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 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.
Joseph Manuel Marquez, known by his gamertag Mango, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player and streamer from Norwalk, California. Known for his aggressive, high-risk playstyle, he is widely considered one of the game's greatest players of all time, and is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman. Marquez began his career playing Jigglypuff, however he has primarily played Falco and Fox since 2011. He has been part of the Cloud9 esports team since 2014.
Jason Sheldon Zimmerman, known by his gamertag Mew2King, commonly shortened to M2K, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player from Cinnaminson, New Jersey. He has won more than 70 tournaments during his career, primarily in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Zimmerman is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and is also widely considered one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Brawl players of all time. He has also competed at a top-level in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Project M.
Apex is an annual esports tournament held in New Jersey that is focused on Super Smash Bros. The event's first incarnation was in 2009 with Jesus "Jman" Fernandez as the champion of Super Smash Bros. Melee and Elliot "Ally" Carroza-Oyarce as champion of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Each year the event grew with more competitors entering. Apex 2014 garnered 629 entrants and was the 2nd largest tournament for Melee at the time after EVO 2013. Though the tournament initially focused on Brawl, the feature game has since switched to Melee due to its popularity. In 2010, an event for Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 was added. In 2014, the fan modification of Brawl, Project M was added for singles only. Project M has recently been removed as an official event out copyright concerns under Nintendo of America sponsorship and Third Party relations.
Adam Lindgren, known by his handle Armada, is a Swedish professional Super Smash Bros. player from Gothenburg. He is widely considered one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time and the greatest Melee Peach player of all time. Lindgren has won several major tournaments: he is a three-time champion of GENESIS, two-time champion of EVO, two-time champion of Apex and one-time champion of The Big House. Considered one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez, Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, Lindgren was ranked one of the top two Melee players in the world every year from the beginning of formal rankings in 2013 until his retirement from singles tournaments in 2018, with Lindgren ranked as the number one Melee player in the world in 2015 and 2016. A 2021 list by PGstats ranked Lindgren as the second-greatest Melee player of all time. Lindgren retired from professional Melee singles tournaments in September 2018, citing declining interest in the game, although he still occasionally enters doubles tournaments teaming with his brother Andreas "Android" Lindgren. He also runs a YouTube channel with over 125,000 subscribers.
Kevin Nanney, also known by his gamer tag of PPMD and formerly known as Dr. PeePee, is an inactive American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. Nanney is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, and Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma. He is a two-time champion of the Apex tournament series and was ranked as one of the top six players in the world from 2010 to 2015, after which he was removed from rankings due to inactivity. Nanney uses Falco and Marth and is known for his intelligent and patient playstyle. A 2021 list compiled by Melee Stats, which was hosted on PGstats, ranked Nanney as the seventh-greatest Melee player of all time.
William Peter Hjelte, better known by his gamer tag Leffen, is a Swedish professional fighting game player and streamer. Although mostly known as a Super Smash Bros. Melee player, he has also competed in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In Melee, Hjelte plays the character Fox, and is considered one of the best players in the world, having been ranked as one of the top seven Melee players in the world every year since 2014. A 2021 list compiled by PGStats ranked Hjelte as the sixth greatest Melee player of all time.
Professional Super Smash Bros. competition involves professional gamers competing in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games published by Nintendo. Organized tournament competition began in 2002 with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released for the GameCube in 2001; however, in the series' native Japan, there have been tournaments as early as 1999 with the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. Later tournaments have featured the other games in the series, with the two largest and most popular Smash Bros. scenes revolving around Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. Smaller scenes exist for the original game and Project M, a popular fan modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, and to a lesser extent, Brawl itself. Major Smash Bros. tournaments include the GENESIS, Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Super Smash Con and The Big House annual series. Major League Gaming (MLG) has also previously included Smash Bros. games in its Pro Circuit.
Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional League of Legends team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 and was incorporated into Cloud9 Esports, Inc. on September 6, 2016. Cloud9 has received US$78 million in total raised equity via venture capital funding and was ranked the world's fifth-most valuable esports organization in mid-2022.
Immortals is a professional esports organization based in the United States owned by Immortals Gaming Club. It was founded on October 7, 2015, after the acquisition of Team 8's LCS spot.
Echo Fox was an American esports organization. It was founded on December 18, 2015, by retired basketball player Rick Fox, who created Echo Fox after he purchased the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming. The organization had expanded into various games with teams competing in titles such as Gears of War, Call of Duty, CS:GO, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Injustice 2,Madden NFL 19, Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros., and Street Fighter V. Echo Fox had several fighting game players with championship titles and are a well known organization in the professional scene.
Genesis, stylized as GENESIS, is a series of annual Super Smash Bros. tournaments occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area of the US state of California. The first Genesis tournament took place in 2009 in Antioch at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds.
The 2016 Evolution Championship Series was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 15–17. Being hosted on the twentieth anniversary of the Evolution Championship Series, the event offered tournaments for various video games, including Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Pokkén Tournament. Participation reached record-breaking numbers, with over 5,000 people registering for the Street Fighter competition alone. 2016 was the first time the Evo Grand Finals were held in an arena and were broadcast by ESPN2 in addition to Twitch.
The 2015 Evolution Championship Series was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 17–19. The event featured a major tournament for nine fighting games, including the largest Super Smash Bros. tournament up to that point and a highly popular Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament. The Street Fighter IV tournament was won by Yusuke Momochi, defeating GamerBee in the Grand Finals.
A tier list is a concept originating in video game culture where playable characters or other in-game elements are subjectively ranked by their respective viability as part of a list. Characters listed high on a tier list of a specific game are considered to be powerful characters compared to lower-scoring characters, and are therefore more likely to be used in high-level competitive settings like tournaments.
The Golden Guardians (GG) were an American esports organization owned by the Golden State Warriors. The organization was one of four that joined the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) in 2018 after the league began franchising, the others being 100 Thieves, Clutch Gaming and OpTic Gaming. On December 18, 2019, the Golden Guardians announced their expansion into the professional scenes of Apex Legends, Teamfight Tactics and World of Warcraft.
Jeffrey Williamson, known professionally as Axe, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. As of 2023, he is ranked as the 17th best Melee player in the world and has finished in the top ten of formal rankings presented by Red Bull and esports team Panda Global every year between 2016 and 2022. Some of his notable tournament placements at major Melee tournaments include first place at Smash Summit 8, second place at GENESIS 6, and fifth place at EVO 2014.
Moist Esports is an esports organization founded in 2021 by Charles White Jr., also known as MoistCr1TiKaL, and is co-owned by several others, including Ludwig Ahgren. The organization currently has teams competing in Guilty Gear Strive, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Brawlhalla, Valorant, and Apex Legends. Their Rocket League division won Rocket League Championship Series 2021–22 Spring Split Major event in July 2022.
Kanga Esports is an Australian esports organisation based in Melbourne and Sydney. It currently has teams competing in League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Brawlhalla, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It previously had teams competing in Paladins, Rainbow Six Siege, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Tekken, Street Fighter, Fortnite, Overwatch, and Valorant.
Masaya Chikamoto, better known by his alias aMSa, is a Japanese professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. He is known for being the only top player to play Yoshi. In 2022, he was ranked the second best player in the world after winning major tournaments Apex and The Big House.
