2003 through to 2010. Justin was also the Chun Li player who fell victim to the aforementioned Daigo Parry. Once a member of the gaming group Empire Arcadia, Justin is now with Evil Geniuses, a professional gaming organization. He is also the highest profile fighting game player to support Mortal Kombat, winning the MK9 Nationals (and $10,000) in Las Vegas.