Here we go people.  I hope you’re ready because this is going to be a wild ride.  One weekend.  6 tournaments.  50,000 matches.

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, Soul Calibur IV, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and a special BlazBlue exhibition.

EVO 2009 World Finals will feature:

• Special appearance by Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono
• The world’s largest live Street Fighter IV competition
• Tekken 6 playable on console
• 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 http://www.evo2k.com/live , http://www.shoryuken.com and http://www.capcom-unity.com

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