Tournament:EVO 2016

Evolution 2016, or simply EVO 2016, was the 15th edition of the Evolution Championship Series, a fighting game tournament held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. It took place in July on Friday the 15th to Sunday the 17th at the Las Vegas Convention Center, then at the Mandalay Bay Events Center to host finals.

It was announced on January 26th, 2016 by EVO's tournament director, Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar, that both Super Smash Bros. Melee and would be featured as official games on the EVO 2016 game lineup.

EVO 2016 is the largest ever tournament for both Melee and Smash 4, with over 2,000 entrants in both games, surpassing the records set by its predecessor.

Melee
and were registered to enter Melee, but the former dropped out due to health problems, while the latter was forced to drop out due to his persistent visa issues. Despite the absence of two of the 2015 SSBMRank Top 6, however, the competition still proved to be fierce. , after losing to in winners' semis, defeated  in losers' quarters,  in losers' semis, Plup again in losers' finals, and  in two extremely close 3-2 sets in grand finals to win his first EVO championship. While down a full stock in game 5 of set one, on the brink of elimination, Hungrybox landed a successful edgeguard on Armada, followed by a zero-to-death Rest combo to reset the bracket. The set (along with Hungrybox's popoff following his victory) has become one of the most well-known moments in competitive Melee history, and helped cement his "Clutchbox" reputation for pulling off immense comebacks in bracket.

Plup also performed exceptionally well at the tournament, defeating Mango in winners' quarters and Hungrybox in winners' semis before finally falling to Armada in winners' finals and Hungrybox in losers' finals, placing 3rd. S2J had an impressive losers' bracket run, defeating, , , and , placing 5th with a character often considered below the threshold for a top-tier character.

Smash 4
Many top players from Japan flew out to compete in Smash 4, most notably, who's made his first major appearance in North America. won his first EVO after defeating in winners' quarters,  in winners' semis and Kamemushi twice, 3-0 in winners' finals and 3-1 in grand finals. Kamemushi, who claimed he would win EVO at Umebura 23 two months prior, defeated, and  on his path to winners finals. After losing to Ally, he notably put an end to EVO 2015 champion 's long losers bracket run with a 3-0 victory and finished the tournament with a strong 2nd place. This was 's highest placing at a Smash 4 major, and changed many players' opinions on 's presence in the metagame and the potential of Japan's top talent in general (Abadango and were also present in top 8). After taking an early loss to in round 2 pools and narrowly defeating  in a last-hit situation, ZeRo made it all the way to losers finals, taking down, , , Earth, , Abadango and VoiD on the way, but his road to the back-to-back championship was cut short after facing off against Kamemushi in a very anticipated set.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

 * Items are set to off and none. Pause disabled
 * 4 stocks and 8 minute time limit.
 * 2/3 games; 3/5 for Winner's, Loser's, and Grand Finals
 * Wobbling is allowed. The freeze glitch and infinite stalling are banned however.
 * First stage is decided by banning from the Starter Stages in P1-P2-P2-P1 order.
 * Winning player is not locked into the same character for the next match, but has to pick before loser selects character.
 * In a Best of 3 match, a player can ban 1 stage upon winning a game. In a Best of 5 match however, there are no stage bans.
 * Maximum allowed time between games is 60 seconds. Any player violating this rule will be issued a loss.
 * Dave's Stupid Rule: A player cannot counterpick the last stage they won on unless mutually agreed to by both players.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

 * Items are set to off and none. Pause and handicap are disabled. Launch rate is 1.0.
 * 2 stocks and 6 minute time limit.
 * 2/3 games; 3/5 for Winner's, Loser's, and Grand Finals
 * Customs and Equipment are turned off.
 * Mii Fighters are legal (1-1-1-1 Default Miis only). Amiibo however are banned.
 * All Ω form of stages are banned.
 * First stage is decided by (Rock-Paper-Scissors) best of 1. Winner strikes, then loser strikes twice, then winner. (P1-P2-P2-P1)
 * Following stages decided by winner banning one stage from all stages and then loser choosing.
 * Winning player is not locked into the same character for the next match, but has to pick before loser selects character.
 * Maximum allowed time between games is 60 seconds. Any player violating this rule will be issued a loss.
 * Dave's Stupid Rule: A player cannot counterpick the last stage they won on unless mutually agreed to by both players.
 * You may not play on a stage that is not on the available stages list. This will result in a double disqualification.
 * Sudden Death with a tied percentage/stock count will NOT determine the outcome of a tied game. A playoff match with 1 stock/2 minutes will determine the winner.
 * There will be no loading anything on to the tournament consoles.

Super Smash Bros. Melee singles
(2,372 entrants) Top 32 Bracket

singles
(2,662 entrants) Top 32 Bracket

Super Smash Bros. Melee doubles
(96 teams) Top 8 Bracket

Project M singles
The Project M side event was the seventh stop on the Project M Championship Circuit. (142 entrants) Top 24 bracket

Trivia

 * , who won the first Melee tournament at EVO World 2007, was invited as a guest during the EVO 2016 lineup announcement to comment on Melee's history at EVO.
 * This is the first EVO ever where a Canadian (namely, ) has won in any of the games played at EVO.
 * This is the first EVO with Melee as part of the game lineup where an player did not make Top 8. ( made Top 8 at EVO World 2007 and EVO 2015,  made Top 8 at EVO 2013, and  made Top 8 at EVO 2014.)
 * Similarly, this is the first EVO with Melee as part of the game lineup where a player has gotten in Top 8.