Gaming tournament at Wits was a knockout with some worthy winners receiving a monetary prize.
The first ever stand-alone Tekken gaming tournament at Wits was held on Saturday, August 24 at the TW Kambule Mathematical Science building.
JHBeat Down, a Fighting Game Community (FGC) group in association with Press! Gaming hosted the tournament at Wits for the first time outside of the monthly casual tournaments held in Randburg.
“A mate of mine, Spag [Austin Carolus] knew a lot of Wits players, so he suggested we have it here,” said Brandon King, one of the organisers of the Wits tournament.
Tekken is a fighting video game played mostly on PlayStation 4, but also on PC. The tournament had players aim to win two matches which consisted of three rounds. The grand finals had players aim to win three matches.
Players were randomly paired in the first round brackets, and players progressed based on whether they won or not. Players who lost still had a chance to come back in for a shot at the finals when placed in the losers’ bracket.
Unisa student Zahraa Khan, who went by her gamer-tag “Iron Fist”, impressed spectators and fellow participants when she placed second in the grand finale and in the overall rankings. She won around R500, the sum of entrance fees collected for the tournament, as well as the sort after Press! Gaming t-shirt.
Khan expressed happiness and shock at her achievement.
“I still can’t believe I made it this far,” she told Wits Vuvuzela. “I’ve entered some tournaments before, but this is the first time I have ever achieved such a high ranking,” she added.
This event was recognised as a , a mini tournament to accumulate points. Players who accumulate these points from a number of dojo tournaments will be invited to go into the TWT (Tekken World Tour) Finals which only calls up the top 19 players in the world.
A Dojo event is one of the smaller competitions as it attracts a smaller audience and participants, as opposed to tournaments with larger and more skilled players taking part.
There were around 30 entrants, including three females, who paid R50 which went toward the prize for the top 3 combatants. The prize money pool was made up of the entrance fee with the total coming to R1 500. It was a welcoming atmosphere to those who were spectators, first time players and long-time competitors.
On the number of females present at Wits, King said that JHBeatDown’s one aim is to “make the fighting game community an open and welcoming one for female combatants to come and play without feeling belittled.”
King added he was impressed by the large turnout of players and spectators.
“Since we host monthly tournaments at the Nexus Hub in Randburg, we have around 15 people, excluding myself and my nine friends who organise the tournaments. The number here was pretty staggering,” said King.
“Consistency needs growth,” said King in regards to whether the big turnout to the fighting game tournament would bode well for the growth of the FGC in Johannesburg.
“There is also an FGC in Cape Town, whom are also friends with us up here, so we’re not a small community,” he said. “We would definitely hope this grows the FGC in Johannesburg, and have done enough to have an event like this again at Wits,” he concluded.
FEATURED IMAGE: Zahraa Khan (left) against Miguel Mabica (Bigdaddymack, right) in the semi-final of the Tekken tournament at TW Kambule Mathematical Science Building. Photo: Khomotso Makgabutlane
