In the immortal word of Shang Tsung, “It has begun!” Netherrealm Studios’ Mortal Kombat 1 has seen much success since its release almost exactly a month ago, and now with the hype surrounding the game still in full swing as casual players begin to finish up story mode and competitive players begin to settle on a defined meta Netherrealm Studios have seen fit to officially announce their Pro Kompetition with a massive $265,000 prize pool.

A new era of Pro Kompetition is upon us. Prepare for battle!

Kompete in a series of tournaments for your share of a $265K prize pool & an invitation to the Final Kombat World Championship.

Follow @NRSEsports for updates and recaps. More details at https://t.co/yHmNxnZ0CO pic.twitter.com/CxZgK55s17

— Mortal Kombat 1 (@MortalKombat) October 13, 2023

Mortal Kombat is no stranger to these official Kombat Leagues, a tradition stretching back all the way to Mortal Kombat X many years ago, and in fact it seems fighting games in general have adopted this format to hone and put a spotlight on the top players in fierce competition in both offline and online events.

The Mortal Kombat 1 Pro Kompetition offline events will be featured at popular and established fighting game tournament venues: East Coast Throwdown and Combo Breaker in the United States, Ultimate Fighting Arena in France, and a to be determined event set to be held for the LATAM fighting game scene.

The Pro Kompetition online events will be held in regional online leagues: East and West North America, East and West Europe, the Middle East, Oceanic, North and South LATAM, Brasil, and Mexico.

The competitive scene of Mortal Kombat has always been what has kept past Mortal Kombat games active long past the peak of their playercount, and it’s good to see Netherrealm Studios announce these pro events so soon after release to hopefully draw in the more casual crowd to see the more competitive events, starting in just a week at East Coast Throwdown on October 20^th-October 22^nd.

Between the Pro Kompetition and Capcom’s Capcom Cup for Street Fighter 6, with Bandai Namco no doubt announcing a new Tekken World Tour for the release of Tekken 8 early next year, it’s good to see these official corporately sponsored events are so numerous. The fighting game community is one that has occasionally had trouble staying active so with the backing of their respective developers like Netherrealm Studios and Capcom, as well as the support of their communities, it will be exciting to see how the FGC grows and flourishes from here.