A 23-year-old youngster from Lahore has been crowned the world’s best Tekken 7 player at 2019 Evolution Championship Series (EVO) in Las Vegas.
According to the details, Arslan Siddiqui aka Arslan Ash, who was relatively unknown in the competitive circuit a year ago, has edged out Jae-Min Bae aka Knee in the grand finals of one of, if not the biggest, fighting game tournament series in the world.
8 Players , 4 Countries, 1 Champion.
— EVO (@EVO) August 5, 2019
Pakistan's Arslan Ash takes #EVO2019!#TEKKEN7 Top 8 Results:
1 ??@ArslanAsh95
2 ??@holyknee
3 ??@tk_anakin
4 ??@hk_takkun
5 ??@daichinobi
5 ??@TLaionsan
7 ??@chikurintut
7 ??@TekkenLowhigh https://t.co/pRm0CRLp4y #TWT2019 #EVOPS4 pic.twitter.com/rrquuV8CBy
He was also awarded a cash prize of around $14,000.
According to VICE, it’s the third time Siddiqui has bested South Korea’s Jae-Min, who many from the gaming community considered a “god” of the game. It’s a monumental win, considering the former was virtually unheard of a year ago.
WATCH VIDEO:
#arslanAsh #win #worldchampion #TEKKEN7 #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/OzVgrnKTL5
— just shoaib (@just__shoaib) August 5, 2019
The 23-year-old had previously also won the second Evo Japan in February, becoming the first-ever unified EVO champion.
EVO hosted nine official fighting games this year, including Tekken 7, whose competitive scene is centered around a few countries: Japan, the United States (US), and South Korea.
This year’s top eight consists of players from those very same countries: four players from Japan, two players from South Korea and one player from the US, however, Siddiqui is the exception.