Mentioned in this article Teams: Echo Fox

Mobile developer nWay has announced a Power Rangers: Legacy Wars exhibition featuring Street Fighter pros.

The event will take place at Amazon’s Mobile Masters 2018, a mobile-focused esports event with a $100K shared prize pool.

The exhibition could help mobile esports gain credibility with Western esports fans.

Mobile developer nWay has announced a new promotion for its mobile fighting game Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, involving three professional Street Fighter players. At this weekend’s Amazon Mobile Masters 2018 event, Justin Wong, Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez, and Martin “Marn” Phan will play an exhibition match against three of the best Legacy Wars players in the world.

Mobile Masters is an esports event organized by Amazon featuring a variety of mobile esports titles. The event is intended to showcase Amazon’s GameOn service, which allows developers to integrate esports competitions into their game client. This year, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, Survival Arena, World of Tanks Blitz, and Critical Ops will share a $100K prize pool provided by Amazon. nWay has also partnered with esports crowdfunding platform Matcherino to boost the Legacy Wars-specific portion of the prize pool.

The exhibition will also serve as a natural promotion of Legacy Wars to Street Fighter fans. Recently, nWay partnered with Street Fighter developer Capcom to add Street Fighter characters into the game.

Related Article: Mobile Developer Critical Force Raises $6.3M, Plans to Expand Esports Efforts

While mobile esports are gaining a firm footing in Asian markets between esports-based TV shows and the presence of two mobile titles at the 2018 Asian Games, the concept is still met with skepticism by some Western fans. The Power Rangers exhibition is a unique way to potentially add a level of legitimacy to the notion of a mobile fighting game as a true esport, as all three Street Fighter pros are former Evo champions.

Justin Wong in particular, who was signed by Echo Fox in 2017, is regarded as one of the greatest Western fighting game players ever. Having such well-respected players competing at the game’s highest level could force fighting game fans to consider the merit of Power Rangers: Legacy Wars as a legitimate fighting game esport. Wong told The Esports Observer:

“I know there are high level tactics, mind games, tier lists, etc which makes it competitive like Street Fighter and that’s what I enjoy about the game. I do want to play some of the best players so I know what I need to work on if I want to improve in the game though.”

Wong explained that he is constantly travelling from tournament to tournament, and as such is a big fan of mobile games. To him, the accessibility of mobile games makes them ideal for esports competition.

“I do think the potential is there because majority of people already have access to a smartphone that can play games and I do believe that Power Rangers gameplay is simple enough for anybody to pick it up and try to become the best. I can see tournaments incorporating Power Rangers…since you see other mobile games such as Shadowverse sponsoring Evo now.”