Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. has partnered with Twitch to officially announce the return of the Tekken Would Tour for 2019. The series of tournaments scheduled this year has a prize pool of at least $185,000, with the Tekken World Tour Finals offering at least $100,000.
This year's tournament starts on April 20 in France and then travels around the world to locations like United Kingdom, Japan, Poland, Australia, and South Korea. North American stops include, California, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, and Toronto. The Finals will be held in Bangkok and determine the “King of the Iron Fist Tournament” for 2019. Overall, there are more than 25 locations around the world holding Tekken tournaments.
There are a total of four tournament categories. The first is the Master+, which will be held exclusively in Las Vegas during the Evolution Championship series in August. Ranking points will be given to players who place 1st, all the way to 49th place.
The Master category is composed of the world's top-tier players, with Ranking Points given to players who finish from 1st to 25th. Challengers are regional tournaments that offer Ranking Points, but are held at locations not served by any Master tournaments. Only players that rank 1st to 13th will get Ranking Points at these events.
The fourth and latest addition is the Dojo which hopes to offer Tekken competitive play at a more local and grassroots level. With Dojo tournaments, organizer will be able to apply for Ranking Points for their respective competitions. However the amount of points available will be based on the size of the tournament.
Players’ point aggregation comes from their best three results from either Master+ or Master tournaments, the best three results from the Challenger events, and best four results from Dojo events. The top 19 players will then be invited to the Tekken World Tour Finals.
Talking about the new season, Bandai Namco Vice-President of Marketing Eric Hartness said in a statement that the third season will be bigger and will reach more players with the Dojo tournaments. He added that each year "the Tekken World Tour has set the stage for some of the most dramatic stories to come out of the esports world, and we look forward to entertaining the millions of fighting game fans around the globe with another great season of high-level competitive Tekken 7 play!"
Twitch Product Manager Richard Thiher added in the statement that "fighting games represent the roots of esports, the early days of fans gathering in arcades and living rooms and making competitive gaming a shared community viewing experience." He further tnoted hat as the premier destination for esports, Twitch is proud to continue this tradition of bringing fans together from across the world.
- Same crisp fighting fans expect.
- Slo-mo finishes look great.
- Item system is cumbersome.
