‘Tekken’ Is Ready To Take The World By Storm — World Tour And $200K eSports League Announced

Bandai Namco is introducing Tekken 7 to the world.

According to TSN, the game company announced that they will have a world tour for the franchise. At the same time, Tekken will be partnering with Twitch to create a major professional league vertical for the game.

According to their press release, Twitch will be managing Tekken 7‘s “league operations, circuit events, and content on a global scale.”

The goal of the partnership is for Twitch to work alongside BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment to build the community and infrastructure to sustain long-term growth of the historic fighting game franchise.

The first event of the tour will be held at the CEO Fighting Game Championships in Orlando, Fla. The community will feature players and fans from “over 45 U.S. States and 27 counties.” This competitive stage is also offering a top prize for the coveted CEO Ring spot.

Tekken 7‘s world tour will start on June 16 and participants will need to register through accredited partners to either view the events live or join the competition.

Bandai Namco will have a six-month season which will run until November this year and the final Tekken 7 champ will be awarded a staggering prize of $200,000.

“The Fighting Game Community on Twitch features some of our platform’s most vibrant players and fans, with the TEKKEN World Tour created to celebrate their enthusiasm,” said Richard Thiher, program manager, Twitch.

“We’ve also witnessed how the Fighting Game genre has grown from local tournaments in arcades and living rooms to global attractions filling convention centers and stadiums. TEKKEN has been a major franchise and influence during this evolution. Our partnership with BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America for this new tournament series will help keep Fighting Games at the forefront of esports, while building toward a sustainable ecosystem for all of the players, fans, and organizers involved.”

Vice President of Marketing at Bandai Namco Eric Hartness said the partnership makes “perfect sense.”

The Tekken franchise is a pure combat fighting video game. It is one of the pioneer games that ignited gamers’ fascination with one-on-one video game combat. There have been similar games, but Tekken has become one of the icons in the genre.

“TEKKEN 7 is the latest chapter from one of BANDAI NAMCO’s marquee fighting game franchises and Twitch is home to the fighting game community; it made perfect sense for us to join forces and produce TEKKEN World Tour, a hard-hitting tournament series for our fans to enjoy”

Twitch is also expanding their reach with Bandai Namco. Last year, they launched another initiative to feature PS4 game Rocket League. In this last year’s competition, the three-month season had a $75,000 prize pool.

Aside from the exposure of the games in the professional eSports arena, this also boosts Twitch’s platform since these events are broadcast exclusively on Twitch.tv.

Moreover, Twitch is reaching out to their community for contributions. They have an open call for content to help them build ideas for this year’s TwitchCon.

“This year we’ve got the entire Long Beach Convention Center to ourselves, so we need all the awesome session, workshop, and panel ideas you’ve got. If you’re passionate about something, it’s related to Twitch, and you think the community would dig it, then we want to hear about it. It’s your chance to be a special part of TwitchCon history, so read on for all the details.”

To apply for the selection process, users should submit their session proposals at TwitchCon.com. All submissions will only be valid until July 3.

“If your session is accepted, all participants will be given TwitchCon speaker badges to the show. If we think there’s a good match, the TwitchCon team may opt to put a featured streamer or streamers on your panel. You will be notified of this when your panel is accepted.”

For more information on Twitch and Tekken‘s upcoming world tour, visit their official page here.

[Featured Image by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]