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EVO Championship Series expands to Japan

A consortium of Japanese companies invested over $1 million to get EVO Japan up and running.

David Craddock

September 7, 2016 3:09 PM

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According to Japanese publication 4Gamer, a consortium of Japanese media companies invested $1 million to help launch EVO Japan, a new arm of the world's most popular fighting-game tournament (via Yahoo eSports).

The consortium includes Aetas, Shochiku Broadcasting, and Hearts United Group (owner of 4Gamer and a subsidiary of Aetas) pooled $1 million to invest in EVO Japan. The companies will partner with Shoryuken and Evolution Championship Series parent company SRKX Productions to launch the tournament.

Pro player Ryan "Fubarduck" Harvey sent out a series of tweets to color in details of the announcement. Per his tweets, EVO Japan, LLC, has been founded as a legal entity in Japan, and will be officially formed later this month. The three investors split the company 45/45/10, with Hearts United and Shochiku putting the most cash in the pot.

"Summary: EVO Japan is very real and huge media conglomerates are starting to place their bets. 1M isn't a lot, but they believe in it," Harvey concluded.

Players known EVO Japan was coming since this year's EVO 2016; an announcement was made before the beginning of Street Fighter V's top 8, an event broadcast on ESPN2.

More information regarding EVO Japan will be revealed at Tokyo Game Show, to be held from September 15-17.

David Craddock

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.