4,651. That was the number of Tekken players out of 10260 total competitors across various games present at the Las Vegas Convention Centre across EVO. The number of Pakistanis? Three. Farzeen, the young prodigy, Atif Butt; Pakistan’s first Tekken World Tour Champion and the reigning, defending EVO Champion, Arslan Ash.
Arslan has had a comparatively slow start to life in Tekken 8, with his first tournament win coming in Only The Best just one month before EVO itself in Torino, Italy. Make no mistake, however, Arslan was one of the top picks to take it simply because his track record speaks for itself. This surely added to the already immense pressure of representing the nation at the highest level of competitive Tekken.
His first few matches were relatively easy, with Arslan going through 6 opponents without conceding a game in any of his sets. It took till the winners side quarter-final for him to even drop a game, but even then he disposed of his opponent handily.
In the next round, he faced his first major big-name opponent; longtime veteran as well as former EVO and TWT Champion, Qudans of South Korea. Arslan handled this in the same way as he handled prior opponents, defeating Qudans with ease in a 2-0 game.
His next opponent also happened to be another South Korean titan. 2-time EVO Champion JDCR, who he had faced and beaten the previous month at DreamHack Dallas. It seemed as though it would be tough, with JDCR playing Dragunov, one of the toughest characters in the game; but Arslan once again won 2-0 and he looked settled as he made it into the top 24.
Coincidentally, Farzeen and Atif had made it to the top 24 as well, ensuring a respectable finish for the Pakistani contingent as a whole. This is where Farzeen’s journey ended, but surprisingly it was also the end of Arslan’s biggest rival. The man known as the god of Tekken, Knee fell to USA’s TrizzyTheRapper in the losers bracket 2-0
Arslan’s run of facing South Korean opponents continued in the top 24 with him facing the man he beat to claim the Tekken World Tour Crown; CBM aka CherryBerryMango. Arslan took the first game with relative ease, but CBM fired back with 3 rounds straight of his own to level the set at 1-1. In the decider, CBM took the first round with dominance, but Arslan rallied and then rallied to beat CBM without dropping another round. Now, on to the top 6.
In the Winners-Semis of the top 6, Arslan faced a rising star and established Saudi talent, Raef. Raef happened to play Jin, which was also the character CBM used, so the matchup wasn’t too hard to adapt to. Arslan roared into Winners Finals with six rounds straight, where he would face his compatriot and training partner, Atif Butt.
Up to this point Atif had been unstoppable. Monstrously running through all his opponents with complete domination, firmly establishing himself as the best Dragunov player present. Arslan however had other ideas, managing to survive the onslaught and beating Atif 3-1 to book his place in his fifth overall and second consecutive (in Las Vegas EVO Grand final).
Atif would display in the Losers-Final that he was definitely not done for the day by downright thrashing Japanese legend Nobi, beating him nine rounds straight to set up a historic first. An all-Pakistani EVO grand final.
With Atif on the loser’s side, he would essentially have to beat Arslan twice. The Grand Finals were a feast for the eyes. The two Pakistanis went back and forth. 2-2 was the scoreline. One game gives Atif the reset, and One game for Arslan to be champion once more. Seeing that Arslan was adjusting to Dragunov, Atif then chose to switch to Feng Wei; another strong character who happens to be the main character of Atif’s teammate Joka of the UK. Atif took the first round, but Arslan decided it was time to end it. With three straight rounds in response Arslan, maining Nina Williams for the whole tournament, became a five-time EVO champion.
Feature image credits: @vexanie