Summary
Bandai Namcorecently held aTekken 8tournament in Bangkok, Thailand. This event, Thaiger Uppercut 2024, was a leg of the Tekken World Tour and despite a strong start from the player Chen “XCC” Ruolin, his tournament would end in disaster as officials disqualified him before Top 8 for a peculiar reason.
Ruolin wasn’t cheating or anything like that - he was disqualified because his country of origin is China, which isn’t one of the 189 countries recognised by therule book of the Tekken World Tour. This is especially surprising because the list of countries is so extensive that some of the smallest territories on Earth like Monaco, Tuvalu and Nauru are included but the second-most populous country in the world China, isn’t. It’s noteworthy that Taiwan and Hong Kong, territories which China claims dominion over, are included.
Bandai Namco Will Include China Going Forward
Bandai Namco has not provided an official reason as to why China isn’t an eligible country, but this non-inclusion ultimately cost Ruolin his tournament run. The Chinese player and Dragunov main had been undefeated up until the point he was disqualified. It’s also strange that Ruolin was allowed to play for hours before getting disqualified, as heclearly stated his country of originwhen he signed up for the tournament. Thaiger Uppercut 2024 was eventually won by Adeel “THE JON” Sheikh, a Pakistani player.
This bizarre event prompted a response from Bandai Namco, which released a statement in response. “After careful consideration, for the Tekken World Tour 2024 Global Finals, we will update the official rules to allow players from China to compete via the Last Chance Qualifier,” the post reads. This event will take place in Tokyo, and Ruolin and other affected players will have their travel and accommodation costs covered by Bandai Namco. Bandai Namco will also be trying to ensure a similar situation does not arise during the Tekken World Tour 2025.
Tekken 8 game director Katsuhiro Harada alsotook to social mediato commit to including more countries in the future, despite “visa and other issues.” There still hasn’t been a clear statement as to why China wasn’t included in the first place, but it’s good to see the issue is being addressed and Ruolin will get to compete once more.
Tekken 8
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Tekken 8 is the next-gen evolution of the long-running fighting game series from Bandai Namco. It brings back several popular characters and adds new, while it also introduces the new ‘Heat’ mechanic.
