Esports World Cup Tekken 8 Viewer’s Guide

We are just over 24 hours removed from the Esports World Cup Tekken 8 tournament! Where 32 of the best Tekken players from all over the world will do battle for both glory and fortune. Aside from this year’s edition of the Tekken World Tour (TWT) Finals, the EWC tournament is the biggest Tekken event for this competitive season.

Just looking at the list of participating players tells you right away that this one is gonna feature some Good Ass Tekken™, as we always say in the community. So knowing that, I’ve got the viewer’s guide locked and loaded for Tekken at the EWC.

Where is Esports World Cup Tekken 8 Tournament Taking Place?

As with the rest of the Esports World Cup, the Tekken 8 tournament will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — presumably at the Amazon Esports Arena like the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves competition from last month. All 32 players will be at the venue itself, making this a completely offline event.

The games begin tomorrow, August 13th, starting with the group stage at 10am ET/7am PT.

Who’s playing at the tournament?

32 players from all over the world will be playing at the Esports World Cup Tekken 8 event. 28 of these 32 participants were directly invited to the EWC. Earning their slot at TWT events like Evo, Combo Breaker, and more. Most of these events awarded four seeds to the top four players in each one, though some went lower when top players had already qualified.

The remaining four players were decided through the last chance qualifier. These are all the participating players:

North America

• Rey Matthew “KingReyJr” Escanio (United States)

Asia-Pacific

• Atif “Atif Butt” Ijaz (Pakistan)
• Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique (Pakistan)
• Bilal “Bilal” Ilyas (Pakistan)
• Kim “CBM” Jae-hyun (South Korea)
• Kang “Chanel” Seong-ho (South Korea)
• Yuta “Chikurin” Take (Japan)
• Lee “EDGE” Ju-hyung (South Korea)
• Park “Eyemusician” Min-hyung (South Korea)
• Muhammad “Farzeen” Farzeen (Pakistan)
• Hafiz Tanveer (Pakistan)
• Kim “JDCR” Hyun-jin (South Korea)
• Jeon “Jeondding” Sang-hyun (South Korea)
• Keisuke “Keisuke” Takaba (South Korea)
• Kim “Kkokkoma“ Mu-jong (South Korea)
• Bae “Knee” Jae-min (South Korea)
• Yoon “LowHigh“ Sun-woong
• Park “Mangja“ Geon-ho (South Korea)
• Oh “Meo-Il“ Dae-il (South Korea)
• Han “Mulgold“ Jae-gyun (South Korea)
• Daichi “Nobi” Nakayama (Japan)
• Numan “Numan Ch” Chaury (Pakistan)
• PINYA (Japan)
• Qasim Meer (Pakistan)
• Son “qudans” Byeong-mun (South Korea)
• Jeong “Rangchu” Hyeon-ho (South Korea)
• Lim “Ulsan” Soo-hoon (South Korea)
• Benjamin “Yagami” Torngdee (Australia)

Middle East

• Sayed “Tekken Master” Hashim Ahmed (Bahrain)

Africa

• ILIAS (Morocco)

Europe

• Mathieu “Kirakira” Nguyen
• Jonathan “Tibetano” Medina

What’s on the Line at Tekken 8 Esports World Cup?

A whopping $1 million, that’s what. Where fighting game tournaments would normally have five-digit prize pools at best, the Esports World Cup is built different. The eventual winner of the Esports World Cup Tekken 8 cup will receive $250,000, which is exactly 25 percent of the pot.

Of course, as this is an EWC event, there are EWC Club Points on offer here as well for anyone that finishes in the top 8.

The full prize distribution is as follows:

• 1st place — $250,000 & 1,000 Club Points
• 2nd place — $130,000 & 750 Club Points
• 3rd place — $70,000 & 500 Club Points
• 4th place — $50,000 & 500 Club Points
• 5th-8th place — $37,500 & 200 Club Points
• 9th-12 place — $27,500
• 13th-16th place — $20,000
• 17th-24th place — $12,500
• 25th-32nd place — $7,500

What’s the Format of the Tournament?

Since the Esports World Cup Tekken 8 tournament is invitational and not an open bracket, the event will not start with a full-scale double elimination bracket off the bat.

First Phase

Instead, the 32 participants will be divided into eight groups of four players each. They will play against their group opponents in a GSL-style format for the first phase of the event. The first player to win two matches in their group will automatically qualify for the second phase.

The two players that 0-1 will then face each other in an elimination match. The winner of the latter will then face the loser of the match between the two players that went 1-0 to start in a decider match, with the winner qualifying. All matches in this phase will be best-of-three.

Second Phase

The second phase for the Esports World Cup Tekken 8 shrinks the group count to four, but will otherwise use the exact same format.

Third Phase

The remaining eight players will be seeded into a single-elimination playoff bracket, with a third place match right before the grand final. All matches in this phase will be best-of-nine, which means that players might be in for a real marathon when they get called up to play.

Where do I watch the games?

You can catch all the Esports World Cup Tekken 8 action via their official Twitch and YouTube streams.