# Evolution Championship Series Evo Evolution Championship Series, better known as EVO, is the annual fighting game tournament founded in 1996 as Battle by the Bay and rebranded in 2002. It became the largest gathering in the FGC by attendance, hosting championships for Street Fighter, Tekken, Smash Bros. and other titles. ## Overview The Evolution Championship Series, called EVO for short, is an annual fighting game tournament that pulls in players and fans from across the globe. It is considered the biggest fighting game event by attendance and prestige within the Fighting Game Community[3]. EVO's game lineup rotates every year and typically covers marquee titles like Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear and, in some years, Super Smash Bros. The event is as known for its grand finals hype moments as it is for the occasional controversy that spills out onto Twitter and gaming press[1]. ## How It Spread One of the first big flashpoints came at EVO 2004, when organizers moved from arcade cabinets to console hardware. GameSpot reported that some longtime players felt the switch broke a sacred ritual of arcade play and cheapened the tournament experience[1]. The debate over hardware set an early template for how EVO news travels through the FGC. In 2013, EVO ran a charity drive to pick the eighth main game, with proceeds going to breast cancer research. The Super Smash Bros. Melee community raised close to $95,000 to lock in Melee's slot[3]. Days before the event, Nintendo tried to shut down the Smash portion entirely, not just the stream, according to co-founder Joey Cuellar speaking on OneMoreGameTV[2]. Nintendo backed off after public outcry. At EVO 2018, the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U grand finals turned into one of the tournament's most talked-about moments. Kotaku covered how the crowd loudly booed Bayonetta mains Tamim "Mistake" Omary, Zack "CaptainZack" Lauth and Bharat "Lima" Chintapall, with CaptainZack flipping off the audience after a match[6]. Lima and CaptainZack later stalled for nearly two minutes in a set, earning yellow cards, and both apologized on Twitter afterward[4]. In February 2019, EVO organizers announced Melee was off the main stage for that year's event, a decision Daily Dot noted split the community and spawned a wave of memes on Twitter[7]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Evolution Championship Series Evo? EVO is an annual fighting game tournament and the largest FGC event by attendance and prestige[3]. ### Where did Evolution Championship Series Evo come from? It was founded in 1996 by Tom and Tony Cannon, Seth Killian and Joey Cuellar as Battle by the Bay, a Street Fighter tournament, and rebranded to EVO in 2002[5]. ### What does Evolution Championship Series Evo mean? The name refers to the event's growth from a small Bay Area Street Fighter tournament into a global fighting game championship series[5]. ### How do you use Evolution Championship Series Evo? Players enter registered brackets for the game lineup announced each year, while fans watch streams and share clips of standout moments like the 2013 Nintendo standoff and the 2018 Bayonetta boos[2][6]. ### Is Evolution Championship Series Evo still popular? EVO stayed a fixture in the FGC calendar through the 2010s, with the 2019 lineup announcement drawing wide coverage after Melee was cut[7]. ## References 1. [https://kotaku.com/nintendo-wanted-smash-bros-pulled-from-worlds-biggest-740918828]() 2. [https://kotaku.com/bayonetta-players-battled-through-the-boos-at-evo-2018s-1828113696]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/evolution-championship-series-evo]() 4. [https://twitter.com/]() 5. [https://www.gamespot.com/articles/spotlight-on-the-evolution-2k4-fighting-game-tournament/]() 6. [https://kotaku.com/the-history-of-the-longest-lived-fighting-game-tournament]() 7. [https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/evo-2019-super-smash-bros-melee-memes/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/evolution-championship-series-evo Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library