158-468: The Evolution Championship Series , commonly known as Evo , is an American annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games . The tournaments are completely open and use the double elimination format. As with Super Battle Opera , contestants travel from all over the world to participate, most notably from Japan. The first Evolution was originally held as a Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament called
316-513: A Capcom Cup qualifier for Ultra Street Fighter IV , as well as a Killer Instinct World Cup qualifier for Killer Instinct , with both games receiving respective bonus pots of $ 50,000 from Capcom / Sony and Iron Galaxy / Microsoft respectively. 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. In addition, Atlus has donated $ 10K towards
474-447: A Nico Nico livestream following Evo 2013 , Cuellar stated that he was still interested in holding a Japan-based tournament. It was announced at Evo 2016 that a separate event simply titled "Evo Japan" is to be held in Japan. Japanese media companies Aetas [ ja ] , Hearts United Group [ ja ] , and Shochiku Broadcasting [ ja ] together invested
632-423: A mind sport . Former ESPN president John Skipper described esports in 2014 as a competition and "not a sport". In 2013 on an episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel the panelist openly laughed at the topic. In addition, many in the fighting games community maintain a distinction between their competitive gaming competitions and the more commercially connected esports competitions of other genres. In
790-646: A $ 15,000 bonus pot as part of the KI Ultra Tour funding. On July 11, Aksys Games announced a $ 10,000 bonus pot towards Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- 's prize pool. Evo 2017 took place on July 14 to 16 with the entire event being held at the Mandalay Bay resort. The tournament featured Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 , BlazBlue: Central Fiction , Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , Super Smash Bros. Melee , Injustice 2 , Street Fighter V , Tekken 7 , The King of Fighters XIV , and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 . The ninth game
948-583: A $ 20,000 guaranteed prize pot. 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. Melty Blood: Actress Again
1106-482: A $ 50,000 bonus pot towards Street Fighter V 's prize pool and is also a Capcom Pro Tour qualifier. The Pokémon Company has announced a $ 10,000 bonus pot towards Pokkén Tournament 's prize pool and is a Pokkén Tournament Championship Series qualifier, with 1st and 2nd place being able to qualify for the finals. As with EVO 2015, NetherRealm and Warner Bros. have provided a $ 50,000 bonus pot towards Mortal Kombat XL 's prize pool. Killer Instinct will be receiving
1264-619: A California earthquake forecast, which models earthquake occurrence in California. This is a partial list of earthquakes in Southern California. For a full list, see List of earthquakes in California . Note: Earthquakes with epicenters in the Los Angeles Metro Area are marked with the (#) symbol. Other earthquakes mentioned indicates shaking was felt in the region. As of the 2020 United States Census , Southern California has
1422-636: A M w 6.7 earthquake or greater, such as the San Andreas Fault , which can produce M w 8.0 or greater. The largest known earthquake in California was the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake that ruptured 200+ miles (320+ kilometers) of the San Andreas Fault from Parkfield to Wrightwood . With a recurrence interval of roughly 150 years, this part of the San Andreas fault is well within its window to produce another large earthquake. Along with
1580-667: A high score record-keeping organization. The organization went on to help promote video games and publicize its records through publications such as the Guinness Book of World Records, and in 1983 it created the U.S. National Video Game Team . The team was involved in competitions, such as running the Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness World Records and sponsoring the North American Video Game Challenge tournament. A multicity tour in 1983,
1738-581: A higher population, with 23.76 million residents as of the 2020 census . The sparsely populated desert region of California occupies a significant portion (part of which has even been proposed to be split into a new county due to cultural, economic and geographic differences relative to the rest of the more urban region) of the area: the Colorado Desert , along with the Colorado River , is located on Southern California's eastern border with Arizona , and
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#17330933116461896-424: A large market, the law raised concerns about the future of esports within the country. Labeling competitive video games as a sport is a controversial topic. Proponents argue that esports are a fast-growing "non-traditional sport" which requires "careful planning, precise timing, and skillful execution". Others claim that sports involve physical fitness and physical training, and prefer to classify esports as
2054-722: A live stream was ultimately allowed to be carried out as planned. On May 7, 2013, it was announced that Injustice: Gods Among Us would be a main tournament game, thus expanding the game roster from eight to nine. Evo 2014 was announced on September 15, 2013. It was held on July 11–13, 2014 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino 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
2212-595: A marketing stunt to promote their early arcade snake game Hustle in the United States, involving the "Gremlin Girls" who were a duo of professional female arcade players called Sabrina Osment and Lynn Reid. The pair travelled across 19 American cities, where players could challenge them in best-of-three matches for a chance to win money. The duo were challenged by a total of 1,300 players, only about seven of whom managed to beat them. The golden age of arcade video games
2370-457: A medal event at the 2022 edition ; esports around games such as Hearthstone , Starcraft II , and League of Legends were presented as an exhibition event at the 2018 Asian Games as a lead-in to the 2022 games. The 2019 Southeast Asian Games included six medal events for esports. Since 2018, World Sailing has held an eSailing World Championship that showed a main sports federation embracing esports. The Virtual Regatta race shadowing
2528-820: A new awards show called the Evo Awards would take place February 2025 in Los Angeles . Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Street Fighter X Tekken Mortal Kombat (2011) Persona 4 Arena Skullgirls Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Tekken 7 BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle Dragon Ball FighterZ Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate Soulcalibur VI Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] Samurai Shodown (2019) Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Pokkén Tournament DX Capcom vs SNK 2 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Skullgirls 2nd Encore Esports Esports ( / ˈ iː s p ɔːr t s / ), short for electronic sports ,
2686-559: A new partnership with their National Olympic Committee . The proposal was ultimately approved by a unanimous vote on 23 July 2024. A number of games are popular among professional competitors. The tournaments which emerged in the mid-1990s coincided with the popularity of fighting games and first-person shooters , genres which still maintain a devoted fan base. In the 2000s, real-time strategy games became overwhelmingly popular in South Korean internet cafés , with crucial influence on
2844-565: A paid television model renamed GIGA II from June 2006 to autumn 2007. The French channel Game One broadcast esports matches in a show called Arena Online for the Xfire Trophy. The United States channel ESPN2 hosted Madden NFL competitions in a show called Madden Nation from 2005 to 2008. DirecTV broadcast the Championship Gaming Series tournament for two seasons in 2007 and 2008. CBS aired prerecorded footage of
3002-606: A population of 23,762,904. Despite a reputation for high growth rates, Southern California's population has grown slower than the state average since the 2000s. This is due to California's growth becoming concentrated in the northern part of the state as result of a stronger, tech-oriented economy in the Bay Area and an emerging Greater Sacramento region. Southern California consists of one Combined Statistical Area , eight Metropolitan Statistical Areas , one international metropolitan area , and multiple metropolitan divisions. The region
3160-410: A population of approximately 4 million, Los Angeles is the most populous city in California and the second most populous in the United States. South of Los Angeles and with a population of approximately 1.4 million is San Diego, the second most populous city in the state and the eighth most populous in the nation. The counties of Los Angeles , San Diego , Orange , Riverside , and San Bernardino are
3318-529: A potential method to legitimize esports. A summit held by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in October 2017 acknowledged the growing popularity of esports, concluding that "Competitive 'esports' could be considered as a sporting activity, and the players involved prepare and train with an intensity which may be comparable to athletes in traditional sports" but would require any games used for
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#17330933116463476-698: A relatively unknown player defeat Ken Hoang . Evo 2008 also allowed attendees a preview of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger , Street Fighter IV , Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix , and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom . Evo 2009 took place on July 17 to 19. Held at the Rio Convention Center , in Las Vegas, Nevada, the tournament itself would feature six games on its official roster: Soulcalibur IV , Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core , Marvel vs. Capcom 2 , Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV . Notably,
3634-694: A surge in participation by professional gamers and spectators. By the 2010s, esports was a major part of the video game industry, with many game developers designing for and funding for tournaments and other events. Esports first became popular in East Asia , particularly in China and South Korea (which first licensed professional players in 2000) but less so in Japan , whose broad anti-gambling laws prohibit professional gaming tournaments. Esports are also popular in Europe and
3792-588: A third event in a new location in 2024. 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 . Additionally, it was also announced that a fourth event would debut in Singapore in 2026, and that
3950-690: A total of US$ 1 million into the event. 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. At Evo 2017 , the Evo Japan 2018 lineup was revealed to consist of Street Fighter V , Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 , Tekken 7 , Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , BlazBlue: Central Fiction , The King of Fighters XIV , and ARMS ;
4108-505: A tournament held by several video game publishers to award prizes to many players but with JeSU offering these exemption licenses to the top dozen or so players that emerge, allowing them to compete in further esports events. The Tokyo Olympic Committee has also planned to arrange a number of esports events leading up to the 2020 games. With the IOC, five esports events were set as part of an Olympic Virtual Series from 13 May to 23 June 2021, ahead of
4266-754: A whole enacted the Alquist Priolo Special Studies Zone Act in the wake of the 1971 San Fernando earthquake . The act prohibits new construction of residential buildings closer than 50 feet (15 m) from a surface rupturing active fault zone. In addition, the act improved safety by requiring new structures (both residential and commercial) to be seismically retrofitted. It also required existing infrastructure to comply. Since 1972, numerous large magnitude earthquakes have struck Southern California with little widespread damage in part due to act. However, exceptions can be noted for epicenters that lie directly on top of densely populated regions such as
4424-731: Is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California . It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area (the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States ) as well as the Inland Empire (another large metropolitan area). The region generally contains ten of California's 58 counties: Los Angeles , San Diego , Orange , Riverside , San Bernardino , Kern , Ventura , Santa Barbara , San Luis Obispo , and Imperial counties. Although geographically smaller than Northern California in land area, Southern California has
4582-430: Is a form of competition using video games . Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. Multiplayer competitions were long a part of video game culture , but were largely between amateurs until the late 2000s, when the advent of online streaming media platforms, particularly YouTube and Twitch , enabled
4740-502: Is also home to a large surf and skateboard culture. Companies such as Vans , Volcom , Quiksilver , No Fear , Stüssy , RVCA , and Body Glove are all headquartered there. Skateboarder Tony Hawk ; surfers Rob Machado , Timmy Curran , Bobby Martinez , Pat O'Connell , Dane Reynolds , and Chris Ward live in Southern California. Some of the most famous surf locations are in Southern California as well, including Trestles , Rincon , The Wedge , Huntington Beach , and Malibu . Some of
4898-505: Is also known for its mountain resort communities, such as Big Bear Lake , Lake Arrowhead , and Wrightwood , and their ski resorts, like Bear Mountain , Snow Summit , Snow Valley Mountain Resort , and Mountain High . The inland desert city of Palm Springs is also popular. Southern California is generally considered the area of California south of the latitude 35°45', approximately one-third of
Evolution Championship Series - Misplaced Pages Continue
5056-583: Is also thought that the high unemployment rate at the time caused many people to look for things to do while out of work. Instrumental to this growth of esports in South Korea was the prevalence of the Komany-style internet café / LAN gaming center , known as a PC bang . The Korean e-Sports Association , an arm of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism , was founded in 2000 to promote and regulate esports in
5214-670: Is an important government, arts and entertainment, and retail district. Downtown San Diego is the CBD of San Diego, though the city is filled with business districts. These include Carmel Valley , Del Mar Heights , Mission Valley , Rancho Bernardo , Sorrento Mesa , and University City . Most of these districts are located in Northern San Diego and some within North County regions. Los Angeles Orange County Riverside & San Bernardino San Diego Southern California
5372-410: Is home to Los Angeles International Airport , the second-busiest airport in the United States by passenger volume (see World's busiest airports by passenger traffic ) and the third-busiest by international passenger volume (see Busiest airports in the United States by international passenger traffic ); San Diego International Airport , the busiest single-runway airport in the world; Van Nuys Airport ,
5530-545: Is home to two extended metropolitan areas that exceed five million in population. These are the Greater Los Angeles Area at 17,786,419, and San Diego–Tijuana at 5,105,768. Of these metropolitan areas, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan area , Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area , and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metropolitan area form Greater Los Angeles; while
5688-401: Is low to moderate depending on the area. Rain is infrequent, but is often heavy when it does occur, making flash floods an aspect of living in Southern California. This climatic pattern was alluded to in the hit song " It Never Rains (In Southern California) ". While snow is very rare in lower elevations, mountains above 5,000 feet (1,500 m) receive plentiful snowfall in the winter. Since
5846-511: Is the civilized expression about this. If you have egames where it's about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values." Due to that, the IOC suggested that they would approve more esports centered around games that simulate real sports, such as the NBA 2K or FIFA series. The issues around esports have not prevented the IOC from exploring what possibilities there are for incorporation into future Olympics. In July 2018,
6004-683: The 2020-2021 Vendee Globe was the first online game believe to have in excess of 1,000,000 unique users Ahead of The International 2021 , which was originally set to take place in Stockholm in 2020, the Swedish Sports Confederation voted in June 2021 to deny recognition of esports as a sporting event, which jeopardized plans for how Valve had arranged the event in regards to travel visas for international players. Valve had tried to work with Sweden to accommodate players, but eventually rescheduled
6162-533: The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were in discussions with the IOC and the various professional esports organizations to consider esports for the event, citing the need to include these elements to keep the Olympics relevant to younger generations. Ultimately, the organization committee determined esports were premature to bring to the 2024 Games as medal events, but have not ruled out other activities related to esports during
6320-654: The Battle by the Bay . It changed its name to Evo in 2002. Every successive tournament has seen an increase of attendees. It has been held at various venues across the Las Vegas Valley since 2005. As of 2021, the event is jointly owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment and the Endeavor esports venture RTS. Evo was founded by Tom Cannon, also known for his work on Shoryuken.com, a fighting game website. The tournament started as "Battle by
6478-570: The COVID-19 pandemic , the physical event had been canceled, with all event and hotel reservations to be refunded. Online tournament events had been scheduled from July 4 to August 2 as replacement activities. However, at the start of July 2020, charges of sexual misconduct were leveled at EVO CEO Joey Cuellar. 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
Evolution Championship Series - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-506: The Commonwealth Games Federation announced that esports would be included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games as a pilot event, with the possibility of it being a medal event in the 2026 Games . The inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championship had separate branding, medals, and organization and included both men and women's Dota 2 , eFootball , and Rocket League events. As a follow-up to 2021's Olympic Virtual Series,
6794-583: The El Centro metropolitan area and San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos metropolitan area form the Southern Border Region . North of Greater Los Angeles are the Santa Barbara , San Luis Obispo , and Bakersfield metropolitan areas. Los Angeles (with a population of approximately 3.9 million people) and San Diego (at nearly 1.4 million people) are the two largest cities in all of California, and are among
6952-722: The Las Vegas Convention Center , while Sunday finals took take place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center . The tournament featured Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- , Street Fighter V , Super Smash Bros. Melee , Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , Mortal Kombat XL , Pokkén Tournament , Killer Instinct , Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , and Tekken 7: Fated Retribution . 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. The finals for Street Fighter V
7110-637: The Los Angeles metropolitan area ( Los Angeles and Orange counties, with 13.3 million people), the Inland Empire ( Riverside and San Bernardino counties, including the Coachella Valley cities, with 4.3 million people), and the Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura metropolitan area (0.8 million people). In addition, Southern California contains the San Diego metropolitan area with 3.3 million people, Bakersfield metro area with 0.9 million, and
7268-687: The Mojave Desert shares a border with Nevada to the northeast. Southern California's southern border with Baja California is part of the Mexico–United States border . Southern California encompasses eight metropolitan areas (MSAs), three of which together form the Greater Los Angeles Combined Statistical Area (CSA) with over 18 million people, the second-biggest CSA after the New York CSA . These three MSAs are
7426-734: The Newport–Inglewood-Rose Canyon Fault (located adjacent to SoFi Stadium and responsible for Signal Hill ), the Elsinore Fault (created Lake Elsinore ), the Garlock Fault (which marks boundary between of the Sierra Nevada and the Mojave Desert ), and the Hollywood fault (which is within feet of Capitol Records and is roughly parallel to Hollywood Boulevard ). The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has released
7584-629: The Nintendo PowerFest '94 . There were 132 finalists that played in the finals in San Diego , California. Mike Iarossi took home 1st prize. Blockbuster Video also ran their own World Game Championships in the early 1990s, co-hosted by GamePro magazine. Citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Chile were eligible to compete. Games from the 1994 championships included NBA Jam and Virtua Racing . Television shows featuring esports during this period include
7742-740: The San Diego metropolitan area as they do with the Inland Empire . To the east, the United States Census Bureau considers the San Bernardino and Riverside County areas, Riverside-San Bernardino area as a separate metropolitan area from Los Angeles County. Newly developed exurbs formed in the Antelope Valley , north of Los Angeles, the Victor Valley , and the Coachella Valley with the Imperial Valley . Also, population growth
7900-483: The San Fernando Valley . The area of Santa Monica and Venice (and perhaps some of Culver City) is informally referred to as "Silicon Beach" because of the concentration of financial and marketing technology-centric firms located in the region. The San Bernardino-Riverside Area maintains the business districts of Downtown San Bernardino , Hospitality Business/Financial Centre , University District which are in
8058-475: The Santa Barbara , San Luis Obispo , and El Centro (Imperial County) metropolitan areas. The Southern California Megaregion (or megalopolis ) is larger still, extending northeast into Las Vegas , Nevada and south across the Mexican border into Tijuana . Within Southern California are two major cities, Los Angeles and San Diego , as well as three of the country's largest metropolitan areas . With
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#17330933116468216-532: The Tokyo Olympic Games Committee for the 2020 Summer Olympics, four esports organizations have worked with Japan's leading consumer organization to exempt esports tournaments from gambling law restrictions. Takeo Kawamura , a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party , led a coalition of ruling and opposing politicians to support esports, called
8374-520: The Transverse and Peninsular Ranges with their peaks, and into the large and small interior valleys, to the vast deserts of California . Note: Plate boundary faults are indicated with a (#) symbol. Each year, Southern California has about 10,000 earthquakes. Nearly all of them are too small to be felt. Only several hundred have been greater than magnitude (M w ) 3.0, and only about 15–20 have been greater than M w 4.0. California as
8532-534: The Tropicana Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip . from August 8 to 10. The tournament would feature six games within its official roster: Capcom vs. SNK 2 , Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection , Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , Super Smash Bros. Brawl , Super Street Fighter II Turbo , and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 . The Brawl tournament was widely criticized for its ruleset, which allowed items on and saw
8690-762: The University of California, Los Angeles . Evo 2004 took place at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Southern California from July 29 to August 1. The tournament amassed approximately 700 competitors from over 30 countries to compete in over nine different games. The games featured included Super Street Fighter II Turbo , Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , Marvel vs. Capcom 2 , Capcom vs. SNK 2 , Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution , Guilty Gear XX , Soulcalibur II , Tekken 4 , and Tekken Tag Tournament . Evo 2004 used home consoles for most of their tournament games instead of arcade cabinets, with
8848-647: The digital collectible card game (DCCG) genre since its release in 2014. While it is common for video games to be designed with the experience of the player in game being the only priority, many successful esports games have been designed to be played professionally from the beginning. Developers may decide to add dedicated esports features, or even make design compromises to support high level competition. Games such as StarCraft II , League of Legends , and Dota 2 have all been designed, at least in part, to support professional competition. Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal )
9006-494: The eGames , was held alongside the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro , though this was not supported by the IOC. During the Eighth Olympic Summit in December 2019, the IOC reiterated that it would only consider sports-simulating games for any official Olympic event, but it would look at two paths for such games in the future: those that promoted good physical and mental health lifestyles, and virtual reality and augmented reality games that included physical activity. In
9164-403: The entertainment industry . Other industries include software, automotive, aerospace, finance, biomedical, ports and regional logistics. The region was a leader in the housing bubble from 2001 to 2007, and has been heavily impacted by the housing crash. Since the 1920s, motion pictures, petroleum, and aircraft manufacturing have been major industries. In one of the richest agricultural regions in
9322-626: The opening game ), BlazBlue: Central Fiction , Tekken 7 , Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , and Street Fighter V . Upon the victory of UMvC3 , Cuellar announced that Evo 2017 would be running the event with the PlayStation 4 version being used. Evo 2018 took place on August 3 to 5 with the entire event being held at the Mandalay Bay resort. The tournament featured Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition , Tekken 7 , Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , Super Smash Bros. Melee , BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle , Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 , Injustice 2 , and Dragon Ball FighterZ . Evo 2019 took place on August 2 to 4 with
9480-441: The "Electronic Circus", was used to feature these players in live challenges before audiences, and draw more people to video games. These video game players and tournaments were featured in well-circulated newspapers and popular magazines including Life and Time and became minor celebrities at the time, such as Billy Mitchell . Besides establishing the competitive nature of games, these types of promotional events all formed
9638-418: The 1990s led to the foundation of the international Evolution Championship Series (EVO) esports tournament in 1996. Large esports tournaments in the 1990s include the 1990 Nintendo World Championships , which toured across the United States, and held its finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. Nintendo held a 2nd World Championships in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called
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#17330933116469796-413: The 2007 World Series of Video Games tournament that was held in Louisville, Kentucky . The G4 television channel originally covered video games exclusively, but broadened its scope to cover technology and men's lifestyle, though has now shutdown. During the 2010s, esports grew tremendously, incurring a large increase in both viewership and prize money. Although large tournaments were founded before
9954-436: The 2015 World Championship hosted by the International Esports Federation , an esports panel of guests from international sports society discussed the future recognition of esports as a legitimate sport. Russia was the first country that classified "cybersport" as an official sport discipline on 25 July 2001. After a series of reforms in Russian sports, it was classified as a sport again on 12 March 2004. In July 2006, it
10112-422: The 21st century, the number and scope of tournaments has increased significantly, going from about 10 tournaments in 2000 to about 260 in 2010. Many successful tournaments were founded during this period, including the World Cyber Games , the Intel Extreme Masters , and Major League Gaming . The proliferation of tournaments included experimentation with competitions outside traditional esports genres. For example,
10270-464: The Americas , which host regional and international events. The most common video game genres associated with esports are multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), fighting games , card , battle royales , and real-time strategy (RTS) games. Popular esports franchises include League of Legends , Dota , Counter-Strike , Valorant , Overwatch , Street Fighter , Super Smash Bros. and StarCraft . Among
10428-448: The B5 Championships was attended by a much larger international crowd, particularly from Japan. Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 made its introduction in the tournament roster at B5, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was again a headliner of the event, being described by TechTV as "the hottest arcade fighting game of the season." In 2002, the event became formally known as its current name, "Evo". Evo 2002 took place on August 9, 2002, at
10586-545: The Bay was organized by Tom "inkblot" Cannon, Tony "Ponder" Cannon, Joey "MrWizard" Cuellar, and Seth "S-Kill" Killian, and held in the Golfland arcade hall in Sunnyvale, California . The tournament had 40 contenders mostly from the United States, though B3 also featured players from Canada and Kuwait. B3 featured a Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament. The B4 Street Fighter Championships were held on July 15–16, 2000, in Folsom, California . B4 introduced several new Capcom fighting games to
10744-446: The Bay", a 40-man Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament in 1996 in Sunnyvale , California . The event eventually moved to its recurring venue in the Las Vegas Valley . The event changed its name to Evolution Championship Series, or EVO for short, in 2002. Over time, the tournament grew, recording over one thousand participants in 2009 . Originally the tournament used arcade cabinets , but in 2004
10902-578: The British shows GamesMaster and Bad Influence! ; the Australian game show A*mazing , where in the final round contestants competed in a video game face-off; and the Canadian game show Video & Arcade Top 10 . In the 1990s, many games benefited from increasing internet connectivity , especially PC games . Inspired by the fighting games Street Fighter II , Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting , id Software 's John Romero established competitive multiplayer in online games with Doom ' s deathmatch mode in 1993. Tournaments established in
11060-444: The French government started working on a project to regulate and recognize esports. The Games and Amusements Board of the Philippines started issuing athletic licenses to Filipino esports players who are vouched for by a professional esports team in July 2017. To help promote esports as a legitimate sport, several esports events have been run alongside more traditional international sports competitions. The 2007 Asian Indoor Games
11218-425: The Games. In September 2021, the Olympic Council of Asia announced eight esports games will officially debut as medal sports for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. In December 2021, the IOC confirmed its Olympic Virtual Series (OVS) will return in 2022. The first edition of the OVS which ran from 13 May to 23 June, featured nearly 250,000 participants and had more than two million entries. In January 2022,
11376-562: The Green Valley Ranch, in Las Vegas. Throughout the year there were several other tournaments held throughout the US bearing the Evo name. The game roster had eight games, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , Capcom vs. SNK 2 , Virtua Fighter 5 , Marvel vs. Capcom 2 , Street Fighter II Turbo , Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection , Guilty Gear XX Λ Core , and Super Smash Bros. Melee . Evo 2008 took place at
11534-513: The IOC and the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) held a symposium and invited major figures in esports, including Epic Games ' Mark Rein , Blizzard Entertainment 's Mike Morhaime , and esports players Dario "TLO" Wünsch, Jacob "Jake" Lyon , and Se-yeon "Geguri" Kim , for these organizations "to gain a deeper understanding of esports, their impact and likely future development, so that [they] can jointly consider
11692-672: The IOC and the Singapore National Olympic Council held the inaugural Olympic Esports Week in Singapore in June 2023. Games featured at the event included: In June 2024, the IOC Executive Board announced the proposal to establish the Olympic Esports Games during the 142nd IOC Session held prior to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, with the inaugural event to take place in 2025 at Saudi Arabia following
11850-506: The IOC announced the appointment of the organization's first ever head of virtual sport, tasked with the development of virtual sport for the global Olympic body, increasing the organization's engagement with gaming communities, and overseeing the Olympic Virtual Series, IOC's first licensed non-physical sports event. The inaugural series included virtual baseball, cycling, rowing, esailing and motorsports events. In February 2022,
12008-465: The Japan esports Union, or JeSU. Kawamura said that they would be willing to pass laws to further exempt esports as needed so that esports athletes can make a living playing these sports. So far, this has resulted in the ability of esports players to obtain exemption licenses to allow them to play, a similar mechanism needed for professional athletes in other sports in Japan to play professionally. The first such licenses were given out in mid-July 2018, via
12166-532: The Los Angeles Area are the major business districts of Downtown Pasadena , Downtown Burbank , Downtown Santa Monica , Downtown Glendale and Downtown Long Beach . Los Angeles proper has many business districts, such as Downtown LA and those lining Wilshire Boulevard , including Mid-Wilshire , the Miracle Mile , Downtown Beverly Hills , and Westwood ; others include Century City and Warner Center in
12324-399: The M w 6.7 1994 Northridge Earthquake and, to a lesser extent, the smaller M w 5.5 2008 Chino Hills earthquake . The Northridge earthquake occurred on a blind-thrust fault directly underneath the San Fernando Valley , which until the earthquake was previously undiscovered. Seismic retrofitting of existing and new construction is aimed to prevent damage and save lives in
12482-485: The Ministry stating that they anticipate over 2 million such people in this profession in five years. In 2013, Canadian League of Legends player Danny "Shiphtur" Le became the first pro gamer to receive an American P-1A visa , a category designated for "Internationally Recognized Athletes". In 2014, Turkey's Ministry of Youth and Sports started issuing esports licenses to players certified as professionals. In 2016,
12640-508: The Olympics fitting "with the rules and regulations of the Olympic movement". Another article by Andy Stout suggests that 106 million people viewed the 2017 Worlds Esports competition . International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has noted that the IOC is troubled by violent games and the lack of a global sanctioning body for esports. Bach acknowledged that many Olympic sports originated from violent combat, but stated that "sport
12798-497: The September 2006 FUN Technologies Worldwide Webgames Championship featured 71 contestants competing in casual games for a $ 1 million grand prize. The popularity and emergence of online streaming services have helped the growth of esports in this period, and are the most common method of watching tournaments. Twitch , an online streaming platform launched in 2011, routinely streams popular esports competitions. In 2013, viewers of
12956-747: The Sony ownership of the competition will not affect its ability to include events for non-PlayStation games, although all games in the 2021 lineup are either available on, or console-exclusive to, PlayStation. Evo 2022 took place from August 5 to 7 at the Mandalay Bay resort. The event is the first since 2019 to take place in-person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 . Evo 2023
13114-451: The Southern California desert system. Because of the barrier formed by the Tehachapi and Sierra Nevada ranges, cartographer George Wheeler observed in 1876 that Northern California was better connected to Oregon and Nevada than it was to Southern California. Following the acquisition of the territory of California by the United States, several pro-slavery politicians attempted to arrange
13272-644: The U.S. were represented, as well as 44 additional countries. Its livestream was watched by over 2 million unique viewers on UStream over the course of the event. In attendance was Street Fighter series producer Ono Yoshinori, who announced a free balance patch for Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition . Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada was also on hand to show new mechanics for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Soulcalibur V . Other unreleased games shown were Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , King of Fighters XIII , Skullgirls and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition . A Skullgirls side tournament
13430-485: The U.S., cattle and citrus were major industries until farmlands were turned into suburbs. Although military spending cutbacks have had an impact, aerospace continues to be a major factor. Southern California is home to many major business districts. Central business districts (CBD) include Downtown Los Angeles , Downtown Riverside , Downtown San Bernardino , downtown San Diego , and the South Coast Metro . Within
13588-432: The aftermath of a major quake, but it cannot guarantee that buildings will be unscathed if the epicenter is relatively close by. The 1994 Northridge earthquake was particularly destructive, causing a substantial number of deaths, injuries, and structural collapses. The quake caused the most property damage of any earthquake in U.S. history at an estimated $ 20 billion. Many Southern California faults are able to produce
13746-425: The bonus pot for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax , while Arc System Works and Aksys Games donated the same amount to the bonus pot for Guilty Gear Xrd . Bandai Namco has announced that they have provided a $ 30K bonus pot for Tekken 7 as well as providing all competitors in said game an exclusive T-shirt featuring franchise veteran Lili and Tekken Revolution newcomer Eliza . Evo 2016 took place from July 15–17 at
13904-549: The centers of their respective metropolitan areas, composed of numerous smaller cities and communities. The urban area is also host to an international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan region, created by the urban area spilling over into Baja California . The main barrier to urbanization along the Interstate 5 corridor is Camp Pendleton . The cities and communities along Interstate 15 and Interstate 215 are so interrelated that Temecula and Murrieta have as much connection with
14062-602: The cities of San Bernardino and Riverside. In Orange County, has highly developed suburban business centers (also known as edge cities ) including the Anaheim–Santa Ana edge city along I-5; and another, the South Coast Plaza–John Wayne Airport edge city that stretches from the South Coast Metro to the Irvine Business Complex ; Newport Center ; and Irvine Spectrum . Downtown Santa Ana
14220-465: The competition. In 2015, the first Esports Arena was launched in Santa Ana, California , as the United States' first dedicated esports facility. The global esports audience reached 662.6 million in 2020, and 921 million in 2022. In 2021, China announced a law which forbade minors from playing video games, which they described as "spiritual opium", for more than three hours a week. With China being
14378-505: The concept of direct, tournament-level competition between two players. Previously, video games most often relied on high scores to determine the best player, but this changed with Street Fighter II , where players would instead challenge each other directly, "face-to-face", to determine the best player, paving the way for the competitive multiplayer and deathmatch modes found in modern action games . The popularity of fighting games such as Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom in
14536-544: The country. Physical viewership of esports competitions and the scope of events have increased in tandem with the growth of online viewership. In 2013, the Season 3 League of Legends World Championship was held in a sold-out Staples Center . The 2014 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul , South Korea, had over 40,000 fans in attendance and featured the band Imagine Dragons , and opening and closing ceremonies in addition to
14694-680: The country. Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Park Jie-won coined the term "Esports" at the founding ceremony of the 21st Century Professional Game Association (currently Korean e-Sports Association ) in 2000. " Evo Moment 37 ", also known as the "Daigo Parry", refers to a portion of a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara (playing Ken Masters ) and Justin Wong (playing Chun-Li ). During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move while having only one pixel of vitality . Umehara subsequently won
14852-837: The creation of the Halo Championship Series and a prize pool of US$ 50,000. Both Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games have their own collegiate outreach programs with their North American Collegiate Championship. Since 2013 universities and colleges in the United States such as Robert Morris University Illinois and the University of Pikeville have recognized esports players as varsity level athletes and offer athletic scholarships . In 2017, Tespa , Blizzard Entertainment's collegiate esports division, unveiled its new initiative to provide scholarships and prizes for collegiate esports clubs competing in its tournaments worth US$ 1 million. Colleges have begun granting scholarships to students who qualify to play esports professionally for
15010-497: The decision was made to move all games over to their console versions, to a large amount of controversy. During the transition to games on the seventh generation consoles , most games were played on a PlayStation 3 , though Evo 2014 ran most games on the Xbox 360 . Aside from the official tournaments, there is also a "BYOC" ("bring your own console") area in which many different games are played and side tournaments are held. B3: Battle by
15168-399: The development of esports worldwide. Competitions exist for many titles and genres, though the most popular games as of the early 2020s are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Call of Duty , League of Legends , Dota 2 , Fortnite , Rocket League , Valorant , Hearthstone , Super Smash Bros. Melee , StarCraft II and Overwatch . Hearthstone has also popularized
15326-575: The division of Alta California at 36 degrees, 30 minutes, the line of the Missouri Compromise . Instead, the passing of the Compromise of 1850 enabled California to be admitted to the Union as a free state , preventing the southern half of California from becoming its own separate slave state . Subsequently, Californians (dissatisfied with inequitable taxes and land laws) and pro-slavery Southerners in
15484-448: The early 2010s, viewership was about 85% male and 15% female, with most viewers between the ages of 18 and 34. By the late 2010s, it was estimated that by 2020, the total audience of esports would grow to 454 million viewers, with revenue increasing to more than US$ 1 billion, with China accounting for 35% of the global esports revenue. The earliest known video game competition took place on 19 October 1972 at Stanford University for
15642-426: The entire event being held at the Mandalay Bay resort. The tournament featured Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition , Tekken 7 , Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Mortal Kombat 11 , Soulcalibur VI , Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] , Dragon Ball FighterZ , BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle , and Samurai Shodown . Evo 2020 was to have taken place from July 31 to August 2 at the Mandalay Bay resort. However, due to
15800-498: The esports scene, Nintendo hosted Wii Games Summer 2010. Spanning over a month, the tournament had over 400,000 participants, making it the largest and most expansive tournament in the company's history. In 2014 Nintendo hosted an invitational Super Smash Bros. for Wii U competitive tournament at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press conference that was streamed online on Twitch. Halo developers 343 Industries announced in 2014 plans to revive Halo as an esport with
15958-478: The event to Romania instead. The 2022 Commonwealth Games featured esports competitions as a pilot ahead of being a potential full medal event for 2026. In Greece , in March 2022 a law entered into force recognising and regulating esports and in June 2023, the relevant federation for esports has been officially given recognition and included in the list of sports federations. The Olympic Games are also seen as
16116-429: The event took place from January 26 to 28. The lineup is known to emphasize titles that are popular in Japan, as titles such as Super Smash Bros. Melee , Injustice 2 , and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite are notably absent mostly due to their lack of popularity in the region. Despite the 7,000 entrants, Evo Japan ended up reporting a $ 1.13m loss according to financial reports by Hearts United Group. Evo Japan 2019
16274-551: The event. The EVO board decided to cancel the event, refund those tickets and donate the remaining funds to Project HOPE . 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). It was concurrently announced that Evo Online 2021 will be held August 6–8 and August 13–15, 2021, and feature Guilty Gear Strive , Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition , Tekken 7 , and Skullgirls: 2nd Encore . Evo stated that
16432-429: The first decade of the 21st century, droughts and wildfires have increased in frequency as a result of climate change . Southern California consists of one of the more varied collections of geologic, topographic, and natural ecosystem landscapes in a diversity outnumbering other major regions in the state and country. The region spans from Pacific Ocean islands , shorelines , beaches, and coastal plains , through
16590-738: The five most populous in the state, and are among the top 15 most populous counties in the United States. The motion picture , television and music industry are centered in the Los Angeles area in Southern California. Hollywood , a district of Los Angeles, gives its name to the American motion picture industry, which is synonymous with the neighborhood name. Headquartered in Southern California are The Walt Disney Company (which owns ABC ), Sony Pictures , Universal Pictures , MGM , Paramount Pictures , and Warner Bros . Universal, Warner Bros., and Sony also run major record companies. Southern California
16748-410: The game Spacewar . Stanford students were invited to an "Intergalactic spacewar olympics" whose grand prize was a year's subscription for Rolling Stone , with Bruce Baumgart winning the five-man-free-for-all tournament, and Slim Tovar and Robert E. Maas winning the team competition. Contemporary esports has roots in competitive face-to-face arcade video game competitions. A forerunner of esports
16906-689: The games. Each event in auto racing, baseball, cycling, rowing and sailing will be managed by an IOC-recognized governing body for the sport along with a video game publisher of a game for that sport. For example, the auto racing event will be based on the Gran Turismo series and overseen by the International Automobile Federation along with Polyphony Digital . The baseball, cycling, and esailing events will be based on eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020 , Zwift , and Virtual Regatta , respectively. The organization committee for
17064-524: The government encouraged esports, stating that by participating in esports, players were also "training the body for China". Furthermore, by early 2019, China recognized esports players as an official profession within the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security 's Occupation Skill Testing Authority recommendations, as well as professional gaming operators, those that distribute and manage esports games. By July 2019, more than 100,000 people had registered themselves as professional gamers under this, with
17222-656: The late 1990s include the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), QuakeCon , and the Professional Gamers League . PC games played at the CPL included the Counter-Strike series, Quake series, StarCraft , and Warcraft . The growth of esports in South Korea is thought to have been influenced by the mass building of broadband Internet networks following the 1997 Asian financial crisis . It
17380-409: The late 2010s, leaders in Japan became involved in helping bring esports to the 2020 Summer Olympics and beyond, given the country's reputation as a major video game industry centre. Esports in Japan had not flourished due to the country's anti-gambling laws that also prevent paid professional gaming tournaments, but there were efforts starting in late 2017 to eliminate this issue. At the suggestion of
17538-565: The lightly populated "cow counties" of Southern California attempted three times in the 1850s to achieve a separate statehood or territorial status separate from Northern California . The last attempt, the Pico Act of 1859, was passed by the California State Legislature and signed by State Governor John B. Weller . It was approved overwhelmingly by nearly 75 percent of voters to form the proposed Territory of Colorado . This territory
17696-515: The match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in the history of competitive video gaming. Being at one point the most-watched competitive gaming moment of all time, it has been compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Miracle on Ice . In April 2006, the G7 teams federation were formed by seven prominent Counter-Strike teams. The goal of
17854-788: The match. This highlight became highly influential within the fighting game community. 2005 was the first year Evo was held at the Green Valley Ranch casino and hotel in Las Vegas. Evo 2006 took place at the Red Rock Resort Spa and Casino in Las Vegas. 2006 was the first year that Capcom gave its official, public support of the Evolution tournaments. Traditionally, Evo has only included fighting games, but in 2006 it included Mario Kart DS in its lineup. The fighting games featured were Dead or Alive 4 , Guilty Gear XX Slash , and Hyper Street Fighter II . Evo 2007, officially called Evo World 2007, took place from August 24 to 26 at
18012-539: The more urban region) that have been left undeveloped. It is the third most populated megalopolis in the United States, after the Great Lakes megalopolis and the Northeast megalopolis . Much of Southern California is famous for its large, spread-out, suburban communities and use of automobiles and highways. The dominant areas are Los Angeles, Orange County , San Diego , and Riverside – San Bernardino , each of which are
18170-741: The most popular tournaments are the League of Legends World Championship , Dota 2 's International , the fighting game-specific Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and Intel Extreme Masters . Many other competitions use a series of league play with sponsored teams, such as the Overwatch League . Although the legitimacy of esports as a true sporting competition remains in question, they have been featured alongside traditional sports in some multinational events in Asia. The International Olympic Committee has discussed their inclusion in future Olympic events. In
18328-421: The nature of the marketing and promotion that formed the basis of modern esports. In 1984, Konami and Centuri jointly held an international Track & Field arcade game competition that drew more than a million players from across Japan and North America. Play Meter in 1984 called it "the coin-op event of the year" and an "event on a scale never before achieved in the industry". As of 2016 , it holds
18486-416: The newly released Street Fighter IV increased Evo attendance by a considerable margin, and the tournament for it alone boasted more than 1000 participants, almost three times that of the tournaments for the other games. Evo 2010, held at Caesars Palace from July 9, 2010 through July 11, 2010 had a massive number of competitors, with Super Street Fighter IV amassing approximately 1,800 players to duel for
18644-465: The only exception being 3rd Strike which used the more traditional arcade cabinets. Evo 2004 was the birthplace of " Evo Moment #37 ". During the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament, Daigo Umehara (playing as Ken ), while facing Justin Wong (using Chun-Li ), successfully parried one of Chun-Li's "Super Moves" while having very little health left and then countered with his own, winning
18802-453: The organization was to increase stability in the esports world, particularly in standardizing player transfers and working with leagues and organizations. The founding members were 4Kings , Fnatic , Made in Brazil , Mousesports , NiP , SK-Gaming , and Team 3D . The organization only lasted until 2009 before dissolving. The 2000s was a popular time for televised esports. Television coverage
18960-467: The platform watched 12 billion minutes of video on the service, with the two most popular Twitch broadcasters being League of Legends and Dota 2 . During one day of The International, Twitch recorded 4.5 million unique views, with each viewer watching for an average of two hours. The modern esports boom has also seen a rise in video games companies embracing the esports potential of their products. After many years of ignoring and at times suppressing
19118-560: The plot of various films, including 1982's Tron . In the UK, the BBC game show First Class included competitive video game rounds featuring the contemporary arcade games, such as Hyper Sports , 720° and Paperboy . In the United States, the Amusement Players Association held its first U.S. National Video Game Team competition in January 1987, where Vs. Super Mario Bros.
19276-666: The possible inclusion of Super Smash Bros. Melee . Melee was eventually officially added to the roster with Nintendo's approval. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was also later added to the roster. Evo 2015 took place on July 17–19, 2015 at the Bally's / Paris Las Vegas Casino. 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 . While EVO 2015 initially
19434-584: The previous year returned, featuring seeding points for all six games in 17 events all across the world. Evo 2013 was announced on December 2, 2012. It was held on July 12–14 at Paris Las Vegas . On January 8, Joey Cuellar announced that EVO 2013 would have eight main tournament games, with the first seven revealed being Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (Version 2012) , Tekken Tag Tournament 2 , Mortal Kombat , Street Fighter X Tekken (Version 2013) , The King of Fighters XIII , and Persona 4 Arena . The eighth game
19592-481: The record for the largest organized video game competition of all time, according to Guinness World Records . Televised esports events aired during this period included the American show Starcade which ran from 1982 to 1984 airing a total of 133 episodes, on which contestants would attempt to beat each other's high scores on an arcade game. A video game tournament was included as part of TV show That's Incredible! , and tournaments were also featured as part of
19750-605: The roster: Street Fighter Alpha 3 , Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes . The newly released Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was the first non- Street Fighter game to be included, and a precedent for the tournament to branch out to other games. The Capcom Versus series has since had a large presence in the Battle of the Bay and Evolution Championship Series events. Held in August 2001 in Folsom, California ,
19908-419: The school. Colleges such as Columbia College , Robert Morris University , and Indiana Institute of Technology have taken part in this. In 2018, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology began a tuition scholarship program for esports players. In 2014, the largest independent esports league, Electronic Sports League , partnered with the local brand Japan Competitive Gaming to try and grow esports in
20066-468: The sole county to vote for the GOP, with Orange County having been Democrat since 2012. Southern California is one of the largest economies in the United States. It is dominated by, and heavily dependent upon, the abundance of petroleum, as opposed to other regions where automobiles are not nearly as dominant, due to the vast majority of transport that runs on this fuel. Southern California is famous for tourism and
20224-566: The southern section of the San Andreas (in the Palm Springs region, which has not ruptured in ~400 years), the entire Southern California portion of the San Andreas Fault is ready to produce a powerful earthquake in the near future. Notable faults capable of large magnitude events include the San Jacinto Fault (a splay of the San Andreas that runs directly under the I-10 & I-215 interchange),
20382-461: The state, formed by the northern boundaries of San Luis Obispo , Kern , and San Bernardino counties, which are not exactly a straight line. Another definition for Southern California uses Point Conception and the Tehachapi Mountains as the northern geographical barriers, especially when defining California's bioregions . In this definition, Owens Valley and Death Valley are part of
20540-417: The top eight largest cities in the United States. In Southern California, there are also 14 cities with more than 200,000 residents and 48 cities over 100,000 residents. Many of Southern California's most developed cities lie along or in close proximity to the coast, with the exception of San Bernardino and Riverside. Southern California has drifted left since 2004, and is solidly Democrat. Kern County remains
20698-500: The tournament "proved to be the biggest event ever" in the arcade game industry, and was attended by members from leading Japanese newspapers and leisure industry companies. Sega stressed "the importance of such tournaments to foster better business relationships between the maker-location-customer and create an atmosphere of competition on TV amusement games". In 1977, Gremlin Industries (a year before being acquired by Sega) held
20856-551: The ways in which [they] may collaborate to the mutual benefit of all of sport in the years ahead". The IOC has tested the potential for esports through exhibition games. With support from the IOC, Intel sponsored exhibition esports events for StarCraft II and Steep prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , and five South Korean esports players were part of the Olympic Torch relay. A similar exhibition showcase,
21014-429: The world's busiest general aviation airport; major commercial airports at San Bernardino , Orange County , Bakersfield , Ontario , Burbank , and Long Beach ; and numerous smaller commercial and general aviation airports. Six of the seven lines of the commuter rail system, Metrolink , run out of Downtown Los Angeles, connecting Los Angeles, Ventura , San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and San Diego counties with
21172-435: The world's largest action sports events, including the X Games , Boost Mobile Pro , and the U.S. Open of Surfing , are held in Southern California. The region is also important to the world of yachting with premier events including the annual Transpacific Yacht Race , or Transpac , from Los Angeles to Hawaii. San Diego Yacht Club hosted the three America's Cup races from 1988 to 1995. The first modern-era triathlon
21330-531: The year's Throwback Tournament in celebration of both the 25th anniversary of the game, as well as the 20th anniversary of Moment #37. 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. However, the tournament was called off following the Tohoku earthquake and postponed indefinitely. During
21488-472: Was G4 's limited coverage of the event, even offering X-Play host Adam Sessler for commentary of the Super Street Fighter IV finals. For Evo 2011, a tournament season was announced in which players could earn ranking points at one of eight tournaments. It took place at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino from July 29 to 31, utilizing a 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m) ballroom. All 50 states of
21646-450: Was announced for August 4 to 6, with Street Fighter 6 , Guilty Gear Strive , Dragon Ball FighterZ , The King of Fighters XV , Melty Blood: Type Lumina , Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate and Tekken 7 all being featured. 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
21804-480: Was best established in South Korea, with StarCraft and Warcraft III competitions regularly televised by dedicated 24-hour cable TV game channels Ongamenet and MBCGame . Elsewhere, esports television coverage was sporadic. The German GIGA Television covered esports until its shutdown in 2009. The United Kingdom satellite television channel XLEAGUE.TV broadcast esports competitions from 2007 to 2009. The online esports only channel ESL TV briefly attempted
21962-524: Was broadcast live on ESPN2 and live coverage of the tournament was available through ESPN's WatchESPN service, in addition to the tournament's regular Twitch streams. Joey Cuellar has announced record breaking numbers which includes Street Fighter V reaching more than 5,000 entrants, Smash 4 and Melee each reaching more than 2,000; Pokkén reaching more than 1,000 entrants while other games either increased or decreased. Like EVO 2015's Ultra Street Fighter IV finals, Capcom and Sony have provided
22120-435: Was chosen by a donation drive which all of the funds have gone towards Make-A-Wish International . Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was the winning game with Pokkén Tournament being the runner-up. 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
22278-515: Was grouped with other counties of the San Joaquin Valley , California's central agricultural valley. Southern California consists of a heavily developed urban environment, home to some of the largest urban areas in the state, along with the Deserts of California (part of which was even proposed to become a new county due to cultural, economic and geographic differences relative to the rest of
22436-620: Was held by Sega in 1974, the All Japan TV Game Championships, a nationwide arcade video game tournament in Japan. The tournament was intended by Sega to promote the play and sales of video games in the country. There were local tournaments held in 300 locations across Japan, and then sixteen finalists from across the country competed in the final elimination rounds at Tokyo 's Hotel Pacific. Prizes awarded included television sets ( color and black-and-white ), cassette tape recorders and transistor radios . According to Sega,
22594-544: Was held in February 2019. In October 2019, it was revealed that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would be the headlining game for Evo Japan 2020 . Following EVO 2022, the Evo Japan 2023 tournament was unveiled. This will have a lineup of Guilty Gear Strive , Street Fighter V , Tekken 7 , The King of Fighters XV , Granblue Fantasy: Versus , Melty Blood: Type Lumina , and Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown . The event
22752-585: Was held in San Diego's Mission Bay in 1974. Since then, Southern California, and San Diego in particular, have become a mecca for triathlon and multi-sport racing, products, and culture. Southern California has multiple sports franchises and networks, such as Fox Sports Net . Many of these locals and tourists frequent the Southern California coast for its beaches. Some of Southern California's most popular beaches are Malibu , Laguna Beach , La Jolla , Manhattan Beach , and Hermosa Beach . Southern California
22910-551: Was held in which the winner received a one-of-a-kind Skullgirls-themed arcade stick. Media outlets G4, GameSpot and Destructoid were all present to cover the event. Evo 2012 took place July 6 to 8, 2012, at Caesars Palace , Las Vegas. On January 3, Joey Cuellar announced that Evo 2012 would have 6 main tournament games, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (Version 2012) , Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , Mortal Kombat , Soulcalibur V , The King of Fighters XIII and Street Fighter X Tekken . The tournament series from
23068-611: Was held, acting as the unofficial ninth lineup title. The event also underwent a format change, with finals switching from Top 8 to Top 6, seemingly due to runtime concerns. With 9,182 entrants, Evo 2023 was the largest Evo tournament in its over two decade history. EVO 2024 took place from July 19 to 21 and was held in the Las Vegas Convention Center . The lineup included Street Fighter 6 , Tekken 8 , Mortal Kombat 1 , Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising , Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] , Guilty Gear -Strive- , and The King of Fighters XV , with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike being
23226-462: Was heralded by Taito 's Space Invaders in 1978, which popularized the use of a persistent high score for all players. Several video games in the next several years followed suit, adding other means of tracking high scores such with high score tables that included the players' initials in games like Asteroids in 1979. High score-chasing became a popular activity and a means of competition. The Space Invaders Championship held by Atari in 1980
23384-536: Was high in the Bakersfield-Kern County , Santa Maria , and San Luis Obispo areas. Most of Southern California has a Mediterranean -like climate, with warm and dry summers, mild and wet winters, where cool weather and freezing temperatures are rare. Southern California contains other types of climates, including semi-arid , desert and mountain , with infrequent rain and many sunny days. Summers are hot or warm, and dry, while winters are mild, and rainfall
23542-439: Was included after a poll on Shoryuken.com to decide on the final game of the tournament, beating out Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , Capcom vs. SNK 2 , Marvel vs. Capcom 2 , Soulcalibur IV , and The King of Fighters XII . BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was to be included, but after a majority of the community moved on to BlazBlue: Continuum Shift , the decision was made to replace it with Marvel vs. Capcom 2 . Also notable
23700-584: Was planned to take place in March 2023. In August 2023, it was announced that the Evo Japan 2024 tournament will be held in April 2024. The year's lineup included Street Fighter 6 , Tekken 8 , Guilty Gear Strive , Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising , The King of Fighters XV , and Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] , with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike as the Throwback Tournament. August 2023 also saw an announcement that Evo will be introducing
23858-498: Was popular among competitive arcade players. The 1988 game Netrek was an Internet game for up to 16 players, written almost entirely in cross-platform open-source software . Netrek was the third Internet game , the first Internet game to use metaservers to locate open game servers, and the first to have persistent user information . In 1993 it was credited by Wired Magazine as "the first online sports game". The fighting game Street Fighter II (1991) popularized
24016-434: Was removed from a list of sport disciplines because it did not fit the new sport standards. On 7 July 2016, The Ministry of Sport decided to add cybersport into the sport registry and on 13 April 2017, esports become an official sport discipline once again. China was another one of the first countries to recognize esports as a real sport in 2003, despite concerns at the time that video games were addictive. Through this,
24174-635: Was supposed to run on the PlayStation 4 version for Ultra Street Fighter IV , the tournament instead used the Xbox 360 version, due to a large number of bugs and glitches found by players in the newly released port. Cuellar also confirmed that EVO 2015 would use the technically outdated build of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax on PlayStation 3 . On May 25, Cuellar confirmed that both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U surpassed 1,500 entrants each. Cuellar later confirmed that Ultra Street Fighter IV surpassed 2,000 entrants. EVO 2015 also acted as
24332-507: Was the earliest large scale video game competition, attracting more than 10,000 participants across the United States, establishing competitive gaming as a mainstream hobby. It was won by Rebecca Heineman . Walter Day , owner of an arcade in Iowa, had taken it upon himself to travel across the United States to record the high scores on various games in 1980, and on his return, founded Twin Galaxies ,
24490-668: Was the first notable multi-sport competition including esports as an official medal-winning event, alongside other traditional sports, and the later editions of the Asian Indoor Games , as well as its successor the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games , have always included esports as an official medal event or an exhibition event up to now. Moreover, the Asian Games , which is the Asian top-level multi-sport competition, also included esports as
24648-639: Was the name of a proposed new state which failed to get on the 2018 California ballot. The ballot measure proposed splitting the existing state into three parts. In December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic , the state government led by Governor Gavin Newsom divided the state into five regions for the purpose of issuing stay-at-home orders. The Southern California region consisted of the following counties: Imperial , Inyo , Los Angeles , Mono , Orange , Riverside , San Bernardino , San Diego , San Luis Obispo , Santa Barbara , and Ventura . However, Kern County
24806-756: Was to include a portion of the much larger Tulare County and all of San Luis Obispo County . The proposal was sent to Washington, D.C. , with a strong advocate in Senator Milton Latham . However, the secession crisis following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the subsequent American Civil War led to the proposal never coming to a vote. In 1900, the Los Angeles Times defined Southern California as including "the seven counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, and Santa Barbara." This definition left out San Luis Obispo and Kern counties. Southern California
24964-481: Was voted on by players via online donations, all proceeds of which went to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation . 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. Nintendo of America initially sent a cease and desist letter to cancel the streaming of Melee matches, although after popular backlash
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