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. The event eventually moved to its recurring venue in the
Las Vegas Valley, Nevada. 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. 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.
1996–2003: Tournament beginnings and re-branding B3: Battle by the Bay was organized by Tom "inkblot" Cannon, Tony "Ponder" Cannon, Joey "MrWizard" Cuellar, and Seth "S-Kill" Killian, and held in the
Golfland arcade hall in
Sunnyvale, California. The tournament had 40 contenders mostly from the United States, though B3 also featured players from Canada and Kuwait. B3 featured a
Super Street Fighter II Turbo and
Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament. The B4
Street Fighter Championships were held on July 15–16, 2000, in
Folsom, California. B4 introduced several new Capcom fighting games to the roster:
Street Fighter Alpha 3,
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and
Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. The newly released
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was the first non-
Street Fighter game to be included, and a precedent for the tournament to branch out to other games. The
Capcom Versus series has since had a large presence in the Battle of the Bay and Evolution Championship Series events. Held in August 2001 in
Folsom, California, the B5 Championships was attended by a much larger international crowd, particularly from Japan.
Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 made its introduction in the tournament roster at B5, In 2002, the event became formally known as its current name, "Evo". Evo 2002 took place on August 9, 2002, at the
University of California, Los Angeles.
2004–08: Change to consoles, Moment 37 and EVO Circuit Evo 2004 took place at
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in
Southern California from July 29 to August 1. The tournament amassed approximately 700 competitors from over 30 countries to compete in over nine different games. Evo 2004 used home consoles for most of their tournament games instead of arcade cabinets, with the only exception being
3rd Strike which used the more traditional arcade cabinets. 2005 was the first year Evo was held at the
Green Valley Ranch casino and hotel in Las Vegas. Evo 2006 took place at the
Red Rock Resort Spa and Casino in Las Vegas. 2006 was the first year that
Capcom gave its official, public support of the Evolution tournaments. Traditionally, Evo has only included fighting games, but in 2006 it included
Mario Kart DS in its lineup. The fighting games featured were
Dead or Alive 4,
Guilty Gear XX Slash, and
Hyper Street Fighter II. Evo 2007, officially called Evo World 2007, took place from August 24 to 26 at the Green Valley Ranch, in Las Vegas. Throughout the year there were several other tournaments held throughout the US bearing the Evo name. The game roster had eight games,
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike,
Capcom vs. SNK 2,
Virtua Fighter 5,
Marvel vs. Capcom 2,
Super Street Fighter II Turbo,
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection,
Guilty Gear XX Λ Core, and
Super Smash Bros. Melee. Evo 2008 took place at the
Tropicana Las Vegas on the
Las Vegas Strip. from August 8 to 10. The tournament would feature six games within its official roster:
Capcom vs. SNK 2,
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection,
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike,
Super Smash Bros. Brawl,
Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and
Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The
Brawl tournament was widely criticized for its ruleset, which allowed items on and saw a relatively unknown player defeat
Ken Hoang. Evo 2008 also allowed attendees a preview of
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger,
Street Fighter IV,
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
2009–13: Street Fighter IV, live streams, and record numbers Evo 2009 took place on July 17 to 19. Held at the
Rio Convention Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, the tournament itself would feature six games on its official roster:
Soulcalibur IV,
Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core,
Marvel vs. Capcom 2,
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike,
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and
Street Fighter IV. Notably, the newly released
Street Fighter IV increased Evo attendance by a considerable margin, and the tournament for it alone boasted more than 1000 participants, almost three times that of the tournaments for the other games. Evo 2010, held at
Caesars Palace from July 9, 2010 through July 11, 2010 had a massive number of competitors, with
Super Street Fighter IV amassing approximately 1,800 players to duel for a $20,000 guaranteed prize pot. Most notable in this EVO was Justin Wong cementing his dominance in
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in its proverbial
swan song, defeating the champion of the previous year, Sanford Kelly. Also notable was Wong failing to make the top 8 in
Super Street Fighter IV, falling victim first to Vance "Vangief" Wu, and soon after to Taiwanese player Bruce "GamerBee" Hsiang.
Melty Blood: Actress Again was included after a poll on Shoryuken.com to decide on the final game of the tournament, beating out
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike,
Capcom vs. SNK 2,
Marvel vs. Capcom 2,
Soulcalibur IV, and
The King of Fighters XII.
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was to be included, but after a majority of the community moved on to
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, the decision was made to replace it with
Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Also notable was
G4's limited coverage of the event, even offering
X-Play host
Adam Sessler for commentary of the
Super Street Fighter IV finals. '' cosplayers at Evo 2011 For Evo 2011, a tournament season was announced in which players could earn ranking points at one of eight tournaments. It took place at the
Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino from July 29 to 31, utilizing a ballroom. All 50 states of the U.S. were represented, as well as 44 additional countries. Its livestream was watched by over 2 million unique viewers on
UStream over the course of the event. In attendance was Street Fighter series producer Ono Yoshinori, who announced a free balance patch for
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition.
Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada was also on hand to show new mechanics for
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and
Soulcalibur V. Other unreleased games shown were
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3,
King of Fighters XIII,
Skullgirls and
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition. A
Skullgirls side tournament was held in which the winner received a one-of-a-kind Skullgirls-themed arcade stick. Media outlets G4,
GameSpot and
Destructoid were all present to cover the event. Evo 2012 took place July 6 to 8, 2012, at
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. On January 3, Joey Cuellar announced that Evo 2012 would have 6 main tournament games,
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (Version 2012),
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3,
Mortal Kombat,
Soulcalibur V,
The King of Fighters XIII and
Street Fighter X Tekken. The tournament series from the previous year returned, featuring seeding points for all six games in 17 events all across the world. Evo 2013 was announced on December 2, 2012. It was held on July 12–14 at
Paris Las Vegas. On January 8, Joey Cuellar announced that EVO 2013 would have eight main tournament games, with the first seven revealed being
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3,
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (Version 2012),
Tekken Tag Tournament 2,
Mortal Kombat,
Street Fighter X Tekken (Version 2013),
The King of Fighters XIII, and
Persona 4 Arena. The eighth game was voted on by players via online donations, all proceeds of which went to the
Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The eventual winner of the poll was
Super Smash Bros. Melee with $94,683 raised for that game, while the total amount of donations was $225,744.
Nintendo of America initially sent a
cease and desist letter to cancel the streaming of
Melee matches, although after popular backlash a live stream was ultimately allowed to be carried out as planned. On May 7, 2013, it was announced that
Injustice: Gods Among Us would be a main tournament game, thus expanding the game roster from eight to nine.
2014–19: Smash boom and international growth Evo 2014 was announced on September 15, 2013. It was held on July 11–13, 2014 at the
Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino Melee was eventually officially added to the roster with Nintendo's approval.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was also later added to the roster. Evo 2015 took place on July 17–19, 2015 at the
Bally's /
Paris Las Vegas Casino. On January 20, 2015, Cuellar announced that Evo 2015 would include
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-,
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3,
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U,
Killer Instinct,
Mortal Kombat X,
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax,
Ultra Street Fighter IV,
Super Smash Bros. Melee, and
Tekken 7. While EVO 2015 initially was supposed to run on the
PlayStation 4 version for
Ultra Street Fighter IV, the tournament instead used the
Xbox 360 version, due to a large number of bugs and glitches found by players in the newly released port. Cuellar also confirmed that EVO 2015 would use the technically outdated build of
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax on
PlayStation 3. On May 25, Cuellar confirmed that both
Super Smash Bros. Melee and
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U surpassed 1,500 entrants each. Cuellar later confirmed that
Ultra Street Fighter IV surpassed 2,000 entrants. EVO 2015 also acted as a
Capcom Cup qualifier for
Ultra Street Fighter IV, as well as a Killer Instinct World Cup qualifier for
Killer Instinct, with both games receiving respective bonus pots of $50,000 from
Capcom/
Sony and
Iron Galaxy/
Microsoft respectively.
NetherRealm and
Warner Bros. have also donated $50K towards the bonus pot for
Mortal Kombat X, due to the success of the
Blue Steel Sub-Zero skin. In addition,
Atlus has donated $10K towards the bonus pot for
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, while
Arc System Works and
Aksys Games donated the same amount to the bonus pot for
Guilty Gear Xrd.
Bandai Namco has announced that they have provided a $30K bonus pot for
Tekken 7 as well as providing all competitors in said game an exclusive T-shirt featuring franchise veteran
Lili and
Tekken Revolution newcomer
Eliza. Evo 2016 took place from July 15–17 at the
Las Vegas Convention Center, while Sunday finals took take place at the
Mandalay Bay Events Center. The tournament featured
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-,
Street Fighter V,
Super Smash Bros. Melee,
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U,
Mortal Kombat XL,
Pokkén Tournament,
Killer Instinct,
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and
Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. The tournaments for
Street Fighter V,
Super Smash Bros. Melee,
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-,
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and
Mortal Kombat XL finished on Sunday. The finals for
Street Fighter V was broadcast live on
ESPN2 and live coverage of the tournament was available through ESPN's
WatchESPN service, in addition to the tournament's regular
Twitch streams. Joey Cuellar has announced record breaking numbers which includes
Street Fighter V reaching more than 5,000 entrants,
Smash 4 and
Melee each reaching more than 2,000;
Pokkén reaching more than 1,000 entrants while other games either increased or decreased. Like EVO 2015's Ultra Street Fighter IV finals,
Capcom and
Sony have provided a $50,000 bonus pot towards
Street Fighter V's prize pool and is also a
Capcom Pro Tour qualifier.
The Pokémon Company has announced a $10,000 bonus pot towards
Pokkén Tournament's prize pool and is a Pokkén Tournament Championship Series qualifier, with 1st and 2nd place being able to qualify for the finals. As with EVO 2015,
NetherRealm and
Warner Bros. have provided a $50,000 bonus pot towards
Mortal Kombat XL's prize pool.
Killer Instinct will be receiving a $15,000 bonus pot as part of the KI Ultra Tour funding. On July 11,
Aksys Games announced a $10,000 bonus pot towards
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-'s prize pool. Evo 2017 took place on July 14 to 16 with the entire event being held at the
Mandalay Bay resort. The tournament featured
Guilty Gear Xrd REV2,
BlazBlue: Central Fiction,
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U,
Super Smash Bros. Melee,
Injustice 2,
Street Fighter V,
Tekken 7,
The King of Fighters XIV, and
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The ninth game was chosen by a donation drive which all of the funds have gone towards
Make-A-Wish International.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was the winning game with
Pokkén Tournament being the runner-up. Other games in contention were
Skullgirls: 2nd Encore,
ARMS,
Mortal Kombat XL,
Nidhogg,
Windjammers,
Killer Instinct, and
Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The Sunday finals included
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (as the
opening game),
BlazBlue: Central Fiction,
Tekken 7,
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and
Street Fighter V. Upon the victory of
UMvC3, Cuellar announced that Evo 2017 would be running the event with the
PlayStation 4 version being used. Evo 2018 took place on August 3 to 5 with the entire event being held at the
Mandalay Bay resort. The tournament featured
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition,
Tekken 7,
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U,
Super Smash Bros. Melee,
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle,
Guilty Gear Xrd REV2,
Injustice 2, and
Dragon Ball FighterZ. Evo 2019 took place on August 2 to 4 with the entire event being held at the
Mandalay Bay resort. The tournament featured
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition,
Tekken 7,
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,
Mortal Kombat 11,
Soulcalibur VI,
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st],
Dragon Ball FighterZ,
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, and
Samurai Shodown.
2020–present: COVID-19 cancellation and new ownership Evo 2020 was to have taken place from July 31 to August 2 at the
Mandalay Bay resort. However, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the physical event had been canceled, with all event and hotel reservations to be refunded. Online tournament events had been scheduled from July 4 to August 2 as replacement activities. However, at the start of July 2020, charges of sexual misconduct were leveled at EVO CEO Joey Cuellar. The EVO board released Cuellar on July 2 and replaced him with Tony Cannon as interim CEO but by then, several publishers including Capcom, Bandai Namco, NetherRealm, and Mane6 had decided to pull out from the event. The EVO board decided to cancel the event, refund those tickets and donate the remaining funds to
Project HOPE. On March 18, 2021, it was announced that Evo had been acquired by a joint venture between
Sony Interactive Entertainment and the talent agency
Endeavor (RTS). It was concurrently announced that Evo Online 2021 will be held August 6–8 and August 13–15, 2021, and feature
Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition,
Tekken 7, and
Skullgirls: 2nd Encore. Evo stated that the Sony ownership of the competition will not affect its ability to include events for non-PlayStation games, although all games in the 2021 lineup are either available on, or console-exclusive to, PlayStation. Evo 2022 took place from August 5 to 7 at the
Mandalay Bay resort. The event is the first since 2019 to take place in-person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament featured
Dragon Ball FighterZ,
Granblue Fantasy: Versus,
Guilty Gear Strive,
The King of Fighters XV,
Melty Blood: Type Lumina,
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate,
Skullgirls: 2nd Encore,
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, and
Tekken 7. Evo 2023 was announced for August 4 to 6, with
Street Fighter 6,
Guilty Gear Strive,
Dragon Ball FighterZ,
The King of Fighters XV,
Melty Blood: Type Lumina,
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate and
Tekken 7 all being featured.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was also announced as the eighth game of the lineup, serving to launch a new category dubbed a Throwback Tournament. Additionally, a pre-release tournament for
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising was held, acting as the unofficial ninth lineup title. The event also underwent a format change, with finals switching from Top 8 to Top 6, seemingly due to runtime concerns. With 9,182 entrants, Evo 2023 was the largest Evo tournament in its over two decade history. EVO 2024 took place from July 19 to 21 and was held in the
Las Vegas Convention Center. The lineup included
Street Fighter 6,
Tekken 8,
Mortal Kombat 1,
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising,
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes],
Guilty Gear -Strive-, and
The King of Fighters XV, with
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike being the year's Throwback Tournament in celebration of both the 25th anniversary of the game, as well as the 20th anniversary of Moment #37. EVO 2025 was held from August 1 to August 3, with a lineup of
Street Fighter 6,
Tekken 8,
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising,
Guilty Gear -Strive-,
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes],
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and
Mortal Kombat 1, with
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 being featured as the Throwback Tournament. Additionally, 2025 rebranded the Evo Community Showcase to the Evo Extended Lineup, a series of side tournaments officially organized and recognized by Evo despite not being featured in the main arena lineup. The Extended Lineup included
Killer Instinct,
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.,
Rivals of Aether II,
The King of Fighters XV,
BlazBlue: Central Fiction,
Guilty Gear Xrd REV2,
Samurai Shodown and
Capcom vs. SNK 2. The Top 8 format also returned. EVO 2026 will see the Extended Lineup and Throwback Tournament being scrapped in place of the main lineup featuring twelve games, with the six highest-entered games being featured on the arena stage. The year's lineup will include
Street Fighter 6,
Tekken 8,
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves,
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes],
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising,
Rivals of Aether II,
Invincible VS,
Vampire Savior,
Guilty Gear -STRIVE-,
BlazBlue: Central Fiction,
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage, and
2XKO. ==Outside Vegas==