Bandai Namco cancels support for all remaining Tekken 7, Soul Calibur 6, and Dragon Ball FighterZ physical tournament events on 2020 World Tours
Bandai Namco provided an update on their 2020 major tournament circuits this morning. The company has announced that official support for all remaining physical tournament events on the World Tours for Tekken 7, Soul Calibur 6, and Dragon Ball FighterZ has been canceled.
This decision was made in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic as a safety measure for participants and tournament staff.
"Out of an abundance of care and caution for the health and safety of tournament participants and staff, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc. has made the difficult decision to cancel official support for all remaining physical tournament events in the 2020 season for TEKKEN, SOULCALIBUR, and DRAGON BALL FighterZ World Tours respectively," Bandai Namco's statement starts.
Back in March, three Tekken 7 World Tour and Soul Calibur 6 World Tour events were rescheduled to a later date due to the coronavirus. Now, all physical events across all three tournament circuits have been canceled.
Bandai Namco notes that in light of the cancellations, plans for competitive online events are already being finalized and that we will have more information soon.
While official support has been terminated for these physical events, Bandai Namco states that tournament organizers may still choose to put on in-person tournaments. They urge those looking to participate to use their best judgment and to stay safe.
The cancellation of on-site events has been a common trend around the world and within the fighting game community. Other major game developers like Capcom have followed suit, canceling their entire Capcom Pro Tour 2020 and moving it to strictly online events.
EVO 2020 has also been canceled, and in its place, we will be seeing EVO Online featuring four open tournaments, special exhibitions, and more.
Bandai Namco's statement
Out of an abundance of care and caution for the health and safety of tournament participants and staff, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc. has made the difficult decision to cancel official support for all remaining physical tournament events in the 2020 season for the TEKKEN, SOULCALIBUR, and DRAGON BALL FighterZ World Tours respectively.
While BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment's official support of physical tournament events has been cancelled for the 2020 season, we are finalizing online competition event solutions for the remainder of the year and aim to have more news to share soon.
Please note that while BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment's official support for physical events has been cancelled for the 2020 World Tour, individual tournament organizers may still choose to continue holding physical events. We urge competitors and fans to seek tournament details through event websites and to use their best judgement regarding their personal on-site participation.
We want to thank our competitors and fans for their understanding in this matter and we look forward to bringing back physical events when conditions permit us to do so.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay connected.
