For competitive fighting gamers, the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) is the mecca of the genre. The tournament has been around for a decade now, but it rose to the national spotlight last year when EVO 2011 became the most viewed event in the tournament’s history, with the livestream reaching over 2 million viewers on UStream. Just a few years ago, the FPS genre appeared to dominate the competitive gaming circuit, and RTS titles such as Starcraft continue to garner an enormous fanbase internationally. With the growing popularity of EVO however, pro gaming is in the first stages of a metamorphosis in which new genres and games are on the rise.
EVO 2012 concluded over the weekend, and after watching some of gaming’s most talented pros take the stage, you’ll begin to understand how the fighting genre is transforming the competitive circuit altogether. You’ll also see that these games take more than just fast reflexes and button mashing; there’s an inherent strategy involved that requires precision timing and patience. Provided by IGN, here is a compilation of the Finals for each of EVO 2012’s seven major tournaments. The gamers themselves appear in italics below:
Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012
Gamerbee (AVerMedia) – Adon vs. Infiltration (WW.MCZ) – Akuma
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Filipino Champ (coL.CC) – Magneto, Dormammu, Doctor Doom vs. Infrit (LXG) – Nova, Spencer, Sentinel
 SoulCalibur 5
Shining Decopon – Tira vs. Shen Chan – Cervantes
King of Fighters XIII (Video showing the last two games of the 2nd set in which Mad KOF has a 1-0 set lead and is up 2-0 in the second set)
Mad KOF (CafeID) – Duo Lon, Chin, Kim vs. BALA (IGL) – Billy, Takuma, Shen / Benimaru, Shen, Takuma
Mortal Kombat
Perfect Legend (KN.EMP) – Kung Lao vs. CDjr (vVv.NOS) – Rain, Kabal
Street Fighter X Tekken (2v2 Competition)
Ricky Ortiz (EG) and Balrog (PR) – Rufus, Ryu vs. Infiltration (WW.MCZ) and Laugh – Rolento, Ryu
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
Fuudo (RZR) – Shun vs. Shironuko – El Blaze
