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Canada’s Drag Race has gotten a bit of a bad rap on the world stage—at least when it comes to international crossover versions of Drag Race. Yes, Jimbo won an American All Stars, and Lemon won Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. The World Season 2. But they are the exceptions, and both had to go through several seasons to eventually win crowns in very favourable environments.

The embarrassment started with Lemon becoming the first out on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 1, and continued with Kendall Gender and Stephanie Prince getting axed as the first two outs on Canada vs. The World Season 1. That season proved particularly disastrous for Canada, because despite being on home turf and bringing back a ringer in Season 2 winner Icesis Couture, they still only got one Canadian, Rita Baga, to the final four … where she promptly lost a lip sync and got eliminated before the final battle. (Icesis actually quit, which was a real black mark on the season as a whole.)

Perhaps the hardest watch was Pythia’s run on Global All Stars, because she was actually doing quite well! Unfortunately, her eventual elimination felt like an afterthought, as by that point Ru was all in on his former RuGirls—with a side of Drag Race Italia’s Nehellenia on an underdog run. We’ve seen every Canada Season 2 finalist return and lose (or quit) on their second run now, and non-finalist Stephanie didn’t do much better. What will it take for a queen from that very good season to be properly rewarded on an international crossover season—not just repping for Season 2, but for Canada’s Drag Race as a whole?

Enter Suki Doll to Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale. The new crossover series, which borrows its style and format from the vs. The World series, is the first of its kind: an international battle royal with a specific theme to its casting. As the show’s trailer puts it, “The fiercest Asian queens from across the world have sashayed to the Pearl of the Orient”—with five Drag Race Philippines alumni returning to face off against seven Asian queens from various other franchises. American Drag Race fans will no doubt recognize Season 10’s Yuhua Hamasaki among the cast, while there are reps from Thailand, France, Down Under, Belgique, UK and, yes, Canada.

Suki makes for a very compelling casting choice in this format. Before her elimination, she had nearly won the opening design challenge and acquitted herself well in the acting challenge. True, she scored low for the Rusical, but nearly everybody was bad in the Under the Big Top Rusical. (“I got a … trick up my … sleeve” still rings in my head.) She eventually went out on Snatch Game, becoming part of an unfortunate legacy of Asian queens being eliminated on the impersonation challenge.

But since then, there’s been a bit of what-if with Suki. What if she’d managed to eke out a Lip Sync for Your Life victory against that episode’s fellow bottom dweller, Eve 6000? Eve wound up just being eliminated the next week on the girl groups challenge, so it’s safe to say Suki couldn’t have done worse. And if she made it past that, the ball challenge was next on deck—which would’ve no doubt been a triumphant moment for the seamstress queen. She may not have won it all, but you can’t help but feel like her journey got cut too short.

Since her season, Suki has gained a terrific reputation as a designer for other queens. Before Icesis quit Canada vs. The World, she was showing us some truly tremendous fashions—almost all Suki Doll looks. Her legend grew so much that she was actually invited back to Canada’s Drag Race to serve as a design challenge adviser in Season 5. Seeing her design work on her sisters begged the question: if this kind of work is what she’s capable of for others, what could she do for herself on another Drag Race run?

So I’m thrilled that Suki is getting this chance—and on a season that really promises to be something special. I’ve written before about Drag Race’s global dreams, and the franchise’s subsequent retrenchment after overextending itself. Only one of the three existing international crossover series, Uk vs. The World, has a season filmed and ready to go, as the others sit on hiatus. So it’s great to see Drag Race Philippines taking the lead and trying something new, and seemingly putting a lot of effort into getting it right.

Though it’s hard to even dare to dream about further expansions of Drag Race, the existence of Slaysian Royale does promise potentially big things for other series. Perhaps an all-Latina season of Drag Race Mexico? Or other specialized casting pools for other seasons—maybe an all-comedy queen season of Drag Race UK vs. The World, or a runway heavy-hitters season of Canada vs. The World? We already talked about the ways in which you could bring some of this specialization to Global All Stars in a Tournament of All Stars-style bracket format too.

The possibilities are vast, and they offer a way for these international crossovers to thrive without becoming repetitive. And that kind of progressive, creative thinking is what will continue to give underappreciated queens a chance to come back to Drag Race and show their stuff.

Which brings us back to Suki. As an American who writes for a Canadian publication and considers Canada’s Drag Race a crown jewel of the entire television franchise, I couldn’t be more hyped for Suki’s return. To be blunt, with Canada vs. The World and Global All Stars not actively producing right now and UK vs. The World only mildly interested in casting Canadian queens (there were none on the Season 2 cast, and only one on the rumoured Season 3 cast), it would’ve been difficult to find a place for Suki to pop back up on Drag Race. Slaysian Royale not only gives her the opportunity to return, but gives many queens that chance. The trailer alone shows many queens expressing joy at being able to compete on a season like this, with UK Season 1 alum Sum Ting Wong even brought to tears talking about it.

I cannot wait to tune in to watch Suki and the whole cast on Slaysian Royale. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited for a Drag Race season, to be honest with you. This is a new era for the franchise, an experiment in what is possible when your global reach grows and you have oodles of talented queens ready to entertain the masses. May the best queen win—with an extra hope that may she win or lose, Suki can show what Canadian queens can really do on the world stage.