Tekken 6 @ KO

The following is a writeup written by Shiks of the local Tekken community on the Tekken 6 tournament held at KO Episode 1. Enjoy!

Yes yes, I finally got off my lazy ass to do the write-up for KO Round 1’s Tekken segment! Mind you, I wasn’t here for the whole thing, due to work unfortunately >=(, but here goes! Photos courtesy of the awesome Ms. Weiting of TKA. With some erm…liberal Photoshopping by me =P.

The tournament was to start at 1pm while reporting time for contestants was 12.30pm, but the competition arena was filled with people way earlier on, mainly Tekken participants eager to get those crucial warm-ups before the tournament.

There was a sense of anticipation and camaraderie as people within the community greeted each other and engaged in warm-ups. It was weird moves galore as players tried to get use to the newly changed sticks, which seemed a tad bit too slippery for the players to handle – quarter circle forward (qcf) motions often ended up being quarter circle forward UP WHOOPS!

Surprises came fast and early this day, even before the tournament started. Most shocking was the mysterious disappearance of one penguin…

No lah, he wasn’t banned for being too gosu-godlike in Tekken. He did very much wanted to take part, but that meant abandoning his teammates in the concurrently held Blackshot competition. Incidentally he and his team went to take the first prize for that. Ahh….the heavy price of being talented in just about every game you touch. Nevertheless, I’m sure he’ll be back to terrorise us in future tournaments!

With Dreamboat out of the tournament, it was anybody’s guess as to who’s gonna win this whole gig. The top three favourites were Shin aka <chaos> Shin, Jianhua aka <+loss>Julia Roberts aka Lilidoll aka Nina Ricci aka a whole lot of other nicknames depending on who he’s using and Anthony aka <+loss>U/F+4+3 aka Nameless. Seriously guys, stick to one nickname can ><** Makes my recapping a whole lot easier.

But you can be never too quick to dismiss other up and coming young players, namely the “King Brothers”, as the community has come to dub them – Perfection and Imperfection. In fact, one of them (Imperfection was it?) placed 3rd if I recall at the last major tournament during last year’s Anime Festival.

Also a strong contender was Pinoy Sensation, Zap Hwoarang, here in Singapore to work for the next few years, but can be found pwning people in the arcade and taking part in tournaments instead. Tsk tsk.

There was also quite abit of a last minute scramble as a few participants were no-shows. Luckily we managed to fill the spaces with a couple of very sporting Tekken regulars – Elf, Johnathan and Team Japan. Our friendly host, Yagami (he’s like one of those multi-hyphenate artistes: Tourney organizer-host-SF4 player-Tekken player Yagami!) rounded up the last-minute replacements. Thanks a lot guys!

Meanwhile, one of our top favourites, Jianhua, who was using Julia (<3!!! Yes I’m biased towards Julia but it’s MY recap so HAH!) silently contemplates his winning strategy:

Eh? Well, maybe he was closer to contemplating this instead:

There we go! Skye, the TKA staff in the background seems to be able to see Jianhua’s thoughts hahaha.

Overall the tournament was a lot of fun and it was great to see a good mix of old players and newbloods in the scene taking part. Sure we weren’t as large in number or as gungho as the SF4 crowd, but it was a pretty good atmosphere overall. Personally I find that tournaments bring a community closer together and you can find yourself talking to people you’re usually content to glare/give the evil side-eye at during normal arcade sessions. So maybe with more tournaments in the future, we shall be more comfortable in making noise!

It could also be that our resident shit talker Noobkken wasn’t around so it was quieter. Bwahaha! All was not lost however, thanks to a bunch of rabid Shin fans with a special “We Love Shin” named card character and robust chanting of encouragement to their idol.

Yagami was a great commentator, drawing in a crowd to watch the tournament and introducing the audience to the world of combo juggling, side stepping, weirdass names (to the Tekken uninitiated, the game allows player to use game cards where they can customize and rename their characters) names and even weirder customizations. He proved to be a kickass competitor in the competition as well – his sneaky little Ling Xiaoyu managed to progress all the way to the top eight in the tournament!

After all the dust has settled from all that furious competing, the three favourite players mentioned in the beginning of the article did not disappoint and went on to place first to third in the competition:

1st – Jianhua (Julia)

Jianhua’s been playing since Tekken 5 but it’s only recently that he’s taken part in competitions, despite his obvious talent in the game. Having taken first place in the last major tournament in AFA 08, he’s slowly blossoming into becoming one of the more famous local Tekken players in the scene, playing a variety of characters, most of them female, with equal ease and skill.

2nd – Shin (Steve)

One of the veterans of the scene, Shin, a former KOF champ, started playing during the Tekken 4 era. His Tekken style might not be super flashy, but he is armed with a killer gamesense and strong winning mentality. One of the more seasoned players, he has travelled around the region, mainly Bangkok and Manila to experience the Tekken scenes there.

3rd – Anthony (Law)

A relative newcomer, Anthony started when Tekken 6 rolled about. He has improved tremendously however in a short span of time, mainly due to his dedication – I remembered at one of time it was like he could be found in the arcade practicing everyday! Probably holds the record to having the most number of play counts on his Tekken 6 IC card.

Congratulations to the winners and to everybody else: thank you for your support and train hard! Tourney play is very different from normal play at the arcade as some of you may have experienced by now. The rush of adrenaline and the nervousness can get to you and if you don’t know how to handle it, it may cause you to mess up combos you usually never miss and make mistakes you usually don’t make. Those who take control of that rush will find themselves punishing openings and blocking moves they’ve never punished/blocked before.

Phew! After all that wall of text, here are some pictures to have a look at. Enjoy!

First we have the General Shots…