July 2016 – Page 97

The Evolution Championship Series is here! Tracing its history back twenty years, Evo is the largest competitive gathering for fighting games in the world, a chance for people from all over the world to play, spectate and share their passion for the genre. It’s once again time for a weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, this Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 17.

Evo has continued to grow in size year after year; the event can no longer be contained by mere hotel ballrooms. To accommodate the need for tons of space, Friday and Saturday of this year’s Evo will happening at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Sunday brings the action to the Mandalay Bay Events Center, complete with stadium seating. And if that isn’t enough, the Street Fighter V world finals will be broadcast on ESPN2. Are you ready?

The Evo 2016 Line-up

This year’s Evo features a massive line-up of nine official games: Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat X, Pokkén Tournament, Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Tekken 7 Fated Retribution and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The line-up is similar to last year’s, with Street Fighter V and Pokkén Tournament make their Evo debuts. SFV shatters the record of its predecessor with just over 5000 registered players, making it the largest competitive gathering in a single space for a fighting game, ever.

The top 8 finals for Evo 2016 will be played out over Saturday and Sunday. The Tekken 7 FR, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Pokkén Tournament and Killer Instinct finals will be on Saturday, while the Mortal Kombat X, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Guilty Gear Xrd, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Street Fighter V finals will be Sunday.

You can find the brackets for each title here. Check the bracket pages and Evo Brackets on Twitter for updates.

In addition to the official games, a number of unofficial side events for many fighting games will be happening at Evo. Check out Reddit for more info on side events.

The Official Broadcasts

This year’s event will have five official streams bringing you the action from Vegas. Evo will be providing four of those streams, with Capcom Fighters providing a fifth dedicated to Street Fighter V. The Evolution 2016 live streams is produced by Team Spooky and IPLAYWINNER.

In addition to the Twitch streams, ESPN2 will be televising the Street Fighter V finals live. If you want to check out ESPN2’s coverage, tune at 10 PM EDT on Sunday, July 17.

You can watch the Evo streams on their respective channels or view them below. You can also view all five on a single page via MultiTwitch.

Subscribe to Evo 2016 on Twitch!

Since 2012 Evolution has partnered with the New York University Game Center for an annual scholarship to study game design at the university. The scholarship is funded through a subscription to the official tournament broadcast. You can contribute to the fund by making a one-time $12 subscription to Evo 2016 on Twitch. While in previous years a subscription was required to view the Evo broadcasts in high definition, this year HD quality will be available to all.