I've watched a lot of Tekken 8 tournaments this year—EVO Japan, CEO, Combo Breaker, the ones that run at my locals every other week—and none have captured my heart like this one which recently took place across a multitude of Japanese retirement homes.
As reported by , the tournament was put together by Care Esports. It hosts two events a year, giving elderly residents in care homes across three prefectures in Japan the opportunity to participate in a game, complete with commentary and all the other gubbins you would expect from a primo esports tourney.
A number of virtual shogi and Othello cups have been held by the organiser, but there's been another favourite cropping up in the last few tournaments: Tekken 7, and as of last year, Tekken 8. This year is no different, with eight elderly residents—ranging from 67 to a freakin' badass 93-year-old—duking it out from their respective facilities to become the King of Iron [[link]] Fist.
The whole thing is straight up wonderful to witness, and I saw some glimmers of very good-ass Tekken: An immaculately timed Rage Art from 93-year-old Sanae Hattori as Lili, some sweet launchers courtesy of 84-year-old Machie Maki's Jin, and 84-year-old Kinuko Watanabe busting out the heat smash with Jun.
Before each match saw the players getting their moment on-screen alongside the commentators, and it's super endearing to see just how into it everyone seems to be. The whole thing's in Japanese (unsurprisingly) so I wasn't able to get a vibe of what was being said, but it seems like there was plenty of support and cheerleaders going round in the facilities and from the commentators themselves.
They even get little post-match interviews—when can we make this a thing at EVO, please? I need that right now—and it's moments like these where I wish I'd kept up with My Japanese Coach on my Nintendo DS.
Eventually just two were left standing: 73-year-olds Yoshie Murabe and Sadayuki Kato, playing Panda and King respectively. The latter opens up into a pretty gnarly string ending with a grab to tornado his opponent, leaving her open to continue the combo. He whiffs that, but manages to snag the first round with an onslaught of classic grappler BS, ending with his heat smash.
Murabe doesn't take that lying down though—she comes back strong in the next round with some nice launcher combos that help secure her the win and gets a wild Rage Art off in the subsequent match to put her up one round against Kato.
Panda clinches the first game, but King comes back strong and secures a point, leaving the two 1-1 with a final game to determine the winner. It's close, too—the final game gets down to the last round, with both players having low enough health to deal extra damage and execute their Rage Arts. Which Panda does, narrowly avoiding a hit from King before dropping him on his head and nabbing the win.
It's a ridiculously fun couple of hours to witness, and I'm just happy to see people playing and enjoying my favourite fighting game. It's also nice to see how seriously it's taken on a production level—it's all fun at the end of the day, but I love to see each player being given their time to shine and commentators to make the whole experience feel like attending a real tournament. The next step is to bring this energy to a full fighting game major. I want an over 60s Tekken bracket, stat.