Evo is known for having some of the best crowds.

It's been a busy past couple of weekends for hardcore gamers, with a string of high-profile tournaments at home and abroad.

Local console and PC fans have been well accommodated, with the Australian Cyber League national finals in Melbourne's Mooney Valley Racecourse, the Computer Games Boot Camp 2012, the Gigabyte Slam events at Monash University and the AVT Auckland LAN over in New Zealand.

But the biggest event of recent note was this year's Evolution Championship Series, held at the Caesars Paradise casino resort in Las Vegas.

Evo, as it's more commonly known, is one of those tournaments that makes everybody stop. The atmosphere, quality and sheer size is something that attracts fans of all persuasions, something that is probably best summed up in this short video covering last year's championships.

Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (ver. 2012), Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Soul Calibur V, King of Fighters XIII, Mortal Kombat (the most recent version) and Street Fighter x Tekken were the main games for this year's event, while a special Tournament of Legends invitational tournament with some of the best players also took place.

The most impressive part of Evo is just how truly international it is: in the quarter-finals of the SS4AE tournament, all of the following countries were represented: the United States, Japan, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, Chile, France, Mexico, Britain, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and even the Dominican Republic.

On top of the games listed above, organisers also held a series of side tournaments for Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Skullgirls, Persona 4 Arena, BlazBlue Continuum Shift: Extend, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus and even the unusual visual novel/fighting game hybrid, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code.

For many of the 5000 or so players and spectators that enjoyed the spectacle in person, Evo began much earlier than last weekend, with the Road to Evo tournaments starting as early as January.

Australia held its own Road to Evo stop, with players earning seeding points through the OzHadou Nationals X in February. The Street Fighter side of the equation was won by Xian, while Arnold Desu took out the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 tournament.

If you've never had a chance to enjoy the insanity and the pure passion that can be a full crowd at the finals of an Evo tournament, then enjoy the finals for every single main discipline below, and learn why Evo is hailed as one of the premier tournaments for professional gaming around the world.

Alex Walker is the regular gaming columnist for ABC Tech + Games. You can follow him on Twitter at @thedippaeffect.