Activists Interrupt EGX Arena 2023

A major incident happened during the EGX Arena 2023 in London. The top-8 bracket of the Tekken 7 tournament was disrupted by activists. They sprayed orange paint on the screens inside the venue and interrupted the event.

According to activists, "Today at 15:48pm, cosplaying as ‘Ghostbusters’ characters, the three used adapted water pistols to target a viewing screen for the Tekken 7 tournament winner’s final being held at ‘The Arena’ stage in London’s Excel conference centre. They were escorted out by venue security, before being arrested for Criminal Damage by the Metropolitan Police."

The tournament was paused for about 30-40 minutes — some of the equipment needed to be replaced.

After that, the tournament resumed. One of the goals of these activists was to persuade the gamers to march with them: "Gamers co-operate to win, and we need these skills to survive."

The initial reaction from the FGC members to this incident, however, seems to be quite the opposite:

One of the faces of the FGC, Dominique "SonicFox" McLean, shared their opinion on the matter: "I definitely think this is way off target and the wrong place to protest something like this. It doesn’t make sense like, at all for this environment???" 

While the activists hoped to recruit some gamers to their cause, the total effect might seem to be different. In the end, the Tekken 7 tournament has successfully ended despite all the disruptive effort.