South Korea Wins Gold at 2026 Asian Games Fighting Game Competition

Over the weekend, Team South Korea took the gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games, held at Aichi Sky Expo and jointly hosted by Aichi and Nagoya. The gold medal was specifically for the Competitive Martial Arts category under esports.

The three games featured were Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and The King of Fighters XV. Each team was made up of three representatives, one for each game.

Korea defeated Japan 5-2 in the grand final to win the gold medal.

Bae Jae-Min, better known as Knee, dealt the finishing blow as he won the Tekken match against Nobi, which was the final match needed to secure the gold.

The teams were thus:

Team Japan
Street Fighter 6 - Higuchi
The King of Fighters XV - SCORE
Tekken 8 - Nobi

Team Korea
Street Fighter 6 - DaCorgi
The King of Fighters XV - MadKof
Tekken 8 - Knee

What was most remarkable about the Korean team was their age, with the youngest player, DaCorgi, participating at the age of 39. Both Knee and MadKof are 41 and 44 respectively. It just highlights the uniqueness of fighting games, where people that advanced in age can still play at the highest level.

This also means that Korea has retained the title in the fighting game category, as they were also the winners in 2022 when the games took place in Hangzhou, China. There, Street Fighter V was the featured game and M. Lizard was the winner. He was also over 40, as he was 43 at the time.

Team Japan walked away with a silver medal and a lot of pride in their performance.

It will be interesting to see how this appearance of esports in the Olympic Games evolves. Already, there are plans for a standalone event called the Olympic Esports Games, with the inaugural event set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2027. It had initially been planned for 2025, but that was not possible, with the event now set for next year.