At the Tekken 7 tournament held at EVO Japan, no one could escape the dominance of one of the strongest characters to be added to the game.
Six out of the top eight players used Leroy, one of the newest DLC characters. The final ended in a tense 3 - 2 victory between Thai Nopparut “Book” Hempamorn, playing Leroy, and Japanese Ryoto “Mikio” Ikeda, playing Laura.
Tekken 7, a fighting game that never quite reached the popularity of Street Fighter 5 in North America, has been steadily growing in popularity across multiple regions in the world. Tekken’s use of 3D space offers a layer of depth that sets it apart from 2D fighting games like Street Fighter and Smash.
Having consistently placed top eight in major Tekken 7 tournaments since 2017, Book finally broke through with the newly introduced American martial artist that was announced following EVO 2019. On his path to finals, Book triumphed over many of Tekken 7’s most respected players, including Sun-woong “LowHigh” Yoon and Jinwoo “Saint” Choi.
Although Leroy was considered a strong character in the weeks leading up to EVO Japan 2020, no one expected such an oppressive representation of the character.
“I didn't expect that many people were going to pick him. It's not the power of the character, it was whether people would switch to him before the tournament and like everybody did,” said fighting game commentator Stephen “Sajam” Lyon.
The Leroy dominated top 8 was especially disappointing after last year’s tournament which saw the previously unknown player Arslan "Arslan Ash" Siddique win after beating out some of Japan’s and Korea’s top players in dominant fashion. Arslan Ash’s win at EVO Japan 2019 had made Tekken 7 the most diverse it had ever been with east asian dominance of the game being challenged by Pakistani players.
Going into EVO Japan 2020, eyes were on Arslan Ash to see if he could defend his title. No one could have expected that he would be knocked out in the loser's semi-finals of round 3 pools, with his Zafina losing to Leroy. Even Arslan’s longtime rival, Korean Jae-Min "Knee" Bae, was knocked out in the loser's semi-finals of round 3 pools after also losing to a Leroy.
Regardless of Leroy’s relative strength in comparison to the other characters represented at EVO Japan, Book’s skill on the character made him a cut above the rest and his victory shows that the Thai Tekken 7 community can compete with the Japanese and Korean competition.