SANTA CLARA, Calif. – March 12, 2019 – Leading interactive entertainment media publisher and developer BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. and Twitch®, the leading service and community for multiplayer entertainment, today announced the return of the TEKKEN™ World Tour for 2019. Twitch will once again be featured as the exclusive streaming destination to watch this competitive gaming league and the managing partner for TEKKEN™ 7 league operations, circuit events, and content on a global scale. Entering its third tournament season, the TEKKEN World Tour promises more action, new locations, returning favorites, and innovative tournament categories enabling more players to earn TEKKEN World Tour Ranking Points, plus a $185,500+ USD prize pool, with a $100,000 baseline purse for the TEKKEN World Tour Finals.
TEKKEN World Tour 2019 kicks off on April 20th, at MIXUP in Lyon, France then continues throughout the year with additional North American based stops in Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Washington, California, and Toronto, Canada. International tour stops will include Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, Dubai, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Italy, Argentina, Peru, South Africa, and more. The TEKKEN World Tour Finals will make its return to Asia in 2019 when the world’s best TEKKEN 7 players converge upon Bangkok, Thailand to determine who is the true “King of the Iron Fist Tournament” – more information will be shared at a later date. Prospective competitors can register to compete through each regional event’s registration page to begin their fight to the top of TEKKEN World Tour’s leaderboard.
“Now entering its third season, TEKKEN World Tour for 2019 is going to be bigger, reach more players with its innovative Dojo tournaments, and generate more excitement than ever!” said Eric Hartness, Vice President of Marketing at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. “Every 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!”
“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,” said Richard Thiher, Product Manager at Twitch. “As the premier destination for esports, we are proud to carry on that tradition by bringing fans together from all around the world to watch, chat, and experience the best plays TEKKEN 7 has to offer.”
Tournament Categories
- Master+: TEKKEN World Tour’s max value tournament category will be held exclusively at the Evolution Championship Series (Evo) in Las Vegas from August 2-4, 2019 at the Mandalay Bay Resort. The Master+ tournament will award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 49th place.
- Master: Offering high-level points for top-tier competitive players throughout the world, these tournaments are the pillars from which TEKKEN World Tour will be built for 2019. Master tournament events are expected to draw international competition and will award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 25th place.
- Challenger: These regional tournaments focus on offering Ranking Point earning opportunities to locations not served by Master tournaments. Challenger tournaments award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 13th place.
- Dojo: Brand new for TEKKEN World Tour 2019 are Dojo tournaments. In an effort to promote competitive participation to TEKKEN 7 players at a more local and grassroots level, TEKKEN World Tour is establishing this new opt-in tournament category. Dojo tournaments will enable tournament organizers from around the world to apply for their tournaments to be awarded TEKKEN World Tour Ranking Points. The Ranking Points available at Dojo tournaments will scale based on tournament size. This opt-in system creates opportunities for players to compete for Ranking Points outside of Master and Challenger class events. All Dojo tournament applicants must use the TEKKEN World Tour opt-in system on smash.gg and register their tournament for consideration. Depending on the bracket size, Dojo tournaments can award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 9th place.
Ranking Points Distribution
Points earned at TEKKEN World Tour tournaments are awarded according to a player’s tournament placements. Each placement at a TEKKEN World Tour tournament, from Master+ to Dojo, is worth a different number of Ranking Points. Players’ point aggregation will be taken from their best three results from Master+ or Master events, best three results from Challenger events, and best four results from Dojo events. At the end of the year, the top 19 players awarded the most TEKKEN World Tour Ranking Points will be invited to compete at the TEKKEN World Tour Finals. Travel and lodging considerations for invited players will be covered by TEKKEN World Tour. The TEKKEN World Tour leaderboard will be viewable on www.tekkenworldtour.com and via the TEKKEN World Tour’s league page on smash.gg.
For more information on TEKKEN World Tour 2019, including the full tour schedule, please visit the official TEKKEN World Tour website at: https://tekkenworldtour.com/. To find out more about BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc.’s other products, please visit: http://www.bandainamcoent.com/home.html or follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BandaiNamcoUS or join the conversation on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/BandaiNamcoUS. Follow all of the action surrounding BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc.’s numerous esports leagues at: https://twitter.com/BNEAESPORTS
