This weekend saw a big event happen in fighting game esports, the Tekken World Tour Finals 2023. Not just a final tournament for a year of competitive Tekken, but the conclusion to competitive Tekken 7. With this bigger title at stake, what went down at the Tekken World Tour Finals 2023?
Now with the tournament concluded, we have our last champion for the game. Arslan Ash has taken victory for Tekken 7 this year. The Pakistani player has demonstrated he’s the best active Tekken player, taking the 7th instalment as far as it can go competitively. While we’re getting really close to the Tekken 8 release, this latest tournament shows just how interesting 7 has been for competitive gaming. This is how it happened.
Source: Bandai Namco
Arslan Ash Wins Tekken World Tour 2023
The Tekken World Tour 2023 concluded this weekend. After an entire year of tournaments, we saw the very best players come together in one place, for a series of head-to-head matches to find the best Tekken 7 player. Out of the 20 players narrowed down for the final, there were some standouts across the entire tournament. In the group stage, Arslan Ash got off to a very strong start, winning all four of his matches. The only other player to match this feat was Lowhigh.
Heading into our final bracket, the first match saw ULSAN against CBM. ULSAN easily sailed through here, winning 2-0. The second match saw our two stand-out players face each other. Arslan Ash was the clear standout heading into the winners’ final of the Tekken World Tour, where he faced ILSAN. This was one of the closer matches we got so far, but ultimately Arslan Ash pulled ahead and secured his slot in the grand final.
Who was he facing in this final match though? After getting knocked down in the first winners’ bracket match, CBM had quite a run through the losers’ bracket. He beat AO, LowHigh, and eventually ULSAN in their rematch to move through to the final. Things were set for a climatic match at the end here.
The Grand Final
In the very last round of the Tekken World Tour Finals 2023, Arslan got off to a good start winning the first round. He dropped the second set though, just losing out to CBM’s Noctis. From here on things were close. In the next two match Arslan Ash just managed to win, taking the next two rounds 3-2.
Arslan Ash has won the final Tekken World Tour for Tekken 7. He comes into the new game as one of the standout players to watch, and he’ll likely be remembered for this win as the peak of Tekken 7 gameplay.
© BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Tekken World Finals Tour Preview
For a lot of games, January is a bit of a quiet point without too many tournaments. However, for fighting games it’s different. It’s these first few months of the year when we see most of the biggest circuits get their finals and find the top player for each year. One of those is coming up this weekend, the Tekken World Tour Finals 2023.
Tekken is gearing up for the release of its latest entry, Tekken 8. First, we’ve got a final tournament for Tekken 7 though. It’s a yearly event with all of the major players through 2023 showing up. Here we’ll find our final champion for Tekken 7 as a competitive fighting game. Plus, there’s a $100,000 prize pool here too. This is how the event will work and what to expect.
Source: Tekken World Tour
Tekken World Tour Finals 2023
The Tekken World Tour is a year-round circuit where players compete for a slot at these finals. All the top players internationally have earned their slots through tough competition. Once here, it’s a two-day event where we’ll see the very best players go head-to-head. It’s all happening in New Orleans, January 13-14th.
19 of the players here have secured their spot via ranking highly on the Tekken World Tour Leaderboard. The final player though fought their way here in the Last Chance Qualifier. Who are the players who look the strongest heading into the Tekken World Tour Finals though?
Top Players to Watch at Tekken World Tour Finals 2023
Arslan Ash
Probably the player with the biggest expectations at the Tekken World Tour is Arslan Ash. The player has taken victory at EVO four times in the past, including in 2023. He’s also currently sat on top of the leaderboard for 2023. There’s always room for upsets, but Arslan is definitely the favourite heading into the tournament.
Ulsan
Uslan is a South Korean player with some strong results heading into the Tekken World Tour Finals 2023. Just before the finals, he claimed victory at the AfreecaTV Tekken League Grand Finals. That’s along with reaching second on the overall leaderboard for the World Tour.
JeongDDing
Jeondding is another Korean player worth highlighting at the TWT 2023 Finals. He’s had some very strong results so far, like winning CEO 2023 and VSFighting XI. He came in second at last year’s TWT and it looks like this year could be the one he makes the jump up and becomes a TWT champion.
Those are some of the players worth keeping an eye on at the Tekken World Tour Finals 2023. This is going to be an epic tournament over the two days though, make sure to tune in to the stream and see who claims victory.
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