Philippines finishes 7th at Gamers8 Tekken 7 Nations Cup

The Philippines finished in seventh place at the Gamers8 Tekken 7 Nations Cup tournament in Saudi Arabia, tying with Australia.

The Gamers8 Tekken 7 Nations Cup took place from July 6 to 9, 2023 in Riyadh. Unlike normal fighting game competitions, which are individual events with open brackets, the Nations Cup was an invitational tournament featuring teams of three players representing each of the 16 invited nations.

At stake was a $1,000,000 prize pool, one of the largest ever seen in competitive fighting games. (Read: The Capcom Pro Tour’s $2 million prize pool is a good start, but we’re not out of the woods yet)

Representing the Philippines were Andre “AK” Lavarez, Andreij “Doujin” Albar and Julioano “Jules” Lozano, all from the Playbook Esports team.

Team Philippines started out the group stage of the tournament in Group B alongside Bolivia, Germany and South Korea. In this group, the team won 2-1 against Germany and 3-0 against Bolivia, losing only 2- 1 against Tekken powerhouse South Korea. The latter was represented by Bae “Knee” Jae-min and Kang “Chanel” Seong-ho from DRX, and Lim “Ulsan” Soo-hoon from KDF.

The results put the team in second in Group B, allowing the team to proceed to the playoff stage in the lower bracket. However, the Philippines’ playoff run at the Gamers8 Tekken 7 Nations Cup ended in the first round when they faced Team Japan, who defeated them 3-0. Playing for Japan were Daichi “Nobi” Nakayama from Yamasa, Yuta “Chikurin” Take from THY, and Akihiro “Ao” Abe from GyoGun.

The loss to Japan put the Philippines in seventh place, tied with Australia, which lost to France. Meanwhile, Japan finished in third after losing to South Korea. The overall grand champion of the event was Pakistan.

The Pakistani team, consisting of Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique from Red Bull Esports, and Atif “Atif” Ijaz and Imran “Khan” Khan from FATE eSports, defeated South Korea 3-0 in the winners’ finals, forcing the latter to have to fight and defeat Japan 3-0 in the losers finals, before beating them again 3-1 in the grand finals.

The final standings, including player names and character use, can be seen below.

• Champion: Pakistan
  RB|Arslan Ash (Kunimitsu, Zafina)
  Fate|Atif (Akuma)
  Fate|Khan (Marduk)
• 2nd place: South Korea
  DRX|Knee (Bryan, Feng, Steve, Heihachi, Negan)
  DRX|Chanel (Eliza, Kunimitsu, Alisa, Zafina, Claudio)
  KDF|Ulsan (Kazumi, Bob)
• 3rd place: Japan
  Yamasa|Nobi (Feng, Dragunov)
  THY|Chikurin (Geese)
  GyoGun|Ao (Kunimitsu)
• 4th place: United States
  FaZe|Joey Fury (Marduk)
  RB|Anakin (JACK-7)
  PAR|JoeCrush (JACK-7, Geese)
• 5th place (tie): France
  CRaZY|SuperAkouma (Akuma)
  Jodd (Nina)
  Gunni (JACK-7)
• 5th place (tie): United Kingdom
  K-Wiss (Hwoarang)
  Falcon|JoKa (Feng)
  Gosain (Law)
• 7th place (tie): Philippines
  PBE|AK (Akuma)
  PBE|Doujin (Leroy, Shaheen, Leo, Lili, Claudio)
  PBE|Jules (Jin, Bob, Claudio)
• 7th place (tie): Australia
  Yagami (Katarina, Kunimitsu)
  Bobby (Master Raven)
  6 Weetbix (Lidia)

The other nations in the tournament who dropped out after the group stage were Bolivia, Cote d’Ivoire, Jordan, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Thailand.

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