Japan just sent a deadly serious roster to Korea. Tekken legend NOBI. CAPCOM CUP 12 fourth-place finisher Higuchi. KOF veteran SCORE. Three players, three games, one team gold medal, a format almost no one in the FGC has seen before. The real target, though, isn't the April tournament in Korea. It's the Asian Games in Japan this September.
Update: ECA 2026 ran April 24-26, 2026. In the headline fighting-game team event, Japan (Higuchi, NOBI, SCORE) beat South Korea in the final to take gold; Japan finished third in the overall standings. What follows is the pre-tournament preview.
Team Japan Heads to Jinju on April 24
On April 10, 2026, the Japan Esports Union (JESU) officially announced Team Japan's roster for the Esports Championships Asia 2026 (ECA 2026). The tournament runs April 24–26 at Jinju Indoor Arena in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.
ECA 2026 is the expanded successor to the "Esports Championships East Asia" (ECEA), which has been held annually since 2021 among four East Asian nations. Starting in 2025 the event broadened to include more of Asia, and this year features a record seven countries: Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Mongolia. Host organization is KeSPA (the Korea e-Sports Association), and Disney+ has locked in international streaming.
Four Disciplines: Fighting Games Headline the Event
ECA 2026 will feature four official competitions:
- eFootball™ (team match, PC + Mobile)
- Competitive Fighting Team Event (Street Fighter 6 + Tekken 8 + The King of Fighters XV)
- PUBG MOBILE (players TBA)
- Eternal Return (Korean-developed battle royale, team)
Three of these disciplines overlap with the medal events of the 20th Asian Games (Aichi-Nagoya 2026), which opens in Japan this September. In other words, ECA 2026 is essentially Team Japan's full-contact dress rehearsal for the Asian Games.
The centerpiece is the Competitive Fighting Team Event. One player each for SF6, Tekken 8, and KOF XV, with their combined results determining a single gold medal. This cross-title team format is almost unheard of in the FGC at the international level, and the Asian Games will use the same structure, which is exactly why Japan is locking in its lineup now.
Japan's Fighting Game Trio: Not a B-Team
Higuchi (Street Fighter 6 / ZETA DIVISION)
Known as the "mayor of Guile Village" in the Japanese Guile-player community, Higuchi placed fourth at Capcom Cup 12 in March 2026 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. That finish also qualified him for Esports World Cup 2026, scheduled for Saudi Arabia in July. He's currently one of the hottest Japanese names in the global SF6 scene.
Formerly with Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto, Higuchi transferred to ZETA DIVISION's newly-formed Street Fighter division in 2025 and competed in Street Fighter League: Pro-JP 2025 under the team banner "ZETA DIVISION Geekly."
NOBI (Tekken 8 / TeamYAMASA)
Real name Daichi Nakayama, NOBI needs no introduction in the Tekken community. Three-time world champion: World Cyber Games 2011 (Tekken 6), EVO 2015, and the Tekken 7 World Championship in 2015. His name carries weight in every Tekken stronghold, Pakistan, South Korea, the Middle East, and the international FGC routinely refers to him as a "Japanese Tekken legend."
In a 2021 interview, NOBI stated his dream as a pro player is "to make Tekken the most famous game in the world." ECA 2026 is another stage on that long-running mission.
SCORE (The King of Fighters XV / AMATERASU GAMING)
Real name Akihito Sawada, the Kansai-based veteran has been a fixture in the KOF circuit for years while also competing in Granblue Fantasy Versus, SF6, and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. At Max Mode 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia (February 2026), SCORE won the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament, proof that even past 40, he's still competing at the top level internationally. In KOF specifically, his name is arguably better known outside Japan than inside it, given how sparse the domestic KOF scene has become.
Event at a Glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Event | Esports Championships Asia 2026 (ECA 2026) |
| Dates | April 24–26, 2026 |
| Venue | Jinju Indoor Arena (Jinju, South Gyeongsang, South Korea) |
| Countries | Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Mongolia |
| Games | eFootball™ / Fighting Team Event (SF6 + Tekken 8 + KOF XV) / PUBG MOBILE / Eternal Return / STEPIN (demo, no Japan entry) |
| Host | KeSPA (Korea e-Sports Association) |
| International Broadcast | Disney+ (via ESPN Asia Pacific partnership) |
The Real Prize Is in September
Taken on its own, ECA 2026 looks modest next to EVO or Capcom Cup. Seven countries. No publicly disclosed prize pool. What makes this tournament meaningful is what comes next: the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, this September, the first major multi-sport event in Japan to feature esports as an official medal discipline.
Among the 11 esports titles at Aichi-Nagoya, the fighting game event will be run in the same team format: one player each for SF6, Tekken 8, and KOF XV, combined results deciding one gold medal. Japan is hosting, and with esports gaining full medal status for the first time on home soil, the pressure to claim that fighting-game gold is enormous. Sending NOBI, Higuchi, and SCORE to Korea this month is how you prepare for that.
At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, South Korea's Kim Gwan-woo (M. Lizard) won SFV gold. Korea's strength in both Tekken and Street Fighter is documented. With ECA 2026 hosted in Korea, a Japan–Korea preview match inside the fighting team event is all but guaranteed.
Three Things the Global FGC Should Watch
1. A cross-title team format the FGC has almost never seen. Combining SF6, Tekken 8, and KOF XV results into one team score is a structure the Asian Games will use in September, and ECA 2026 is the first serious test run of it. A weak title can be covered by a dominant one. New tactical reading, new storylines.
2. Japan vs. Korea, preview edition. Korea is a traditional Tekken powerhouse with legitimate SF6 depth. Japan brings home-ground credibility in SF6 and KOF. Straight-up competitive quality, regardless of how "small" the event sounds on paper.
3. A lookahead to Asian Games medal math. The same Japanese roster will likely go for gold in Aichi-Nagoya. ECA 2026 results will tell you how ready they are, which opponents they struggle against, and what the Asian Games bracket might look like.
Fighting Games Are Entering the National-Team Era
Capcom announced SF6's selection for Saudi Arabia's new Esports Nations Cup on April 8. JESU announced ECA 2026 rosters on April 10. Olympic Council of Asia finalized Asian Games esports medal events late last year. None of these moves are isolated, they point to the same shift.
Individual players chasing sponsorship logos at world tournaments is giving way to national team players competing with country flags. Japan's NOBI, Higuchi, and SCORE are standing on the front line of that shift. September's Asian Games in Japan is the main event. ECA 2026 is the opening scrimmage.
Does your country have fighting game players competing for a national team? If you'd like to see specific fighters represent your country against Japan at a future international team event, let us know who.
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