Evolution Championship
Evolution Championship Series logo
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| Formerly | Battle by the Bay |
|---|---|
| Sport | Fighting games |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Tom "inkblot" Cannon, Tony "Ponder" Cannon, Joey "MrWizard" Cuellar, Seth "S-Kill" Killian |
| Country | United States |
| Most recent champion(s) |
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| Most titles | Justin Wong (9) |
| Qualification | None (open) |
| Official website | evo |
The Evolution Championship Series (EVO or Evo) is an annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournament is a completely open tournament and uses the double elimination format. As with Super Battle Opera, contestants travel from all over the world to participate, most notably from Japan. The first Evolution was originally held as a Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament called the Battle by the Bay. It changed its name to Evo in 2002. Every successive tournament has seen an increase of attendees. It has been held at various venues across the Las Vegas Valley since 2005.
Evo was founded by Tom Cannon, also known for his work on Shoryuken.com, a fighting game website. The tournament started as "Battle by the Bay", a 40-man Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament in 1996 in Sunnyvale, California eventually moving to its recurring venue in the Las Vegas Valley. The event changed its name to Evolution Championship Series or EVO for short in 2002. Over time, the tournament grew, recording over one thousand participants in 2009.
Originally the tournament used arcade cabinets, but in 2004 the decision was made to move all games over to their console versions, to no small amount of controversy. During the transition to games on the seventh generation consoles, most games were played on a PlayStation 3, though Evo 2014 ran most games on the Xbox 360. Aside from the official tournaments, there is also a "BYOC" (bring your own console) area in which many different games are played and side tournaments are held.
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