The Street Fighter V finals at Evo 2016 will be broadcast live on ESPN2

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Shoryuken.com announced today that the finals of the Street Fighter V World Championships at Evo 2016 will be carried live on ESPN2.

“The Street Fighter V World Championship will be one of the must-see competitions from the Evo finals,” said John Lasker, ESPN Digital Media's VP of programming and acquisitions. “We are always exploring ways to serve the growing and passionate audience of competitive gaming, and we look forward to delivering this exciting event to fans.”

More than 5000 people are signed up to take part in the SF5 tournament, a record-setting mark for a single game at Evo. “Evo is ecstatic to be able to have a wider audience share in the energy and excitement of our Street Fighter world finals," Evo CEO Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar added.

It's a big change from the days, less than two years ago, when ESPN honcho John Skipper dismissed esports as “not a sport,” despite the network's success with its groundbreaking broadcast of The International 2014. Now, of course, ESPN is all-in on esports, and I have no doubt that we'll see televised coverage of major events become much more common in the future.

ESPN2's live coverage of the Street Fighter V World Championship at Evo 2016 will begin at 7 pm PT/10 pm ET on July 17. All of Sunday's finals, including the SF5 event, will also be broadcast on Twitch. And in case you missed it, the SF5 1.04 patch, including the Cinematic Story mode, two new characters, stages, costumes, matchmaking improvements, and the in-game currency shop, is now yours for the taking.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.