The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an American annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games.

[5] Originally the tournament used arcade cabinets, but in 2004 the decision was made to move all games over to their console versions, to a large amount of controversy.

The fighting games featured were Dead or Alive 4, Guilty Gear XX Slash, and Hyper Street Fighter II.

[21] The Brawl tournament was widely criticized for its ruleset, which allowed items on and saw a relatively unknown player defeat Ken Hoang.

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.

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.

[31] Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada was also on hand to show new mechanics for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Soulcalibur V.[32][33] Other unreleased games shown were Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, King of Fighters XIII, Skullgirls and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition.

The tournament series from the previous year returned, featuring seeding points for all six games in 17 events all across the world.

The eighth game was voted on by players via online donations, all proceeds of which went to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

[40] 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.

It was held on July 11–13, 2014 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino[8] On February 6, 2014, Cuellar announced that Evo 2014 would include BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Injustice: Gods Among Us, The King of Fighters XIII, Killer Instinct, and Ultra Street Fighter IV while also mentioning that discussions were ongoing with Nintendo on the possible inclusion of Super Smash Bros.

[49] 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.

[55][56][57] 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.

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.

[65] As with EVO 2015, NetherRealm and Warner Bros. have provided a $50,000 bonus pot towards Mortal Kombat XL's prize pool.

[67] On July 11, Aksys Games announced a $10,000 bonus pot towards Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-'s prize pool.

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.[73] Upon the victory of UMvC3, Cuellar announced that Evo 2017 would be running the event with the PlayStation 4 version being used.

Ultimate, Mortal Kombat 11, Soulcalibur VI, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, and Samurai Shodown.

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.

[79] 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).

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.

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.

[85] EVO 2025 is set to be 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.

[86] In 2010, the Evolution Championship organizers announced an official spin-off to the tournament series called "Evo vs Godsgarden", to be held in Japan the following year.

[89] During a presentation at the Tokyo Game Show in 2016, the Evolution organizers announced that the tournament is to be held in January 2018, while some form of "pre-tournament" took place in 2017.

[99] In July 2024, it was announced that the third event, Evo France, would take place in Nice on October 10-12 2025, with the lineup consisting of Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, Tekken 8, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and Dragon Ball FighterZ.