Ahead of Tekken 7's worldwide release next week, Bandai Namco has officially announced the Tekken World Tour - a series of tournaments that will take place across the world throughout the rest of the year. Participating players will compete for ranking points which will determine their place on regional leaderboards. The designated regions are the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The top ranking five players of each region, plus the winner of Tekken 7's EVO 2017 tournament, will clash at the Tekken World Tour Finals in order to decide on a grand champion. Phew.

With over $200,000 in prize money up for grabs, the competition is bound to be fierce - especially since Tekken 7 will, after many years, be readily available outside of Japanese and South Korean arcades. The game's retail launch will no doubt raise the bar as far as professional play goes, so it'll be interesting to see whether the big names - such as South Korean world champion SAINT - can still dominate.

Are you interested in pro Tekken? Might you attend any of these events in the hope of winning some cash? Spend hours a day training in the comments section below.

[source tekkenworldtour.com]