Bandai Namco announce $200,000 Tekken World Tour

Bandai Namco and Twitch have announced an “exclusive multi-year partnership” this Thursday which will see Bandai Namco’s newest iteration in the Tekken series exploding onto the esports scene with a $200,000 Tekken World Tour.

The World Tour will feature bouts around the world, before the victors face off in a 16-player championship event in November. Three regions will have competitions: the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

The tour format will see players earning points for their performance in their region both online and at offline events. While competitors will be allowed compete in different regions, they can only earn points in their home region. The 16-player tournament will have the top five combatants from each region, with the final slot going to the winner of the Tekken tournament at Evo 2017.

The publisher isn’t alien to the fighting game community. They’ve been a long-time supporter of both the Mastercup tournament and Evo, with a major part in running the former, and providing pot bonuses to the latter. They also hosted several international events to encourage fighters to qualify for its inaugural “King of the Iron Fist” tournament back in 2015, and that’s been ticking along in the meantime.

With just a few days before the game launches on console and PC, this news is positive for those looking to do some punching in a competitive atmosphere. It’s also good news for the FGC in total as Injustice 2, Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V all have big money prizes in their near future.