Capcom and Twitch create the Capcom Pro Tour for Street Fighter

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

With the aim of establishing a year-long foundation for the fighting game community, the Capcom Pro Tour will utilize a combination of premier events, rankings events and online tournaments.

"The goal of the Capcom Pro Tour is to provide an infrastructure which helps support tournament organizers, while delivering increased production values, supplementary video content and new opportunities for players, content creators and sponsors", says Capcom's press release. "The tour will focus solely on the Street Fighter IV series, with the early portion of the tour featuring Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, then transitioning to Ultra Street Fighter IV, after it releases in June."

"The fighting community has always been a huge part of the world of competitive gaming, but has lacked global leagues and structure which other eSsports communities have benefited greatly from,” said Victor 'Victheslik' Denchartphan, Twitch’s FGC specialist. “What Capcom is setting out to achieve by organizing a year-long pro tour in tandem with leveraging the Twitch community, is definitely going to change the face of the fighting game scene.”

Points are awarded at premier and ranking events to the top 16 placings. Premier events include the already established fighting game majors, led by Evolution Championship Series (EVO) in July, later this year. EVO is joined by a lineup that includes Final Round, NorCal Regionals, DreamHack Winter, Community Effort Orlando (CEO), The Fall Classic and Southeast Asia Majors.

There will be a total of 10 premier events with three additional ones to be announced. All premier events will retain their independence in operations, with Capcom and Twitch's collaborating in all broadcasts on the Capcom Fighters Twitch channel.

Ranking events will consist of trade shows and independent tournaments managed and streamed separately from the Capcom Pro Tour. Notable events include last weekend's SoCal Regionals and upcoming gaming expos E3, PAX East and San Diego Comic Con (SDCC). Points will be awarded retroactively to SoCal Regionals finishers at a later date.

More information and the latest news on the Capcom Pro Tour can be found on their official website.