The grand finals were held in the 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center and featured five of the nine games: Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Marvel vs Capcom, Mortal Kombat X, and Guilty Gear.

Another new arrival was Namco Bandai's Pokkén Tournament, a Pokémon-based fighting game that was available in Japanese arcades at the time and would see a Wii U release later that year.

[1][7] The Evolution Championship Series has historically been the largest fighting game tournament in the world, allowing free registration for anyone who wants to compete.

Vice president of programming and acquisitions, ESPN Digital Media, John Lasker, stated that "the Street Fighter V World Championship will be one of the must-see competitions from the Evo finals," while Joey Cuellar, chief executive officer of Evo, stated that the organization was "excited to bring the energy and excitement of our world finals to a wider audience.

Street Fighter V made its Evo debut in 2016, despite its launch earlier that year being less than optimal, with the game missing a story mode and basic multiplayer features.

Eric van Allen of Paste Magazine stated that "this was not a game polished and prepped, but released early in order to make the cut for the e-sports season."

Van Allen also stated that the season of competitive Street Fighter before Evo was dynamic, with many new players rising to the top and sinking just as fast and strategies shifting on a weekly basis.

[14] Joseph Bradford described the Top 8 Street Fighter finalists as "an interesting bunch", as fan-favorite players like Yusuke Momochi, Tokido, Daigo Umehara, Justin Wong, and Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez were all eliminated beforehand.

Bradford stated that many of marquee match-ups that many Evo viewers were looking forward to happened during the final elimination rounds on July 16, including match between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong, which was won by the latter.

[16] Infiltration, who came in third behind Gamerbee and Momochi during Evo 2015, lost against Fuudo during the first round of the winner's bracket of the Street Fighter Top 8, but both achieved a series of wins throughout the rest of the tournament and the two faced of again in the finals.

When asked what adjustments he had made to his strategy, Infiltration responded simply with "download complete", suggesting he had identified and understood Fuudo's techniques when he was matched against him for the second time.

Joe, the sole American player, was a fan-favorite during the Grand Finals: him defeating Eita in a "thrilling match" whipped the Las Vegas crowd in a frenzy, though he lost to Yukadon later on.

"[18] The Street Fighter V Grand Finals were successful among TV audiences watching it on ESPN2, and the tournament reached a peak viewership of 194,000 viewers on the official Twitch stream.

Anna Washenko of Mashable stated up front that "the big question for Evo this year is who, if anyone, will be on their game enough to challenge this seemingly unshakeable top tier."

[26] Unsponsored player Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce ended up claiming the grand title,[25] after reaching the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Evo Top 8 twice before.

Takuto "Kamemushi" finished 2nd on his first time entering an overseas tournament, after making waves in Japan with then considered mid-tier Mega-Man, notably eliminating Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios.

[29] Some well known fighting game players joined the Pokkén Tournament competition, including Justin Wong, Steven "Coach Steve" Delgado, and Yuta "Abadango" Kawamura.

[33] Poongko notably upset EVO 2015's 5th-place finisher Yota "Pekos" Kachi and made it all the way to Winner's Finals, but was subsequently double-eliminated by Saint and Knee to receive third place.

[48] The Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Grand Final played host to a memorable incident, in which a shirtless man climbed on to the stage at Mandalay Bay Events Center and reportedly demanded to challenge NYChrisG, the newly crowned champion, to a game of UMvC3, before being escorted away by security.