Evo Unveils New Details for Awards Show and 2025 Events With Continued Focus on Celebrating the Fighting Game Community

LOS ANGELES (January 14, 2025) – Evolution Championship Series (known as Evo), revealed today additional details for its inaugural Evo Awards powered by Qiddiya and plans for its flagship event in Las Vegas, seeking to become the largest tournament in esports history once again. Evo is dedicated to attracting generations of players and thousands of spectators, while connecting them as a community and culture through its global events.

The 2025 Evo event calendar kicks off on February 15 in Los Angeles with the inaugural Evo Awards to celebrate the icons of the fighting game community and the future trailblazers. Voting is now open across 21 categories at evo.gg for fans to celebrate their favorite moments and players. Hosted by international talent Majin Obama with featured special guests including Maximilian Dood, the invite-only event will be streamed live on Evo’s Twitch Channel, along with never-before-seen announcements from some of Evo’s publishing partners. As part of the pre-show, FGC legends Justin Wong, Michael “IFC Yipes” Mendoza, Sanford Kelly, and Duc Do will take center stage for a Marvel vs Capcom 2 “Tournament of Champions” destined to become an Evo classic moment.

The Las Vegas Convention Center will host Evo’s biggest event of the year on August 1-3 and welcomes back Chipotle® as presenting partner for the third year in a row. Registration to compete is now open at evo.gg in the featured Arena tournaments, including:

Evo is also launching an extended tournament lineup featuring Aether Studios’ Rivals of Aether II, SNK’s The King of Fighters XV, Arc System Works’ Blazblue Centralfiction and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2, and more. Evo will share more details during the Evo Awards.

Spectator tickets for the three-day fighting game tournament and culture festival are also on sale Feb 15 at evo.gg, including a refreshed ticketing experience for fans to purchase designated tickets for the Arena tournaments in the largest capacity for an Evo Arena to date.

Evo isn’t all about the competition, as fans can explore more than 600,000 sq ft on the Show Floor connecting them as a community and culture. Evo welcomes back an even larger arcade with massive dedicated freeplay console areas. The Evo Art Museum returns and will host featured guest artist JB Style and more to be announced. Classic FGC art will be available in the museum gift shop along with meet and greet opportunities during the event. VampyBitMe will host the Cosplay Contest as part of the Evo Art Museum programming.

The Evo Showcase is back with special events, industry panels, reveals and more, along with publisher booths, game-inspired photo opps, the Artist Alley showcasing fighting game focused artists, and the Qiddiya Legends Lounge which was a fan favorite in 2024.

“Evo continues to iterate and expand on what it means to be the world’s largest fighting game festival,” said Rick Thiher, General Manager of Evo. “This year we’re excited to be seeing new games on-site and are thrilled by the extended tournament lineup, expanded arcade, new featured artists, and community programming that is bringing fighting game culture to every corner of the show.”

Evo returns to Japan on May 9-11 at Tokyo Big Sight and will also feature two five-on-five tournaments with STREET FIGHTER III 3rd STRIKE -Fight for the Future- and Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Evo will make its European debut at the Palais des Expos in Nice, France, on October 10-12 and also announced it will expand to Singapore in 2026. The list of Evo Award Categories are below.