Tekken developer Bandai Namco has announced that the Tekken World Tour will return for more action this year, with Twitch signing on as the global event’s exclusive streaming platform.

This will be the third tournament season of the Tekken World Tour, and 2019 will bring a new global competition format, as well as new tournament categories and locations to the event.

The best Tekken players in the world will have to battle it out across more than 25 World Tour stops worldwide to earn Tekken World Tour Ranking Points and a slice of the over $185 thousand prize pool. This year’s world tour will feature competitions that will be held in new locations such as Athens, Dubai, Seattle, and Toronto, among others.

The Tekken World Tour’s first event will take place at MIXUP in Lyon, France on April 20. Prominent FGC events, such as the 2019 Evolution Championship Series (EVO) in Las Vegas and Combo Breaker outside Chicago, will also be part of the World Tour.

“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 in a statement.

The top performers in the World Tour will head to Bangkok, Thailand for the Tekken World Tour Finals — which will have a baseline purse of $100 thousand — to determine who will reign supreme.

New tournament categories, such as Master+ and Dojo, will spice up the competition this year. These categories will also help tournament organizers across the world in applying their tournaments to the Tekken World Tour to let them award World Tour Ranking points to players.

Dojo, in particular, was created by Bamdai Namco in an effort to help foster competition at a more local level.

“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!” added Hartness.

“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. 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,” added Richard Thiher, Product Manager at Twitch.

Stay tuned for more details on the 2019 Tekken World Tour from us soon.