The 2012 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2012 or EVO 2012) was a

fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...

event held at

Caesars Palace Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Caesar ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

on July 6–8. The event featured a major tournament for six fighting games, including '' Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition'' and ''

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a 2011 crossover fighting game developed by Capcom in collaboration with Eighting. It is an updated version of '' Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds''. The game features characters from both Capcom's video game franchises and comic book ...

'', as well as various smaller-scale competitions.

Background

Held in

Caesar's Palace Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Caesars ...

, Evo 2012 featured over 3,500 entrants among its six major tournaments. The tournaments held at Evo 2012 were

livestreamed Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non- live ...

through the

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

online video service. A "Road to Evo" tournament series started in January 2012, in which competitors could earn seeding points for the main event.

Games

Six major tournaments were held at Evo 2012. The games played were: *'' Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2012'' *''

'' * ''

Street Fighter X Tekken (pronounced "Street Fighter Cross Tekken") is a 2012 crossover fighting video game published by Capcom, who developed with Dimps, for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, and with QLOC for Windows. The game features characters fro ...

'' * ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...

'' * ''

The King of Fighters XIII is a 2010 fighting game developed and published by SNK Playmore. It is the thirteenth installment in the ''The King of Fighters'' series. Released on Japanese arcades, it was ported to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 globally in 2011, and an update ...

'' * ''

Soulcalibur V is a 2012 fighting game developed by Soulcalibur, Project Soul and published by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. As the sixth main installment in Namco's ''Soulcalibur (series), Soulcalibur'' series, ''Soulcalibur V'' serves ...

'' Evo 2012 was the first event in the Championship Series to include a major ''

King of Fighters ''The King of Fighters'' (''KOF'') is a series of fighting games by SNK that began with the release of ''The King of Fighters '94'' in 1994. The series was initially developed for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware and received yearly installme ...

'' tournament. The 2011 reboot of the ''Mortal Kombat'' series benefited from multiple balancing updates after its release, allowing the game to be popular among the

fighting game community Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...

where earlier games in the series weren't. The ''Mortal Kombat'' tournament featured the second-largest prize pool at Evo 2012, after ''Street Fighter IV''. Spin-off ''Street Fighter X Tekken'', meanwhile, was unpopular among the fighting game community at the time. The game featured various bugs and unbalanced aspects. The event also featured various smaller-scale competitions, such as an exclusive ''

Super Street Fighter II Turbo ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'', released in Japan as is a 1994 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for arcades. It is the fifth installment in the '' Street Fighter II'' sub-series of ''Street Fighter'' games, following '' ...

'' tournament, and side tournaments for '' Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown'' and ''

Skullgirls ''Skullgirls'' is a 2012 fighting game, fighting video game developed by Reverge Labs and published by Autumn Games, originally released digitally for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and ported to various other home and portable systems afterwards. ...

''.

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

showcased a playable demo for ''

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale ''PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale'' is a 2012 List of crossovers in video games, crossover fighting game developed by SuperBot Entertainment and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It features ...

'', while

NetherRealm Studios NetherRealm Studios is an American video game developer based in Chicago and owned by Warner Bros. Games. Led by video game industry veteran and ''Mortal Kombat'' co-creator Ed Boon, the studio is in charge of developing the ''Mortal Kombat'' ...

revealed gameplay footage of '' Injustice: Gods Among Us'' at Evo 2012.

Tournament summary

While the recent release of ''Street Fighter x Tekken'' caused players to juggle between more familiar aspects of the characters and the game's more unusual features, the ''King of Fighters XIII'' tournament was praised by commentators for its high-level play, unexpected for such a new game. Meanwhile, Brenna Hillier of ''

VG247 Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...

'' described the ''Mortal Kombat'' tournament at Evo 2012 as a "mixed bag", featuring plenty of unusual play styles. Though there was a lot of discussion regarding whether the character Phoenix in ''Marvel vs. Capcom'' is overpowered compared to other selectable characters in the game, competitor Filipino Champ won the tournament with the characters

Magneto A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

Dormammu Dormammu () is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #126 (November 1964). He is the extra and inter-dimensional demonic e ...

and

Doctor Doom Doctor Doom is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in '' The Fantastic Four'' #5 in April 1962, and has since endured as the arch ...

. The final match at Evo 2012 was the ''Street Fighter IV'' finals, in which Infiltration defeated

GamerBee Bruce Yu-lin Hsiang () is a Taiwanese esportist fighting games player who specializes in ''Street Fighter'' where he mains Adon and Elena in ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'', and Necalli in ''Street Fighter V''. GamerBee is currently sponsored by ...

to claim the title.

Results

References

{{Evo Evolution Championship Series 2012 in sports in Nevada 2012 in esports Sports events at Caesars Palace