Tournament:EVO 2013

Evolution 2013, or simply EVO 2013, was the 12th edition of the Evolution Championship Series, a fighting game tournament held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada, which took place on July 12th to 14th, 2013, at the Hotel & Casino. It was the largest Smash tournament of 2013 and broke the record for the largest Smash tournament at the time, with 709 entrants for Super Smash Bros. Melee. EVO 2013 also had twice the entrants as the previous largest Melee tournament,.

Originally, Melee was not to be a featured game at EVO. However, when looking for an 8th game to add to the roster, the EVO staff held a donation drive for breast cancer research, wherein the game community that donated the most money to the drive would have their game featured as an official game at EVO. Although there was stiff competition from the  community, a massive push from the Melee It On Me podcast staff resulted in the Smash community raising nearly $95,000 by the final day of the donation drive.

The tournament is now known as a landmark event and a major turning point in Melee history. It marked the beginning of an explosive rise in the game's popularity, and ushered in an era that featured significantly increased turnout and more new tournaments hosted than ever before. EVO marked the beginning of the Platinum Age, in which Melee transitioned from a largely grassroots scene to a more professional "eSport."

A particular event that sparked outrage among the entire gaming community was when Nintendo attempted to block streaming for Melee at EVO a few days before the tournament was set to begin. However, because of extreme community backlash, Nintendo retracted the ban hours later. It was later revealed that Nintendo had also attempted to shut down the Melee portion of the tournament altogether.

However, the tournament proceeded, and Melee joined such games as ' and ' on the main stage. For commentary on the main stage, was joined by famed  commentator James Chen.

Tournament summary
EVO 2013 was 's first supermajor victory since in 2010; after losing to  in winners' quarters, he went on an extended losers run, defeating, , , , and  to make it to losers' side of grand finals; he then defeated Wobbles in two sets of grands to win the tournament. Wobbles also went on an impressive run in 2nd place, defeating, Mang0, Dr. PeePee, and Hungrybox en route to grand finals. His performance at EVO has become one of the most well-known "Cinderella runs" in the game's history, having defeated three of the Five Gods using the Ice Climbers, considered below the standards of a top tier character. This was also the first supermajor since in 2007 where at least one of the players in grand finals was not a member of the Five Gods. Armada had initially announced his retirement from competing in early 2013, but decided to attend EVO regardless; he was defeated by Dr. PeePee and Mang0, finishing 4th, his lowest placing at a North American tournament since Pound 4.

The winners' finals set between Wobbles and Hungrybox became particularly infamous. Wobbles defeated Hungrybox 2-1, but after game 3, neither player knew that the set had ended, as both assumed that winners' finals was a best-of-five set. Livestream footage shows a EVO founder Tom Cannon walking up to inform both players that the set was over. Hungrybox later stated that the event had been advertised as having best-of-five sets for winners' and losers' finals, but the TOs changed the set count at the last minute.

Mang0's set-winning roll read vs. Hungrybox in losers' finals has become one of the most well-known moments in competitive Melee history.

General rules

 * Items were set to none.
 * 4 stocks
 * 8 minute time limit
 * Wobbling was allowed. The freeze glitch and infinite stalling were banned however.
 * Matches that time out would be determined by the remaining number of stocks, then percentage of the current stock if stocks are tied. In the event of a percentage tie, the match would be replayed in full. Sudden Death is not to be played, and will not count.
 * If a player accidentally paused while stealing a life in doubles, the opposing team could deem that stock forfeit. Pausing could be turned off to prevent this.
 * Stage Striking (in the order 1-2-1) was used to decide the stage on game 1.
 * In a Best of 3 match, a player could ban 1 stage upon winning a game. In a Best of 5 match however, there were no stage bans.
 * Before the next game, the winner of the previous game decided their stage ban and character. The loser would counterpick stages and characters accordingly.
 * A player could not counterpick the last stage they won on unless mutually agreed to by both players.

Super Smash Bros. Melee singles
(709 entrants) Bracket Grand Finals Note that MacD and Eval took Jtb and LK007's places, respectively.

Super Smash Bros. Melee doubles (side event)
(22 teams) Grand Finals

Trivia

 * , winner of the fifth season of , tied for 257th place for the Melee tournament.
 * Three matches that were played in Losers' were not accurately reflected in the bracket; in Quarter-Finals Pool I57, the bracket shows that defeated  and proceeded to lose to, while  defeated . In actuality, Fiction defeated Darkrain and proceeded to lose to Axe, while Lord lost to Shroomed. Due to how the brackets work, this seems to have been the players accidentally playing the wrong matches rather than any actual fault of the bracket (with the exception of the incorrect result between Fiction and Darkrain).