Evo 2016: Tekken 7 Finals belong to ‘Saint,’ Korea
Marking the first completed bracket set of Evo 2016, Tekken 7 Grand Finals went down to the final round.
Despite an Asian-centric following (due to its availability in arcades, not consoles), Tekken 7: Fated Retribution Top 8 Finals play brought major excitement out of the largely-North-American crowd at Evo 2016. It’s to be expected when you have Jack-7 player Choi “Saint” Jin-Woo take on Bryan-playing Bae “Knee” Jae-Min in a Grand Finals match, proving as a second chance for Knee.
Clawing his way out of Losers Bracket after Saint sent him down there, the rematch was a lot more exciting on the grand stage. However, in the final round of the final game in the Best of 5 Grand Finals match (right before a possible bracket reset for Knee), Saint pulled off the narrow victory to be crowned as the Tekken 7: Fated Retribution Evo 2016 champion.
Lee “Poongko” Chung-Gon came in third, after falling to both eventual Tekken 7 Grand Finals participants. That marks South Korean players going 1-2-3 at Evo 2016; a remarkable feat, even with half of Top 8 hailing from South Korea.
Even more impressive, arguably, was the 4th-place finish of American Anthony “Geesemaster” Jaimes. Despite not “medaling,” he defeated last year’s Tekken 7 Evo champ. Tied for 5th came said former champ Nakayama “Nobi” Daichi, as well as Jung “Narakhof” Joong-Joo. Tied for 7th were Aoki “Take” Takehiko and Stephen “Speedkicks” Stafford.
For those in North America looking for more Tekken 7: Fated Retribution action, you’re in luck. Tekken brand manager Mark Julio announced that the remaining North American Tekken Tour action would adhere to the Fated Retribution version of the game. Previously, tournament play had largely consisted of vanilla Tekken 7 action.
Despite its early-Saturday Top 8 Finals slot, Tekken 7 presented an engaging couple hours of action. The floaty 3D action brought a change of pacing from most of the 2D-only fighting games present at Evo 2016. Once the game lands on PC, PS4 and Xbox One early next year worldwide, it will be interesting to see how big the competition will grow.
Here are the Top 8 final results for Tekken 7: Fated Retribution play at Evo 2016.
- Choi “Saint” Jin-Woo
- Bae “Knee” Jae-Min
- Lee “Poongko” Chung-Gon
- Anthony “Geesemaster” Jaimes
- Nakayama “Nobi” Daichi
- (T-5) Jung “Narakhof” Joong-Joo
- Aoki “Take” Takehiko
- (T-7) Stephen “Speedkicks” Stafford
Three more Top 8 Finals are expected to run today, with the final five coming to you live tomorrow from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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