During the transition to games on the seventh generation consoles, most games were played on a PlayStation 3, though Evo 2014 ran most games on the Xbox 360. Originally the tournament used arcade cabinets, but in 2004 the decision was made to move all games over to their console versions, to no small amount of controversy. Over time, the tournament grew, recording over one thousand participants in 2009. The event changed its name to Evolution Championship Series, or EVO for short, in 2002. The event eventually moved to its recurring venue in the Las Vegas Valley.
The tournament started as "Battle by the Bay", a 40-man Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament in 1996 in Sunnyvale, California. Įvo was founded by Tom Cannon, also known for his work on, a fighting game website. As of 2021, the event is jointly owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment and the Endeavor esports venture RTS. It has been held at various venues across the Las Vegas Valley since 2005. Every successive tournament has seen an increase of attendees. 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. As with Super Battle Opera, contestants travel from all over the world to participate, most notably from Japan. The tournaments are completely open and use the double elimination format. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 arrives on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 11 in the US, September 13 in Australia and Japan, and September 14 in Europe.The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. Hidden characters on a game's disc raises poor associations ofr fighting fans unhappy with Capcom's DLC practices, but Harada has promised Tekken Tag Tournament 2 won't receive premium downloadable characters.
The Tekken series has something of a history of including special characters unlockable by completing particular actions or objectives, and creator Katsuhiro Harada has hinted heavily that Namco Bandai hasn't been entirely forthcoming about the brawler's entire roster. The additional characters are Miharu Hirano, (Ling Xiaoyu’s best friend and Tekken 4 palette swap) Doctor Boskonovitch (playable in Tekken 3 and creator of Alisa, Alex and more) Slim Bob (a trimmed-down version of Bob seen in a Tekken 6 ending) Sebastian (Lili's butler) Violet (Lee Chaolan's alter ego from Tekken 4) and Unknown, who appeared in the first Tekken Tag Tournament and as a boss in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 at arcades.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 may have an even larger roster than advertised, with early players claiming to have found on-disc data for six hidden characters.Īlthough there's no confirmation at this point, Shoryuken has word that players with advance copies have found six unannounced characters referenced in the game's code.