The most prestigious fighting game tournament in the world is set to become a truly international event.

The Evolution Championship Series, commonly referred to as Evo, will expand to the shores of Japan in 2018.

Evo founder, Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar gave a general date for the Japanese version of Evo on his Twitter account Wednesday, announcing that the event will take place in January of 2018.

https://twitter.com/MrWiz/status/776301883891724289

Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada and Street Fighter series producer Yoshinori Ono took a moment to share the immense stage at Evo 2016 to announce that the tournament would soon be expanding to Japan, and that an announcement would be made regarding a more specific date at this year’s Tokyo Game Show.

The Evo Championship Series is held annually in Las Vegas Nevada, typically in mid-July. This year’s tournament was the largest ever, featuring an expansive stage at the 12,000 seat Mandalay Bay Events Center, as well as worldwide television exposure thanks to ESPN2’s broadcast of the Street Fighter V finals.

Evo’s official Twitter page later assured fans that although they plan to extend Evo’s reach to Japan in the coming years, the tournament will always have a home in Las Vegas.

Evo will always have the world finals in July in Las Vegas. Evo Japan is just an additional event!

— Evo (@Evo) September 15, 2016

Are you excited to see Evo branch out to Japan? Do you think there is a chance for Evo to be held in even more corners of the world? Let us know in the comments section below.