SpawnPoint - Where Game Begins

EVO 2011

Evolution Championship Series (EVO) is the world’s largest fighting game competition hosted annually, and a must-attend for fighting fans and competitors across the globe. Competitors from the far corners of the Earth assemble to show off their talents in their respective game, and try to prove themselves as the best player in the world.

The two main games of interest this year are Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The event just kicked off at the Rio Hotel and Casino, and this is certainly the most hype year for the fighting community. With the revitalization of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Marvel vs. Capcom, fighting games have exploded back onto the scene.

Personally, I will be glued to the streams watching how the competition in Street Fighter 4 pans out.

This year, as expected, Mad Catz was announced as the Official FightStick Sponsor of EVO 2011.

Along with this, Mad Catz also has a sponsored stable of fighting game professionals participating in the tournament, representing their brand. They are rightfully dubbed “Team Mad Catz.”

“We are very excited about having all of Team Mad Catz fighting game players competing in one tournament.” said Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz Interactive, Inc.  “Our Tournament FightStick is just one example of our commitment to continually develop new and innovative products for passionate consumers.”

Team Mad Catz includes legendary gamer Daigo ‘The Beast’ Umehara, new teammates Mago ‘The 2D God’, Hajime ‘Tokido’ Taniguchi, Ryan ‘Prodigal Son’ Hart, ‘Marie-Laure ‘Kayane’ Norind, and Team Dominion Method Gaming, all using their weapon of choice, the Mad Catz Tournament Edition FightStick.

Daigo and Mago are probably the two best fighting game players on the planet, both coming from Japan, where the fighting game scene is huge. I’m a big fan of Daigo and have been following him throughout his domination of the Street Fighter Series for over a decade now. I’d say he’s the tournament favorite as usual.

It’s amazing that Mad Catz was able to sign and sponsor all of these great players. There are other prominent sponsorship teams surfacing like Evil Geniuses, who were able to sign probably the best American player in Justin Wong, but it’s pretty hard to compete with the dynasty that Mad Katz is forming.

You can watch the live EVO stream over at http://www.g4tv.com/evo2011/

Good luck to all the players!