One weekend.  6 tournaments.  50,000 matches!

Old rivalries will flare, dreams will be crushed, and champions will emerge.  It’s my favorite weekend of the year:  EVO !

I’ll see tons of old friends, make some new enemies, and be there to scream my way through the whole show.  Ono-san will be there!  Daigo will be assassinating fools!  Justin Wong, John Choi, Alex Valle!  The best players in the world!

While I’m busy threatening people with disqualification, Kramer , Randy , Gerald , and a few other lucky Capcom staff will be down there to show off Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Fate codes/unlimited, and the first publicly playable Marvel Vs Capcom 2 on X360 and PSN. 

It’s free for anybody to come and watch, to by all means GO if you can, but if you can’t make it, this year will have a HQ live stream of great matches running ALL WEEKEND, plus commentary to help you make sense of all the action.  The stream will be available RIGHT HERE on Capcom Unity, so stay tuned.

Capcom-flavored version of the press release after the jump, and full info at EVO2K.com !  Countdown clock and bracket assignments for competitors at EVO live broadcast site !  EVOOooo!

On July 17th, the world’s largest and longest-running fighting game competition returns to Sin City at the Rio Resort and Casino. The heart, history, and unbelievable skills of the fighting game community will be on display as the planet’s top fighting gamers assemble from around the globe to duke it out on today’s hottest games, including Street Fighter IV, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

EVO 2009 World Finals will feature:

–Special appearance by Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono
–The world’s largest live Street Fighter IV competition
–Watch all the action streaming live, for free, featuring top players and expert commentary
–The best players from around the US and the world, including Japan’s legendary champion Daigo Umehara
–The newest build of Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
–First publicly playable Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for X360 and PSN
–Complete coverage from IGN Insider, recording HQ, direct-feed tournament matches available for download following the event

and more!

Spectators can attend the event for free, and are welcome to play at one of the dozens of freeplay stations.  For those who can’t make it to Vegas, EVO 2009 will also be streaming live all weekend.  The live stream will run all day from July 17-19th, and feature non-stop tournament matches between top players, with live crowd audio accompanied by expert commentary to explain all the onscreen action.

The stream can be found at www.evo2k.com/live , www.shoryuken.com and www.capcom-unity.com

The 2009 EVO Championship Series is powered by Capcom, Namco-Bandai, and PlayStation 3