TEKKEN 7 at CEO 2023: A Memorable Birthday

CEO, as one of the major tournaments in the Tekken World Tour calendar, gave top competitors a chance to carve out a few places inside the top 10. All eyes were on Arslan Ash, who so far had earned his 1st place on the back of his excellent Evo Japan and Combo Breaker performances. Could he once again take the top spot at a major to build up a gap to the rest of the pack? CEO 2023 would decide.

Tekken 7 at CEO 2023 | Stream, Top 8

A very close fight for the Top 8 at CEO 2023 gave us plenty of memorable matches. The talk of the bracket was Arslan Ash. As the reigning 1st place player in the TWT standings, everyone knew that a win here would only increase his advantage over everyone else. But a loss earlier in the bracket had placed the Pakistani player in the lower bracket and one loss away from leaving the event with only a handful of points for his efforts.

Starting with the upper side of the bracket, we saw JeonDDing defeat CBM to kick things off in a 2-1 series, followed by the American PhiDX bowing out to PINYA 2-0. In the winner finals, it was JeonDDing versus PINYA in a brilliant match that was much closer than what the scoreline of 3-1 poses.

On the lower bracket side, Arslan Ash battled fiercely over his tournament run with kkokkoma, but in the end, he would walk away with a 7th-place finish. All the while, the last European participant in Ghirlanda faced Chikurin, which would result in a 2-0 victory for the Japanese player. PhiDX then came up short against kkokkoma in a 2-1 series, and CBM began to mount his comeback earning a 2-1 victory over Chikurin and then following that up with another 2-1 win versus kkokkoma. In the loser finals, it was PINYA facing CBM in a Master Raven vs Noctis match-up that went the distance to the last round of game 5.

Tekken 7 at CEO 2023 | Stream, Grand Final