Anakin talks TEKKEN 8, FGC, and origin story at Evo 2024: “Every tournament feels like a family reunion.”

Evo Las Vegas 2024 was where players within the fighting game community (FGC) gathered to duke it out for the gold, meet up and cheer for their favorite players, and check out video game demos all weekend. Among the attendees was Hoa "Anakin" Luu representing Red Bull eSports, who sat down with esports.gg for an exclusive interview about TEKKEN 8, the FGC's growth over the years, and more! He also talked about how he got into the TEKKEN franchise in the first place!

To Anakin, Evo is an event where he can reconnect with people he hasn't seen in a long time. Having been part of the scene for years, this sense of reunion is one of his favorite aspects of it all. Major FGC tournaments like Evo feel like family reunions to him. They also bring together friends, professional players aiming for circuit points, and less competitive players who can only attend a few events a year.

"When it comes to major tournaments in the FGC in general, every tournament feels like a family reunion," Anakin told esports.gg. "You see a lot of friends — whether it be fellow professional players that are traveling to win points for the circuit or other players that you've met and known throughout the years but aren't as competitive so they only have time or resources to maybe dedicate to attending only one or two events a year. And if that were the case, they'd probably choose some of the more bigger tournaments. Evo is usually one where you can count on seeing guys that you haven't seen in a really long time."

In addition to the reunion aspect of it, Evo is about seeing new players and enjoying the evolving scene as well. Since the partnership with PlayStation involving Evo co-founders Tom and Tony Cannon, many changes have made the event feel more inclusive. Previously, it was strictly a tournament-focused event, according to Anakin. Now, it features an artist alley, developer booths, shops, and even casual gaming areas. These additions have addressed past complaints while drawing in both serious players and folks just wanting to have a good time.

When asked about his thoughts on the TEKKEN 8 competition at Evo Las Vegas 2024, Anakin shared that the competition since TEKKEN 7 has really intensified. The introduction of the TEKKEN World Tour (TWT) allowed players to go professional and increased the overall competition level. TEKKEN 7's popularity also brought a wave of new players who gained a lot of experience, which later set a high standard for TEKKEN 8. The game’s difficulty means it takes years to master. Therefore, the competitive pool is now extremely tough. However, this also means more high-quality matches that happen earlier in tournaments.

"When it comes to being a successful competitive player in TEKKEN, you need experience," Anakin said. "That's a key thing because it's such a difficult game to learn. It takes years to kind of get that down. So all those guys coming into TEKKEN 8 — now they're super experienced. It's never been more difficult, but that's a good thing because whereas in TEKKEN 7, you might see high-quality matches at a certain part in the tournament. Now you're seeing it much, much earlier in the bracket."

Anakin then revealed to esports.gg that online play is crucial for staying competitive, given the geographic spread of the top American players, in particular. This has led to a "Wild West" period with many upsets. Therefore, he is all for daily practice, livestreaming, and staying updated in order to adapt to the evolving strategies and balance changes in the current iteration of TEKKEN.

"I do think that offline is the preferred way when it comes to practice for just about any competitive player because even a millisecond or two of delay in your input can affect the match drastically," he explained. "It's much better to play face to face. And then when it comes to competing in tournaments, there's something to be said about sitting next to your opponent and being comfortable in that type of situation or having people watch live or over your shoulder. So it's like the game outside of the game."

Anakin also shared that he's still enjoying TEKKEN even after over 20 years. He loves the game's continuity and the graphics upgrade on new consoles like the PlayStation 5. When he first played competitively in 2002, the FGC was small and tight-knit. Later, TEKKEN 7 brought a surge of new, younger players. Over time, local tournaments have grown from 16 to 32 participants to hundreds, making fighting games more popular than ever.

"The growth has been pretty exciting — to sit back and watch everything unfold as someone who's been playing since the days when not many people played fighting games," Anakin said. "And now it's pretty cool to play fighting games. A lot of people from other genres of games and esports are trying TEKKEN on the side, playing it for fun, and getting to learn what the fighting game is all about. It's been really cool to see, and I'm lucky enough to be able to play as a pro for a few years now. So basically living my dream."

As for how Anakin got into the FGC in the first place, he actually used to play Street Fighter at Walmart. There used to be areas for video games in department stores for kids while their parents did some shopping. Later, Anakin discovered the fun of player-versus-player (PvP) after trading games with another kid in his old apartment complex.

"I liked that style of gaming more and more. It's a player versus player. So I've always gravitated towards that even at an early age. I really enjoyed asking my older sister to play or asking my dad to play. That was the start of it," he said. "And then we went to the mall, which had an arcade and I saw TEKKEN, which was familiar, so I played a lot of it."

He then recalled his times at the arcade itself. While kids redeemed tickets for candy and toys, Anakin simply went to play TEKKEN there. Since the arcade version only awarded players for victories, it encouraged Anakin to keep winning to play his next opponent.

"The feeling of being a little kid at the arcade beating the older guys playing TEKKEN was what made me switch from being the casual kid at the arcade to a serious gamer at an early age. And the rest is history."

That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more interviews, news, and updates across the FGC!