Evo 2024 Viewer's Guide: TEKKEN 8
Welcome everyone to the King of Iron Fist Tournament 8! BANDAI NAMCO’s TEKKEN 8 makes its Evo debut, but it brings with it a storied legacy dating all the way back to 2003. The old Tekken you may know and love is very alive - a roughly patient game with heavy emphasis on pokes and small hits - but Tekken 8 has re-imagined aggression in the franchise through the introduction of the Heat System.
The cast universally has access to Heat and its related mechanics once per round. Heat can be activated either through Heat Bursts (a universal attack with plus frames on both hit and block and power crush properties) or a Heat Engager (a series of specific moves that each character has that activates heat and gives a rushing mixup upon activation). A character with Heat activated deals chip damage and gains access to a series of strong mixup and damage tools. Basically, being in Heat marks a strong offensive momentum switch for the player in question, and the core of Tekken 8 is being able to maximize when and how you use your heat.
Tekken 8 brings back most of the old series favorites players have come to know and love over the past 20 years. Heihachi Mishima may be dead, but his descendants - Jin and Kazuya - carry the Mishima legacy, especially considering the appearance of Reina, a mysterious outsider with ties to the bloodline. Other newcomers to the franchise include Victor, an elegant aristocratic Frenchman utilizing futuristic weapons, and Azucena, a Peruvian coffee farmer that dances around her opponents using tricky mixups and ambiguous pressure.
Season 1 of Tekken 8’s DLC is also well underway, with half of Season 1’s roster having been released thus far. Longtime series staple and capoeira master Eddy Gordo joined the roster last April, while Polish Karate master and final Tekken 7 addition Lidia Sobieska is slated to release soon. The remaining two characters are slated to drop in Autumn and Winter, respectively.
Evo also serves as one of two Master+ Tier events for this iteration of the Tekken World Tour. The World Tour this year is comprised of the aforementioned Master+ events, along with 10 Master Events, 14 Challenger events, and community-held opt-in Dojo events. Placements at each of these tournaments allow players to accrue points, and the top 20 players from the leaderboard, as well as the #1 ranked player from each region, will be invited to the finals at the end.
The current hot topic in the world of Tekken is AK. AK’s been the best player from the Philippines for years on years now, but he’s been constantly hungering to prove himself on the world stage. He got that chance five years ago, at Evo Japan 2019, overcoming world class talent to find himself in Winners Side Grand Finals of the event. Unfortunately enough for AK, there was a player making a name for himself, overseas for the first time - a young Pakistani player named Arslan Ash. Arslan won nine straight sets in losers, then beat AK twice in grands to win the event, launching a career that would culminate in Arslan being crowned the undisputed goat of Tekken 7. Five years later, at Combo Breaker 2024, Arslan and AK would meet in grand finals yet again, and AK would barely prevail, clutching out gold at the event. Combo Breaker marked the first time AK found himself in North America - can he and his Shaheen continue momentum at Evo and recreate history?
Of course, there’s the aforementioned Arslan Ash, one of the single most decorated Tekken players in history, looking to win his fourth ever Tekken title at Evo. But it won’t be easy - the Paksitani player has made a name for himself with patient and defensive play, and it looks as if the system changes made to Tekken 8 were directly influenced by his success. He’s stumbled a little bit right off the gate for Tekken 8, and has yet to win a major in the game yet, Combo Breaker being his closest go yet so far. Can Arslan take back the throne of Tekken in a new landscape?
With that said, the current landscape of top level Tekken play is defined by Korean players. Players like Knee, CBM, Chanel, ULSAN, LowHigh, Rangchu, Mulgold, and JeonDDing, all of whom found stability at the top level of Tekken 7, have now asserted themselves at the forefront of Tekken 8’s competitive landscape. Each of them have been on the hunt for major wins and qualification for the Tekken World Tour, traveling around the globe in the hunt. In particular, Chanel found gold at BAM with a mix of Alisa and Zafina, Ulsan won Dreamhack Summer with Dragunov and Azucena, and Mulgold won ATL Super Tournament with Claudio
Knee. There’s been a long legacy of Korean excellence in the world of Tekken - any one of these players can find themselves at the top this upcoming July in Vegas.
Despite this contingent, though, Evo Japan, the only other Master+ tier event thus far, was not won by any of the many traveling Korean players, but by Chikurin, wielding Lili and defending his home turf. Chikurin has accrued a reputation for picking a top tier and abusing their strengths, and coming off of a few substantive Lili nerfs, his results haven’t hit the same peaks of that Evo Japan win. Will Chikurin keep his faith in Lili, or will he be picking up someone new to dominate the field with at Evo?
North American Tekken’s no slouch either - players like Shadow 20z, Joey Fury, and Ty all have the potential to go on deep runs. NA as the perpetual underdog in Tekken gives them a strength, and the region’s no stranger to pulling off miracles in their home court. In particular, the verbosely titled Dr.theJAKEMAN, M.D drew global attention at Combo Breaker, using King to pull off a stunning upset over Arslan Ash.
Whether you’ve been KBDing since the 90s, or Tekken 8’s your introduction to the franchise, this upcoming Evo is going to be an unmissable event. Bandai Namco’s trademark 3D fighter aims to be a bigger spectacle than ever before this year at Evo; get ready to watch some good ass Tekken!
