With a solid presence of at least 10 or so Pakistani TEKKEN players among the 8 pools of the FV Major TEKKEN 8 bracket, a solid result was certainly expected. Atif, Khan, Farzeen, Dawood Sikandar, Mohsin Shooter and The Jon already knew how to navigate the intricacies of tournaments abroad, while the rest held their own admirably as well.
No less than 6 Pakistanis finished at positions 17th and above, and as it was at EVO 2024, we had yet another all-Pakistan Grand Finals, with former TWT Champion Atif Butt taking home the top prize and 300 TEKKEN World Tour points.
It wasn’t just about the winning titan either, with a whole host of storylines playing out, most notable of which was Dawood Sikandar facing off twice against the legendary Knee in this tournament not just once but twice. This series of matches was also a runback of their encounter at Thaiger Uppercut 2022, where Dawood managed to beat Knee to claim his first international tournament win.
This time around, Dawood and Knee first met in Top 64, with the former pitting his classic Alisa against the latters Feng Wei. The two traded the first 2 games back and forth, with Dawood taking a close run decider with both players tied at 2 rounds won and 1 game each.
Their second encounter would be an edge-of-the-seat experience in the Losers bracket of Top 8, where Dawood found himself after being beaten 2-1 by South Korean Nina Williams player Infested.
After Dawood took the first game over Knee in yet another Alisa vs Feng match, the latter opted to go to arguably the strongest character in the game right now; Sergei Dragunov. “The White Angel of Death” as he is known, would allow The South Korean legend to reply back with 3 unanswered rounds, the last one being a perfect. This prompted Atif to step in and provide some coaching to Dawood, leading to a very shrewd yet very classic Pakistani counter pick.
In a move most of the TEKKEN world did not see coming, Dawood Sikandar chose Kuma as a counter to the strongest character in the game. Now, while this was a surprise to quite a few, this Kuma pick has quite a bit of precedence in Pakistani TEKKEN. Stretching all the way back to South Korean player Rangchu’s iconic TWT Finals victory with Panda, Pakistani players started experimenting with the bears in the game as what started out as a troll pick against some of the more top-tier characters.
Over time, this led quite a few players, including Arslan Ash, to explore the bears and their sheer uniqueness among the roster; often with beneficial results. With the onset of Tekken 8, while Panda has fallen by the wayside, Kuma has gotten some quirky improvements with Mishima Electrics being a key factor. Dawood Sikandar has been practising this pocket bear ever since TEKKEN 8 came out, and against Knee, we saw the results with a solid win.
At the end of it all, we had 3 Pakistanis (The Jon, Atif and Dawood Sikandar) in the top 8. While Dawood would fall to AK of The Philippines in Losers Semis. The Jon, very much reflecting his King, would once again play much like an actual wrestler.
The brash and exuberant King main dropped only 2 games till he reached the Winners Finals where he met the man who just last week took part in another all-Pakistan Grand Final, Atif Butt.
It was clear from the start that Atif was not going to settle for 2nd place for the 2nd week in a row. With arguably the most oppressive Dragunov play in the world right now, Atif took both Winners Finals and Grand Finals 3-0. While The Jon tried to put up a solid fight, the combination of Atif’s ferocity as well as Dragunov’s sheer overwhelming power simply did not allow for the former to settle into a rhythm.
It should also be noted that while The Jon bagged 2nd place at the TEKKEN 8 event, he also placed 3rd in the King Of Fighters XV tournament running concurrently, losing out to another Pakistani; Kami Jones in the Losers Final.
Following the victory at the FV Major, Atif has now rocketed to 3rd place in the current TEKKEN World Tour standings with 1575 points. Arslan remains the leader with 1860 points and Farzeen rounds out the Pakistani presence in the global top 20 at 19th with 850 points. On the Pakistan regional table, The Jon and Dawood Sikandar remain deadlocked with 130 points each in the race for the regional qualifier spot.
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