It’s only been one day since the start of the EWC Tekken 8 group stage, and it’s been extremely hype right off the bat.
We’ve already seen one unexpected result. With a player predicted to make a run at Tekken 8 EWC knocked out early.
When you put 32 world class Tekken players, there’s bound to be some shocks. If these matches are anything to go by, the entire contest should prove to be one for the ages.
EWC Tekken 8 Group Stage – Group A
Winners: Lee “EDGE” Ju-hyung, Atif “Atif Butt” Ijaz
Group A kicked things off in explosive fashion, thanks to EDGE’s incredible play to clinch the winner’s bracket. Being the first to advance to the next phase. His set versus Oh “Meo-Il” Dae-il garnered him the momentum he needed to lock down this group. Even if he went down early in the series.
Meo-Il showed clever usage of Jack-8’s power crush moves and the red bubble from heat to fend off EDGE’s patented Hwoarang pressure in the first game. But EDGE rallied in the next two games. Keeping things steady against Meo-Il’s plus frames. EDGE would carry the tailwind into his winner’s series against Atif Butt, calling out Atif’s overuse of Anna’s lows and punishing accordingly.
Atif also crushed Bilal “Bilal” Ilyas, drowning him in Anna’s pokes and offensive pressure. Atif Butt was simply too good for Bilal. But Bilal did make good on his matchup advantage versus Meo-Il in the elimination match. Adapting on the fly to bring it back after going 0-1 in the set, but faced a repeat of his bout against Atf in the decider match.
Group B
Winners: Park “eyemusician” Min-hyung, Park “Mangja” Geon-ho
In Group B of the EWC Tekken 8 Group Stage, it was Eyemusician versus ILIAS. Which went predictably as Eyemusician’s Yoshimitsu proved way too much for ILIAS’ Eddy to handle. He actually kept it quite even-keel throughout their match, which allowed him to sweep the series 2-0.
Yoshimitsu Power!!@eyemusician_TK advances to phase 2 of groups! pic.twitter.com/PVLq5cULXD
— EWC Extra (@EWC_Extra) August 13, 2025
Mangja, meanwhile, just ran roughshod over Muhammad “Farzeen” Farzeen’s Victor as Law. thanks to his incredible counter hit timing. Eyemusician did temporarily stop him from advancing in their winner’s side match, though. As Eyemusician flipped the crazy switch this time to throw Mangja for a loop and a half.
Farzeen left it ’til late against ILIAS to eliminate him from the tournament, their elimination match went the full distance. He was able to navigate the Eddy shenanigans nonetheless, putting him in the final set against Mangja. Sadly for Farzeen, playing at home court as a member of Team Falcons wasn’t enough to get past Mangja in their rematch. Turning to more poking as Law, Mangja defeated Farzeen anew, and advanced beyond to the rest of the EWC Tekken 8 tournament.
EWC Tekken 8 Group Stage – Group C
Winners: Jeon “Jeondding” Sang-hyun, Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique
If you just looked at the winners of this group and thought to yourself that Arslan Ash just breezed through everyone, you’d actually be quite wrong. He had to settle for a lower bracket run just to survive this group.
It was all thanks to Jeondding’s masterful gameplan. He took a page out of Meo-Il’s book for this one, using plenty of armored moves and Eddy’s above-average backdash to create space versus Arslan’s onslaught of pokes.
Arslan actually had the early momentum in this series, but Jeondding’s adjustments proved highly effective in the second and third games. Not an earth-shattering result or anything, especially considering Jeondding also beat Arslan at last year’s EWC Tekken 8 tournament.
On the other side, Sayed “Tekken Master” Hashim Ahmed started his series versus Qasim Meer by picking Eddy, which quickly turned out to be a not-so-great idea after Qasim Meer’s Zafina dismantled him in the first game. He then switched to Clive for the second game, which turned things around emphatically. Tekken Master looked way more comfortable playing Clive, which allowed him to send Qasim Meer to the elimination match.
Qasim Meer would get manhandled by Arslan Ash there, with the Evo 2025 champion simply mopping the floor with his opponent. Arslan would end up avoiding another disappointing EWC run (like when he didn’t even escape the first phase last year) in the decider series against Tekken Master, staving off the latter’s fast start in order to prevent another loss to Eddy.
Group D
Winners: Bae “Knee” Jae-min, Kim “Kkokkoma” Mu-jong
Wow. Knee is looking locked in right out of the gate. I’m not completely shocked that he’s razor sharp this early in the tournament. Likely to put the poor EVO performance behind him in the EWC Tekken 8 Group Stage.
He looked poised and at ease throughout his upper bracket run in Group D, brushing aside his old rival Daichi “Nobi” Nakayama. Then taking full control of his match against Kkokkoma playing Bryan.
While he looked tentative at Evo, that absolutely wasn’t the case in Riyadh today. His keen sense of timing, developed over years and years of playing Tekken at the highest level, shone through in both of his matches. If he can carry this momentum heading into the next phase, we might just see another legendary tournament run from one of the greatest of all time.
Nobi has had a shockingly early exit. His Lars didn’t look that great and he even went back to his signature Dragunov to eliminate Mathieu “Kirakira” Nguyen from the competition in the elimination match. He switched back to Lars against Kkokkoma in the decider match. Even came close to advancing.
But Kkokkoma got the better of him in the scramble late in the series.
Overall, a fantastic Day 1 of the EWC Tekken 8 Group Stage for the South Korean delegation at the event, with only two Pakistani players surviving the first day. Tomorrow’s matches will feature Groups E through H, starting with defending EWC champion Lim “Ulsan” Soo-hoon versus Kim “JDCR” Hyun-jin.
