admirable resilience, the Australians have squandered many of their own, in turn exposing the likes of Mitchell Marsh to situations beyond his present state of aptitude.Anyone looking for an e

The Evolution Championship Series (Evo) is the mountaintop of fighting game tournaments. As the biggest event on the Capcom Pro Tour, Evo represents the ultimate cherry on top for a players career if they emerge victorious. This year is the 20th anniversary of the tournament series and itll be the biggest turnout yet.With 5065 players registered for Street Fighter V, Evo is slated to be the largest fighting game tournament in history. The popularity of Street Fighter V at Evo has reached the levels of the World Series of Poker in participants. There will be approximately 53 countries represented for the marquee competition, with the United States boasting 4335 players, Canada following behind with 220 players, Japan with 160 players, Mexico with 64 players, and more.The final day of the tournament will be presented at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, a subtle nod to Evos roots when it was still called Battle by the Bay.JapanThe Land of the Rising Sun is a hotbed for Street Fighter talent and this year is no exception. If there were ever a region filled with superlatives like best player to use X character, it would be Japan. Players like Goichi Go1 Kishida, arguably the best Chun-Li and Necalli, YouDeal Majestic Athletics Tatsuya Haitani Haitani could make it very far in the brackets alongside the trinity of greatness: Twitch and Red Bulls Daigo The Beast Umehara, Hajime Tokido Taniguchi, and Team Razers Keita Fuudo Ai.Tokido is the worlds number two ranked player and the greatest threat to win Evo from his region. Hes the most consistent placer in the Capcom Pro Tour with five Top 3 placings at premier tournaments, including a victory at Community Effort Orlando. While his Ryu has plenty of game tape behind it for others to scrutinize, that wont slow down his momentum.Fuudo is the best Rainbow Mika in the world. His defensive and smothering style is perfect for large tournaments because he forces his opponent in a corner where they have no choice but to make mistakes. Hell come into Evo with little fanfare, but if his recent fourth place finish at G-League is any indication, hes ready for the big stage.Daigo Umehara is the peoples champion. It wasnt too long ago that he was considered a virtual lock for a Top 8 placement, but this is a different time and game. That said, hes still the face of Street Fighter V and the mans skills are second to none.North AmericaThe region with the majority of the tournaments participants may have a few contenders lying in wait. In the lead is Evil Geniuses Justin Wong. The marvelous one is the current leader in Capcom Pro Tour points (716) and may just boast the best Karin in the world. Hes the best bet to defend North American soil, but may still be considered a long shot to take it all down. This isnt a jab against Wong, whose pedigree is legendary, but an indication of just how difficult Evo will be. His running mates -- Kenneth KBrad Bradley, Eduardo PR Rog Perez, and Ricki Ortiz -- round up some of the best hopes for the country.After the boys in blue, theres honorable mentions for Panda Globals Ryan FilipinoChamp Ramirez, Team Liquids Du NuckleDu Dang (who has a good record against international talent), Team Naventics Peter Flash Susini, and Echo Fox Julio Fuentes. All are definite threats to snag a Top 8 spot.EuropeIn Street Fighter IV, the only player outside of Asia to take a championship was from Europe. Red Bulls Olivier Luffy Hay may not be the favorite from his region to win this year, but his Evo victory in 2014 proved that Europe may just be the dark horse in the race. Even without mentioning Luffy, Europe still boasts plenty of stars in BX3s Arman Phenom Hanjani, Benjamin ProblemX Simon, and Meltdowns Nathan Mister Crimson Massol.The latter three players already experienced Capcom Pro Tour success earlier in the year, with the big exclamation mark belonging to Phenom.Everyone elseThe favorite of the entire tournament still belongs to Team Razers Lee Infiltration Seon-woo from South Korea. Hes the worlds number one player with a play style that only one man could match and disassemble: Tokido. The Capcom Pro Tour is Infiltrations playground and Evo may very well be the next domino to drop.There are two other players remaining that deserve a nod: Qanba Douyus Zhuojun Xiao Hai Zeng and Team Razers Kun Xian Ho. Both represent the best shot for their respective regions, China and Singapore. For Xian, his mastery of unusual characters may benefit him the most in a large tournament setting because of the unfamiliarity and knowledge others might have in the matchup. For a talented player like Xiao Hai, the question was never if he could win a tournament, but when? Custom Tigers Jersey China . Westbrook has missed 27 games since having a procedure on Dec. 27 to deal with swelling in his injured right knee — the third operation on the knee in nine months. Tigers Jerseys China . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. http://www.customtigersjersey.com/ . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. Custom Tigers T-shirts . Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments. Custom Alan Trammell Jersey . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. Darren Lehmann is contracted to be Australias coach until after the 2019 World Cup and Ashes double. Steven Smith, at 27 years old, is to be Australias captain for as long as he wants the job. Australias squad of 12 for the Perth Test is to be retained, unchanged, regardless of the result at the WACA Ground.On the face of it, these factoids suggest stability at the top levels of Australian cricket. After the swings and roundabouts of the Michael Clarke era - both before and during his eventful captaincy - everyone connected with the game seemed eager for a period of consolidation with a new team. Around the time of his contract renewal in August, Lehmann refreshed his support staff in anticipation of the next four years.But the security around the national team and its leaders is growing increasingly at odds with the results being delivered. The ruthless exposure of Smiths side by a South African team shorn of AB de Villiers (before the tour) and Dale Steyn (midway through the first innings) has been the equivalent of the tide going out to expose who has been swimming naked. Pretty much every batsman, as it turns out.Perth now appears likely to be Australias fourth consecutive Test match loss. Such a result would also be the first time an Australian Test team has lost the first match of a home summer since 1988. It will be of little comfort to Smith and Lehmann to know that, having been battered at the Gabba by Viv Richards indomitable West Indians, Allan Borders men promptly lost Test matches two and three as well.Brisbane, of course, has always been seen as the Australian fortress, a venue where the team have remained unbeaten every year since the aforementioned defeat. If it does not attract the same scale of crowds that flock to the MCG on Boxing Day or the SCG in the New Year, the Gabbas importance to the home summer is epitomised by the way the Australian team associates it with swift and brutal victories.Before this match, Smith talked of strutting around like I own the place as the sort of attitude he likes to project. It has always been easier for Australian cricketers to do that at the Gabba in the first Test of summer. Certainly it would have been easier for the hosts to do that in Brisbane against South Africa rather than in Perth, which just so happens to be a venue where these visitors have never lost.South Africa had plenty of history behind them entering this series. Victories in each of their past two series in Australia brought plenty of happy memories, as did the fact that Perth was the venue of the series-sealeer in 2012, a melancholy final Test match for Ricky Ponting.dddddddddddd They had been afforded, too, a lengthy and suitable preparation, mixing bouts with both the red ball in use in Perth and the latest iteration of the pink one to be unveiled for the third Test in Adelaide at the end of November.Australias players, meanwhile, have been shunted around. Not only from Brisbane to Perth, but between formats as well. It is near enough to unheard of for only one round of Sheffield Shield cricket to have been played before the first Test team is selected, and that too with a pink ball rather than a red one. At the start of the week, Josh Hazlewood was asked whether all this was going to be a problem. You get used to it, he said. It is part of cricket.That is undoubtedly true, as Cricket Australia chases new and bigger audiences for the game down under. However the question that seemingly has not been asked, is this. Are all these changes, and schedule compromises, something the present team is capable of coping with? The present evidence suggests not. Equally, it appears that the present regime is a little too comfortable given the present results. Four years is a long time for any coach to be guaranteed tenure - just ask Mickey Arthur. Twenty-seven is a young age to be a captain - just ask Kim Hughes.Overall then, Perth has exposed a troubling complacency around the Australian team. This has been as true in the micro as the macro. While South Africa have made the most of their resources, shrugging off the loss of Steyn with admirable resilience, the Australians have squandered many of their own, in turn exposing the likes of Mitchell Marsh to situations beyond his present state of aptitude.Anyone looking for an exemplar needed to look only as far as David Warner, running a quick single in the confident expectation that Temba Bavuma would struggle to field his off side push let a lone throw down the stumps, leading to Shaun Marshs exit moments later. Anyone looking for another could find Smith throwing the kitchen sink at a wide ball on a length some eight overs before the close, exposing Adam Voges to a rampaging Kagiso Rabada.At the start of the year, Voges average was vying with that of Bradman. Smiths captaincy record was similarly lofty. Neither could have claimed to be mighty, but they have certainly fallen. So too has the Australian team. They, and their CA, bosses, have some serious thinking to do. ' ' '