Twitch and Bandai Namco team up for Tekken World Tour eSports league

Twitch and Bandai Namco Entertainment America have announced an exclusive partnership to create the Tekken World Tour. The multi-year deal will not only see Twitch become the exclusive broadcasting platform for the new competitive games league, but the livestreaming service will also manage Tekken 7’s league operations, circuit events and content worldwide – a similar role to Twitch’s previous work with theRocket League Championship Series.

The six-month long tour kicks off just after E3, with the first tournament taking place between June 16th-18th at the CEO Fighting Game Championships. Additional stops will be made in Florida, Texas and California, and participants can register to compete through the event’s registration pages. A total prize pool of $200,000 is up for grabs. In the UK, the tour will be visiting VSFighting in Birmingham on August 12th and 13th.

"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, Twitch’s program manager.

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. Tekkenhas 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."

Eric Hartness, vice president of marketing at Bandai Namco Entertainment America added:"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.

"Our collective goal with the Tekken World Tour is to create an unparalleled competitive tournament experience and share the bone-crushing excitement of Tekken 7through Twitch’s social video platform so that Tekkenfans around the world can enjoy and participate in the action.”