I've spent a good chunk of my weekend so far watching The Evolution Championship Series. They hosted a number of tournaments this weekend in Las Vegas including a ~1,700 person Super Street Fighter IV tournament with players coming in from most of the 50 states and ~37 countries.

Matches between the top 8 players will be streamed tonight here around midnight, but probably a bit later since I think they're running 30 minutes behind. The matches to decide top 8 were aired last night and had some huge upsets (videos below). So far both the 2nd and 3rd place finishers last year are already out of the tournament having lost twice.

Of the players that are left, I'm hopeful for Mike Ross (who plays E. Honda), but won't be surprised to see Daigo take the whole thing (he's world renown, placed 1st last year, and has a damn Wikipedia page FFS). The videos below are were the two matches that eliminated Justin Wong from the tournament. I was really hoping to see Justin Wong vs Daigo Umehara again this year, but I'm sure the finals will be electric anyway.