North American e-sports team Evil Geniuses just announced their latest acquisitions to their fighting game roster. Today, they welcome American gamer Ari “FloE” Weintraub, and two of Japan’s top contenders, Yusuke Momochi and Yuko “ChocoBlanka” Kusachi, into their ranks.

Momochi and ChocoBlanka are both known in Street Fighter circles, with the former being one of the top Street Fighter 4 players in Japan, and the latter being one of the world’s top female contenders in the same game. Floe is also one of the top American gamers, being adept in Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Mortal Kombat 9.

They’ll be joining team members Justin Wong and Ricky Ortiz in future fighting game tournaments, including the upcoming EVO championships later this month. The team also plans on attending more international tournaments, with emphasis on Japan and other territories in Asia.

This actually means big things for the fighting game community. Along with the compLexity announcement regarding their acquisition of the Cross Counter team (and who just recently added Peter "ComboFiend" Rosas and Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez to their ranks), fighting games are really starting to gain ground in the competitive scene, which already includes games such as Starcraft, Counter Strike, and Halo. Seeing fighting game players getting similar recognition as these those who play other titles gives me hope that the genre will be able to expand out of being hosted in cramped hotel lobbies and into larger arenas.

Whatever the case, this summer is going to be a crazy one, especially with EVO only a couple weeks away.