Over 2, 400 competitors, 44 different countries, viewed by 1.9 million different people online, over 10,000 live in attendance, all equated to the biggest Evolution to this date. This year’s Evo had a different feel than the previous ones, with the anticipation that was building up and the sheer number of foreign attendees making the trip to Las Vegas for the weekend to compete.

My traveling partner this year was Taiwan’s GamerBee, with Australia’s HumanBomb joining us part of the way. Standing in line waiting to check in at the Rio All Suite Hotel, we were stopped numerous times with fans wishing GamerBee good luck, people requesting for photos and autographs. The family waiting in front of us in the check in line, turned out to have a son that was going to compete in Evo and he was really excited to meet GamerBee, in the end the whole family insisted on getting a picture with Bruce.

Coverage for Evolution was also at an unprecedented scale,  two official streams run by IPlayWinner and Offcast, Nagoya Street Battle providing a Japanese stream, eLivePro with a French broadcast, Gamespot recording panels and general coverage of Evolution, IGN recording gameplay, G4TV conducting interviews and footage of top 8, and Shoryuken providing live updates throughout the weekend.

Walking into the 60,000 square feet Rio Pavilion Convention Center before the tournament, it felt improbable that this entire space would be filled up to capacity, it was just two years ago in 2009 that Evolution was held at the same venue but with only half the space being rented out. In two years could the population and interest of the fighting game truly grow to twice the size it was before? If there was an lingering doubts after seeing the line for the Evo pre-party at Insert Coins wrap around the block, it was surely gone after the rush of gamers and individuals when the doors were open officially for the start of Evolution 2011.

Over the course of the weekend I took over 6,000 photos, from the pre-party, tournament play, panel discussions, booths, autograph signings and more. Evolution felt like it had become more than just a tournament and a gathering point for fighting gamers, if felt as if it was becoming a convention for fighting gamers, a change that I whole-heartedly welcome. No longer is Evolution just a tournament to play until you are eliminated and then not show up again until day 2 with semi-finals on the big screen or on Championship Sunday. Now, there are panels and side-tournaments with significant prizes, such as the Hori VLX that my friend, HumanBomb, won at a FocusFire side tournament.

My personal highlight of the weekend was getting to meet Kayo Satoh, a Japanese gaming idol who plays C. Viper, albeit for brief moments as I was constantly running around trying to capture as much of Evo that I could with my lenses. It was very exciting being able to meet someone else in the community who shared the same experience of being a transgendered individual and personally she has been a very inspiring figure since her public coming out on television.

Let me close this all off with some of my favorite photos from Evolution 2011 and a hope that Evolution 2012 builds upon this year and grows to be even larger and better!