The Evo World Championship is the biggest live tournament event in the gaming world, and for players in the Mortal Kombat 11 Pro Kompetition it was a chance to score major points towards the series rankings! The favourites assembled in Las Vegas with a $15,000 prize purse on the line and the biggest bragging rights of them all!

Every summer eyes turn to the blistering desert of Las Vegas to watch as the world's greatest fighting game contenders converge for the Evo World Championship. It is the pinnacle of eSports competition and NetherRealm Studios' streak of participation has been confirmed with the 2019 tournament lineup announcement!

Another year, another battle for the Evo World Championship in the desert realm of Las Vegas, Nevada!

This time, the title fight was to be waged in March's update edition of Mortal Kombat XL - replete with a years worth of gameplay patches and new characters. One of those Kombat Pack additions, a guest fighter from the film series Alien, played its part in securing a third straight Mortal Kombat World Championship for prodigal son Dominique "Sonic Fox" McClean!

Mortal Kombat's most dominant tournament player confirmed his hattrick against the rising star of a brand new warrior fighting out of Bahrain: Sayed Hashim Ahmed aka;Tekken Master!

TM's mastery over Kotal Kahn and D'Vorah made for a tense two set final, where he reset the bracket with a scintillating 3-1 win coming out of the Loser's Bracket. In that match, his Swarm Queen and War God variations overwhelmed Sonic Fox's Hollywood Cassie Cage and Gunslinger Erron Black. With the pressure on, Sonic Fox utilized the strengths of Acidic Alien, whilst maintaining his iconic use of Erron Black to finish the job in a tense 3-2 title match!

The Tekken Master maintained representation for the world's best players, carrying the global torch alone after last year's three nation podium. 2015 British runner-up Denom "A f0xy Grampa" Jones could only manage equal 9th after a year of ESL promised big things from his rivalry with Sonic Fox. Canada's Hayatei and kept things frosty with their place among the Top 16. Earthrealm's warriors also came from: Brazil, Austria, Colombia, Australia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Poland, France, Bolivia and more!

With an odd numbered bracket challenging all players to qualify for Quarter Finals elimination, there were several byes late in the field. Mortal Kombat Online has stripped those vacancies out to highlight the Top 135 players who fought through double elimination conditions in 2016! There were many dozens of fresh names rising through the list and classic players falling into new positions.

Even as the dust settles once more in the Nevada desert, we reflect upon the players of Mortal Kombat X and its first year at the Evo World Championships. A return from exile for a series briefly ousted by its own developer-made rival.

2015 saw a massive influx of thousands of players - all eager to bare witness to the first contest for the new World title, and the immortality that comes with it! Tournament favourite Dominique "Sonic Fox" McLean may have emerged victorious, but he did so out of the second-chance "losers bracket" -- an example that success comes in many shapes and forms!

For the world's Mortal Kombat players, Evo 2015 will be remembered for setting a new standard! US dominance ended as the United Kingdom earned its first runner-up through Denom "A F0xy Grampa" Jones. Sharing in podium honors was Canada courtesy of a breakout performance by Tim "Honeybee" Commandeur. Also making their global presence known were also players representing: Dominican Republic, Germany, Russia. Japan, Chile & even more!

It was also the most watched Evo Championship, and a formative experience early in Mortal Kombat X's lifespan with only three months separating tournament from launch! Contemplating what may come in 2016, we feature the Top 128 competitors to finish at Evo 2015. Could the next rising star be among them? Who's next?

More than 188,000 viewers tuned in to watch Mortal Kombat X live at the Evo World Championships on Sunday.

This peak ranked MKX third among Evo broadcast finals, beating Marvel vs Capcom 3 by roughly 20,000 viewers, and trailing only Super Smash Bros. Melee and Evo darling Ultimate Street Fighter IV. Both top finals crossed the 200,000 viewer mark, with USFIV peaking at over 228k on the official stream. This year was pegged to be the celebratory swansong for SFIV as Capcom's primary fighter, with Street Fighter V coming in 2016. Guilty Gear Xrd trailed at around 121,000 viewers.

This year's performance clearly confirmed what many fans already knew: Mortal Kombat is at home on the competitive world stage!

In truth, Mortal Kombat had already established its credentials as a tournament brand over the course of three years on the Evo bill.

It began in 2011 -- rewriting the script on the competitive viability of the series with the release of Mortal Kombat. The franchise reboot combined iconic identity of the original three games with a rethink of their basic gameplay mechanics. The year that came next was arguably the biggest in the games' competitive lifecycle, helped by an Evo seeding series that incorporated top North American tournaments into a yearlong tour. The 2012 Evo Championship was the culmination of a 6 month narrative that gave rise to top players -- runner-up REO, CD Jr, Ketchup and Mustard -- whose status warranted a documentary featurette series released in 2013.

The establishment of these player identities was important in helping sites like Mortal Kombat Online convey the intrigue of the scene in an accessible manner -- a factor all too often overlooked by the insular culture.

Growth came naturally and the series sustained as all good fighters should -- making it all the more shocking when Mortal Kombat was omitted from the Evo Championship line-up in 2014 [full story].

The rise of another NetherRealm Studios fighter - Injustice: Gods Among Us - was perhaps over estimated as a replacement, while Mortal Kombat was simultaneously under estimated as a continued force. Mortal Kombat Online pitched in prizes to support an unofficial 2014 side tournament. The event attracted the tournament faithful and marked a coming out for dominant 2015 player & winner Sonic Fox. The side event went on to be the most watched MK2011 Evo final on YouTube with a flood of 260,000 views [reported by EventHubs]. At the time of this writing, the unofficial 2014 final has over 570,.000 views.

The series returned to its rightful place with the April release of Mortal Kombat X and the announcement of the 2015 Evo line-up. It was a no brainer. And while top players were pragmatic about MK's omission in 2014, the continued support of fans and the audience shows this is a series that demands attention, and deserves a place at the biggest event on the eSports calendar as much as perennial favourites.

As announced in January, finally Mortal Kombat has returned to Las Vegas for the Evo World Championships! After a years hiatus from the official July line-up, the most brutal US fighter has made its comeback - challenging the world's greatest kombatants in the multi-variation system of Mortal Kombat X! More than 1.000 players are registered to contest this year's World Championship - with unofficial 2014 winner Sonic Fox charging the tournament as the overwhelming favourite! Looming over him will be the official defending Mortal Kombat World Champion DJT - whose victory at the 2013 World Championship ended the streak of Evo powerhouse Perfect Legend!

Take in all the sights and sounds of the tournament on the main Evo stream [embedded below], including the Mortal Kombat X Championship Sunday, 11:00AM! Saturday Semi Finals feature at 8:00PM, with more Mortal Kombat X streaming on the 7th Evo Stream.

NetherRealm Studios' tournament streak continues with the announcement of the 2015 Evo World Championship line-up!

For a fifth straight year; the developer will be represented in the main championship field, debuting Mortal Kombat X a mere three months after its release to home consoles, on April 14th.

The annual announcement was made live by Evo founder Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar, Wednesday (January 21), via stream from the Twitch headquarters in San Franchisco. The stream [archive below] saw the return of Capcom standard bearers Street Fighter & Marvel vs Capcom, another year of US Xbox exclusive rival Killer Instinct, and the return of Tekken (arcade) after its shock omission from last year's announcement.

Full 2015 Evo Championship List:
• Ultra Street Fighter IV
• Mortal Kombat X
• Tekken 7 (Arcade)
• Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3
• Killer Instinct
• Guilty Gear Xrd
• Super Smash Bros. Wii U
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Persona 4: Ultimax

Mortal Kombat returns to Las Vegas later today in a side tournament already eclipsing some of the official Evo World Championship events!

The unofficial event is the product of the hard work by players turned organizers: Pig of the Hut & Claude Von Stroke! Together they've assembled some of the world's best Mortal Kombat (2011) players for a fourth year of double elimination kombat! With prizes from Mortal Kombat Online [full story], NetherRealm Studios, and a crowd sourced pot in excess of $2000.00 -- the players will have plenty of reasons to take the competition seriously!

2-time Evo World Champion PerfectLegend talked to us about his goals for 2014. Chief among them: his search for redemption against 2013 World Champion - DJT. We went to the defending champion, who confirmed his return, and responded to Perfect Legend's challenge.

I think it will be tight to play [PerfectLegend] again. He beat me Evo 2011, I beat him Evo 2013. It will be interesting. I feel confident that I will win. We run into each other like any top player would think. I think me and Perfect Legend would make a good Grand Final for MK.

A lot of our community doesn't play MK seriously anymore, but I will try and play my best. I still got to defend my title! I definitely want to get at least Top 8 so I can one of those MKX shirts. So GDLK!

I definitely have a good chance at winnin,g because all I need is the net and the dream!! Also: I can't wait till MKX, bro!

Thanks to a grassroots effort by Pig of the Hut (PigHut) & Claude Von Stroke -- Mortal Kombat (2011) is returning to the Evo World Championships for an unofficial fourth year of tournament action -- this Saturday! [full story]

Mortal Kombat Online is so excited by the event, we're proud to announce our involvement as a sponsor by providing Limited Edition Mortal Kombat Klassic Fight Sticks as prizes for both tournament Winner - and the Runner-Up!

These come with special thanks to Performance Designed Products (PDP) -- who provided the prizes in partnership with Mortal Kombat Online! PDP have been official Mortal Kombat fight stick makers since 2011 -- designing the original Tournament Edition Stick especially for the game!

It was with noted disappointment that we learned in February Mortal Kombat (2011) would miss out on a fourth consecutive year at the Evo World Championships. Fortunately, the June reveal of sequel Mortal Kombat X has provided a shot of adrenaline into the flagging scene: inspiring a grass roots campaign that will gather some of the world's top players for a special side tournament at the Las Vegas major!