TEKKEN World Tour: Electric Clash 2024 showcases FGC and beyond

Electric Clash 2024 has crowned Kim "Kkokkoma" Mu-jong as the winner of the first TEKKEN World Tour 2024 Challenger event! The tournament took place at Humber College's North Campus throughout April 20 and showcased the skills of 245 players. These competitors included folks from around the world, all aiming for high placements. We sat down with players and attendees to get their thoughts on the TEKKEN World Tour 2024 event and more!

Throughout the day, players such as Sammy "Pok8" Park and Ryan "BlackBoards" Kenny duked it out in Electric Clash 2024. While the main goal was to place as high as possible in order to obtain global leaderboard points, that wasn't the only reason players attended the event.

Pok8, for example, went to compete and meet up with others in the fighting game community (FGC). He also revealed that Korean streamer Daddy King's TEKKEN 7 content had inspired him to go competitive. Meanwhile, BlackBoards, who was originally a competitive Mortal Kombat player before getting into TEKKEN 7 and TEKKEN 8, told esports.gg that he attended to hang out with friends.

These players were joined by Austin "cptneccbrd" Pavao, who both competed and did the commentary for Electric Clash 2024.

"I initially started as a casual player of Super Smash Bros. But I saw Terry Bogard get added to the game," cptneccbrd said. "And I started looking through old SNK stuff and I fell in love with this Rock Howard character. And I saw that he was in TEKKEN. TEKKEN 7 was free on Game Pass, so I tried it out. And I've been hooked ever since."

The TEKKEN World Tour 2024 event featured artists in addition to the competitors and broadcast talent. Cmcookiez, for example, emphasized her love for TEKKEN 8 and cosplayed as Ling Xiaoyu. She also told esports.gg about how she joined the FGC.

"Towards the end of COVID, I started playing more fighting games with my friend. And that got me to really want to do all the fighting games again," cmcookiez said. "I posted them online and they were really well received. And that got me wanting to do more fighting game stuff and get involved in the community. We have a really good community here in Toronto as well as overall in Canada. Everyone's been super welcoming."

Also at the Humber College venue was film student Nathaniel Navarro. His task involved capturing the best moments of the international esports tournament. As a Humber College student as well, he felt excited and honored to be a part of Electric Clash 2024. He told esports.gg that he had grown up playing video games with his father and had always loved video production. Filming esports now lets him kill two birds with one stone.

"I always hope to continue to be out here," Navarro continued. "Even possibly traveling around the world to be filming events like this. I want to be able to feel being a part of things that are ongoing in this world. You only live once. You've got to make the most of it. I want to be able to just live my life knowing that I've gotten to do all this, I've gotten to do certain things that no other person has probably been able to do. So this is what I'm going to continue to do. This is my passion. This is what I want to do in life. And whatever path I take, I believe it will be great."

Meanwhile, Guillermo Acosta, the senior dean from Humber's Faculty of Media & Creative Arts, attended the event alongside Bernard "Raynex" Mafei, the senior administrator of Esports at Humber. Raynex, in particular, ranked first place at one point in Canada as a Super Smash Bros. Melee competitor. He detailed his on-the-ground experience in the competitive scene, the rapid growth of esports programs in education, plus the impact of the transferable skills gained from competitive gaming.

Raynex added that Humber College, in particular, includes fields such as industrial design, UX design, sports management, and journalism. All of these programs prepare students for diverse roles in gaming and esports. There's a community aspect to it all as well.

"When kids are coming here, they care about what programs they wanna take. What's gonna keep them here if it's not athletics? If it's not something extracurricular that they vibe with? Esports gives them the hobby that they've always had. And now we can support it in a really big way," Raynex told esports.gg "For them, it could be the thread that keeps them connected to academics, finding friends, finding a job."

To Raynex, post-secondary education provides an excellent proving ground and environment to demonstrate the value, skills, and opportunities in esports and beyond.

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