The largest fighting game tournament in the world, EVO 2014, is set to begin this weekend in Las Vegas Nevada.

Thousands of players from 46 different countries will converge on the Westgate  Las Vegas Resort and Casino to compete against each other across eight different titles, culminating in the Ultra Street Fighter 4 tournament, which will feature nearly two thousand entrants.

This years lineup of games for the main tournament will be:

• Ultra Street Fighter 4
• Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma
• Killer Instinct
• King of Fighters XIII
• Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2

There will also be an indie showcase event featuring up-and-coming games from a number of smaller studios.

Series founder Tom Cannon made note of EVO’s growing international influence, as well as the tournaments commitment to growing the fighting game community. “Evo’s primary mission is to provide a common meeting ground for fighters all over the world to come together not just to compete, but to make new friends and share a common love for these great games,” he said in a statement posted on shoryuken.com. So we’re incredibly happy and humbled that Evo’s international presence continues to grow year after year. The overwhelming majority of attendees fly out to Evo on their own dime, which is a testament to the power and passion of fighting game fans worldwide.”

The EVO series started its life as the Battle by the Bay tournament in 1996, before moving into its permanent home and evolving into what we now know as EVO in 2002.

EVO 2013

One of EVO’s most memorable moments came in the 2004 Street Fighter III Third Strike tournament in a match between Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara in which Daigo was able to come from behind for a win by parrying an entire Chun-Li super combo performed by Wong. (For those unfamiliar, a parry in SF3 TS requires precise timing. The ability to parry a super combo, which is multiple hits in rapid succession was un heard of)

EVO 2014 will once again be streaming live over Twitch starting Friday July 11 and running through Sunday July 13th, and you can catch all the action by clicking http://twitch.tv/srkevo1 and http://twitch.tv/srkevo2.

EVO 2014 full stream schedule