The Road To EVO Japan 2018 Tekken 7 tournament was in full swing last weekend at Comic Fiesta 2017. 64 participants attended the tournament all fighting for the big prize, a free ticket to Japan to play at EVO Japan this January. The tournament saw a lot of regular names from the Flash Vision and Hitbox Infinite Carnage teams, the mainstays of the Malaysian Tekken scene. There were also two separate tournaments held by the Kota Kinabalu Button Mashers and the Kuching Fighting Games Community leading up to Comic Fiesta, with the winner of the two tournaments sent here at KLCC to show what Sarawak and Sabah’s Tekken players are made of.
But out of the many top players, one stood out throughout the tournament: Saudi Arabia’s Shrimboo. Shrimboo is now studying in Malaysia and he is certainly making a name for himself here. His performance at the FV Cup Tanukana Invitationals was held back by eventual winner Book, but since the Thai player is not participating in Road To EVO, his Kazuya can now wreck havoc.
And he totally did it. Shrimboo blazed through his brackets, sending Malaysia’s Tekken veteran VS.AMG| FV Arenz into the losers side. The two matches where he lost a game were against VS.AMG| FV GTM, who managed to get one game at the top 16, and VS.AMG| FV Fate Q, who played pushed Shrimboo to play all five games before losing 3-2 at the winner’s finals.
The last few top 16 matches were unfortunately interrupted due to a power outage and later a short circuit which damaged some equipment. Thankfully, the situation were resolved quickly by the organisers and the matches were postponed to the second day of Comic Fiesta. The losers final saw Fate Q beating HXI | Zre.
The grand finals set on the main stage was a rematch of Shrimboo’s Kazuya and Fate Q’s arsenal of characters. He started out with his main, Feng, but what seemed to be a strong start for Fate Q proved short-lived as Shrimboo keeps on finding ways to punish him. Even a character swap to Akuma, and then later to the top-tier Jack-7, was enough to stop the rolling force a well-executed flurry of EWGFs dealt by Shrimboo’s Kazuya. The Grand Finals ended 3-0 in favour of the Shrimp.
However, Shrimboo has decided to pass down the trip to EVO Japan to the runner-up, citing clashes with his exams set around the same date. “Study is more important after all,” he mentioned in the Malaysian FCC Facebook page. “But I hope that one day I can go to Japan”.
Congratulations to all the winners. Good luck to Fate Q who has now booked a ticket to face off against Japan’s mightiest players in the first EVO held outside of the US. His performance after being signed as a sponsored player at the Janda Cup Tekken 7 tournament has constantly improved to this day.
Comic Fiesta 2017 Road To EVO Japan 2018 Tekken 7 Top 16 Results
1. Shrimboo
2. VS.AMG | FV Fate Q
3. HXI | Zre
4. VS.AMG | FV koman
5. HXI | zur
VS.AMG | FV Meat
7. VS.AMG | FV DK
VS.AMG | FV GTM
9. HXI | FlightFeathers
HXI | StyloDX
HXI | ZABA
VS.AMG | FV madrush
13. KTU | Kamenrimau
VS.AMG | FV AheGao
VS.AMG | FV arenz
VS.AMG | FV shinato
Special thanks to the Malaysian Fighting Games Community for providing media access to the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters crew for Comic Fiesta 2017
Header image courtesy of GEEK Empire