One would assume the South Korean or Japanese players would at least be the finalists in Evo Japan 2019’s major Tekken 7 tournament. Pakistan’s Arslan_Ash and The Philippines’ AK ended up proving doubters and non-believers wrong with their display of technical know-how.

First up, we have Arslan_Ash fighting tooth and claw with Kazumi out of loser’s bracket against the many, MANY world-class Tekken 7 players in top 8. He had to take out Thailand’s Book (arguably an underdog in the Tekken scene), US’ JimmyJTran, and Japan’s Chikurin, and CherryBerryMango.

Meanwhile, AK was doing fine remaining at Winner’s Bracket, pushing down CherryBerryMango and JimmyJTran for the Pakistan player to finish them off.

AK even showed off a lot of risky reads with his blatant use of Shaheen’s hop kicks. This is the equivalent of a Daigo Umehara-patented Ume-Shoryu; big payoff that scares opponents, even bigger punish if it whiffs.

It was clear as day that Arslan_Ash was no slouch in the pro player Tekken 7 business. He had to fight 2 sets against AK in the Grand Finals. It wasn’t easy, but his patience against the really young Filipino player shows.

AK decided to go all-out with Paul, his other main pick. Paul is big on damage but is pretty slow. Clearly it didn’t pay off.

After a few good reads and punishes, we have ourselves a new Tekken 7 star: Pakistan’s Arslan_Ash.

Despite not winning the gold, Southeast Asian Tekken 7 players and fans should give a shoutout to both AK and Book for making it this far and bodying a lot of pros from Japan and South Korea doing so. Here are the top 8 players of this tournament:

1. Arslan_Ash
2. PBE_AK
3. CherryBerryMango
4. chukurin
5. DestinyTK
6. JimmyJTran
7. SAINT
8. Book