The Evolution Championship Series, frequently referred to as just Evo, is an annual, predominantly North American, fighting video game tournament held at various venues around North America. It was brought about and established in 2002 to replace the B-Series tournaments held annually prior to it's inception. The championship consists of qualifying rounds (four, since EVO 2007, designated EVO East, West, North and South) and a final round dubbed Evo World. Each round holds a tournament for each game within the line up (typically double elimination), and is held over a weekend.
History
Evo was founded by Tom Cannon. The tournament started as "Battle by the Bay", a 40-man Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament in 1995 in Sunnyvale, California, eventually moving to its recurring venue in Las Vegas. The event changed its name Evo 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. Traditionally, Evo has only included fighting games, but in 2006 it included Mario Kart DS in its lineup.
