How to watch the world’s biggest fighting game tournament this weekend

Evo 2016 has record-breaking entry numbers. Will the audience follow?

 Aurich Lawson

Enlarge / This handy graphic breaks down the times and games of Evo and tells you which Twitch channel is covering what.

Fighting game competitors and fans from around the globe are gathering this weekend in Las Vegas for the Evolution Championship Series (more commonly known as Evo), the world's largest fighting game event. We detailed exactly what attending Evo is like back in 2013. This year, the tournament features the following nine games, with the number of player entries noted after each game:
Street Fighter V (5107)
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (782)
Mortal Kombat X (713)
Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator (910)
Pokkén Tournament (1180)
Killer Instinct (546)
Super Smash Bros. Melee (2372)
Super Smash Bros. for WiiU (2662)
Tekken 7: Fated Retribution (549)
There's something for everyone, from the more casual and accessible games like Smash Bros. and Pokkén Tournament, to the more hardcore stylings of anime fighter Guilty Gear Xrd and arcade-only Tekken 7: Fated Retribution, but Street Fighter V is the big story, with registration more than doubling last year's entries for Street Fighter IV.
That's good news for Capcom, but it's also potentially good news for fans of fighting games in general, because the record-breaking entries have attracted the attention of ESPN, which will be broadcasting the grand finals Sunday evening on ESPN2. This will be the first time a game like Street Fighter has received such mainstream coverage.
Fighting games are a bit of a niche genre. They don't attract the attention and numbers of games like DOTA2 or League of Legends, but they do have the advantage of being much more accessible to the casual viewer, something ESPN is apparently banking on. It's much easier to follow a one-on-one fight, where all the action takes place on a single screen, and the objective of beating your opponent's life bar down is readily apparent.

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Evo

If you have access to ESPN2, the action takes place on Sunday, July 17 at 7pm Pacific Time. Try this link to get your local time. If you don't have ESPN2, or you're interested in the other games or catching more than just the finals, then the place to be is Twitch (which will also simulcast the Street Fighter V Grand Finals along with ESPN2). See the graphic at the top of the post for all the various times and games and Twitch channels. (UK timings will be eight hours after those shown in the graphic.)
Can't wait until the weekend or curious to see what fighting game tournament coverage looks like? Red Bull (which sponsors several fighting game players) has a nice breakdown of some of Evo's best moments.
Will you be tuning in? Let us know in the comments!