Tekken 7 Players Comment on Their Groups at WUFL Season 1

WePlay Ultimate Fighting League Season 1 has already crowned its champions for Mortal Kombat 11 and SOULCALIBUR VI – SonicFox and Woahhzz. But we are far from being finished, as today starts the WUFL Tekken 7 tournament. All the competitors were divided into groups A and B before the event.

We asked each of the players about the groups they have been seeded into and gathered all their responses in this article.

Group A:

Arslan Ash

My group has many good players, such as Caiper, Saint, and Book, who is an Evo Japan champion. So I’ve got some good opponents. I just want to win. It is not like I'm looking forward to playing against someone or to prove something. In this group, nobody has beaten me in the past. So, it’s not like I want to take revenge. But I'm so excited to have such cool challengers in this group. 

I’ve prepared something against a few players, especially against Book and Saint. They are the top players in my group. I'm not the kind of person who surprises my opponents with my picking. I'm gonna play my old characters. I will concentrate on Steve Fox, Zafina, and Julia.

I have no specific person I want to play against at this tournament. I would like to play against Knee, but he is not here.

Asim

I’m a bit nervous about the group stage because I didn't play at a tournament in more than a year due to the COVID situation. Still, I'm pretty excited at the same time to play at an offline event. My confidence is like 50/50 - I'm not really practiсing the whole year. But I don't know how other players are doing in the practice. I was playing some casuals with Danielmado yesterday, and he's doing really good. Luckily, he is not in my pool. Arslan Ash is in my group, and he's practicing a lot, I can see him streaming every day. Apart from him, I don't know if anybody else is fully prepared. 

I was just trying to prepare myself because I didn't play for a long time. I'm trying to pick at least two characters that I can use. Katarina and Miguel are good for my playing style, so most likely, I’m gonna use these two.

Arslan Ash is obviously the strongest player in the group. Book is also very strong, but Arslan’s level is completely different. He's been dominating over everyone, and he will be #1 in Group A. If SAINT is practicing properly and he is in a proper performing state, he should be number two. Then I would say Caiper will make it through because he went to Pakistan just to practice this game. He was there for a whole month. And Book will be fourth.

I think Arslan will be the hardest opponent for me. And also Saint - I've played against him before, and I had a hard time. Other tough guys are Caiper and probably Kirakira.

Personally, I’m looking forward to playing against Kirakira. I went to Switzerland for a tournament with him, and I practiced with him yesterday, so I want to see how I’ll play against his Eliza.

Book

I don't know who is going to be top four and go to the next round. But I think it should be fun because I lost to a lot of people in this group. I feel one, I feel like I want to prove myself again, and this tournament is a good opportunity to get revenge. 

I would love to play against everyone. Because mostly I just want to play offline Tekken. And I feel like it doesn’t matter who I play against, it's about the tournament. Whoever I play against, I’m happy to play against them.

Still, I would especially like to play against Arslan Ash and JDCR - and get my revenge. Arslan will be the most problematic in Group A. He is one of the best players. I’m not sure about Saint because his performance has changed since 2017, his performance has been shaky.   

I’m not preparing for someone specifically, the first thing that I have to prepare is myself.

Saint

I don't know some European players in my Group, I never met them, and I have no idea about their play. Still, I’ve been practicing a lot, I’m ready to fight. I can make it to the top eight, and I’ll do my best to do so.

My strongest opponents are Arslan Ash, Book, and Ghirlanda. Book is a very talented player, I met him before, a long time ago. He has a lot of experience, and his character is hard for my fighter. Arslan is super strong, and his character is also a hard matchup. Ghirlanda plays the same character, Ganryu, and this mirror match is not easy for me.

I’m not thinking about fighting someone specifically at WUFL. I would like to make it to the Grand Final and play against JDCR. But now, I’m concentrating on making it out of the group.

KiraKira

Obviously, I want to pass my pool. I know that I'm not totally a favorite because Group A has such players as Saint from Korea, Arslan Ash, who will probably be #1, and Book from Thailand, who won the last big event from 2020. I think five Europeans will fight for the fourth spot. Caiper went to Pakistan to practice, but I think I can beat him - I need my revenge because he beat me last year in my last tournament. So I really want to beat him and finish at least fourth, but the higher the better.

I feel confident against most European opponents in the group - but maybe not against Caiper because he beat me once. Arslan will try to play Eliza against me, which is my character and he wants to beat me in the mirror match. But I'm confident that when I'm fully aware of what's happening, I can beat him.

Caiper

Group A is very, very difficult. Everyone here can win international tournaments. Arslan Ash is the best player in the world. Ghirlanda won the last chance qualifier for one of the most difficult tournaments in the world. Book is famous around the world because his Jin is super strong, and also Jin is a very big counter for my peak. I don't know about borissonic, but if he's here, he must be good. Asim - I know him very well, I have a very nice course against him. But anyway, he's super strong and everything can happen. And Saint is a legend! So, this group is very difficult. I think both groups are very difficult. But I feel I can do good. I can do a good job here. I trust in my pick, not in myself. I want to face that kind of difficulty. This is a reason I'm here - to face top international prayers. This group is what I need after the COVID, to come back to the competition. 

I know very well most of the opponents. So I think I'm prepared for them.

Arslan Ash will be the most problematic in Group A. He is the strongest player in the world. He must be a problem. I know him, we played many matches. I was in Pakistan. His pick is bad for my pick. Also, he knows a lot about how that matchup works. But that would be fun. I will do my best to win. I will win!

The top four players are going to be Arslan Ash, Book, Saint, and me - but not in that order. 

In my group, I never played against Ghirlanda. Arslan won against me at one tournament a long time ago. I never played against Book. I won many times over Kirakira, I didn't play Boris. I won many times over Asim. And Saint defeated me four years ago, the last time we met. So of course, I want to win everybody. And also in the other group, I want to face Bilal. He is super strong, and his Bryan is very strong. So what I want to do is to face him and defeat him, because I'm a fan of his gameplay.

Ghirlanda

I'm in Group A, and I believe it’s the easiest of the two groups. So I consider myself lucky. Arslan Ash will make it out for sure. I think Book will pass for sure. I'm not sure about the rest. Saint is a huge, huge question mark because I don't know how good he is now. He was super good, but I don't know how he's going to be now. borissonic is a super incognita because nobody knows his playstyle. So, he's dangerous. I'm a huge incognita too because until now, I’ve been playing freestyle with the others, and I did very bad. But at a tournament, I'm another player. It's not the first time that I go somewhere, and I lose in free play, and then I do super good at a tournament. So also, I mean apart from the first two positions, all the others are huge, huge incognita. The tournament is well balanced.

I’m here to win, so everything is in store. I shouldn't tell, though - don't want to reveal. Yes, I don't want to say anything. I’m gonna try my best. There is no point in not trying my best.

I didn't prepare for anybody especially. I had no time to prepare for something. Preparing for a single opponent takes a lot of time. More than one day, more than two days, and I knew the group just yesterday. I definitely did something to prepare for the matches.

I don't like to talk about revenge in fighting games. I'm a very peaceful person. But yeah, I remember that. The last time I faced Kirakira, he won, and I was out of the group stage because of that. It was a tournament in France. If I won, or even lost with only one round or more, I would qualify, but he defeated me. That was three years ago, but I still remember. So yeah, let's say I want my little revenge on Kirakira! We are good friends, but it will be a satisfaction to win against him.

I would like to say a shoutout to everybody who supports me, to the people in the Katarina Discord, they were kind of close to me these days. Shoutout to everybody who follows my stream - I would like to thank you for the support!

borissonic

I already played casuals against Ghirlanda, Kirakira, and Jopelix. We had some even matches with Kira and Ghirlanda. Jopelix is a beast, honestly. I've seen some snippets of how other guys play, and Arslan has been killing it. But basically, he's doing this his whole career. I bet he's gonna win the whole tournament. Saint and Book haven't played much during the last year, but they're strong, fundamental players, so I'm pretty sure they're gonna go into the top eight. Caiper has been practicing in Pakistan before that. And you know how crazy Pakistani players are. They can sit for 10 hours straight, labbing certain characters. I expect a lot from him as well. And also Asim. You can’t sleep on him. Even though he hasn't been playing the game lately, I'm sure he's gonna kill some players. 

I'm gonna win, or at least get second place in the tournament. Realistically though, I don't know. I'm like a wildcard pick because I don't have many results. We’ll see - nobody expected me to match. I’m preparing for my opponents... random hopkicks, I guess. Ukrainian Tekken is different from other countries’ Tekken. We just press buttons, we don't think. People expect us to think, and that's where we're better than them. They're overthinking the game. We just mash the buttons. 

Arslan Ash will be the most problematic, and also Saint... Everyone is going to be problematic. It's like top players. Everyone here is strong, the lineup is stacked.

But I want to play against Arslan Ash and SAINT - it’s an honor. Saint is a legend. He hasn't been playing much because of Covid. And Arslan is just the best player. Playing against him and losing to him - it’s an honor.

Group B:

JDCR

Group B actually looks tough. I mean, Group A is also tough. But in Group B, I think the Pakistani players look strong. And then there's also one of the best players from Italy, Danielmado. He's also strong. And then, I kind of don't like that there are two Akuma mains in my group. There's no one you could call easy or weak. So, yeah, Group B is really tough.

I think Akuma players will be my toughest opponents because I don't have much experience against Akuma offline. As for my characters, I'm gonna play either Dragunov or Fahkumram. Dragunov has been my main for a long time, but I don't think he is as effective or strong in the tournament environment anymore. So I picked Fahkumram as my second character. It's not about counter picking any character, I think Fahkumram is better in general. But I think that I still don't have as much experience with Fahkumram as I have with Dragunov, so I'll be using two characters.

I think people should keep an eye on Pakistani players, they are very strong. I think that Danielmado is also really good. And actually Jopelix. Some people don't know him, but I saw him at Evo two years ago and he played really well. I want to play against Arslan Ash and Saint from Group A. Oh, and against Caiper as well.

Fergus

I understand that there are some favorites to win, obviously. In my group, there are JDCR, Bilal, and Awais Honey. I would say they have a strong chance of qualifying. And then there are five Europeans. We're all quite strong. And I think it's going to be a bloodbath between the Europeans. I expect at least one or two of the three I mentioned to make it through, and the rest of the Europeans. I want to go through, obviously, that's why I'm here. I'll just do my best. I think if you have expectations going in, it's just gonna affect your gameplay because you're thinking, "Okay, I need to win this, I need to win this, I need to win this." So the best thing is just to go in and play, and then it's a “whatever happens – happens” kind of thing.

I would say JDCR will be my toughest opponent because he has years and years of tournament experience of high-level Tekken. So I think he will be my toughest opponent. I came into this term and thinking, "Okay, I'm gonna have a few characters to play." Because I have my character Asuka, which I'm kind of known for as long as I've been playing Tekken competitively. But I think I'm straying away from her recently and going on to different characters because I've had more success with them. And being in the practice room, playing all these players, I've noticed that Asuka doesn't quite excel on this kind of level as much as I thought. So I'm having more success with other characters, which I will probably use in this tournament.

Everyone has their fanbases, but I think the person that everyone should be paying attention to is obviously me. Because I'm the one taking part in the group. So everyone should be looking out for me.

I would like to play JDCR here in Group B because I would say he is maybe the toughest opponent here. I played him multiple times over the years in tournaments, not just in Tekken 7, but also in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. So I want to get my runback because he has beaten me every encounter we had. I really want to get my runback on him. Even if it's 1:5 or 1:6, it's still a one, right? So I want to try and get that one at this event.

Bilal

I think, for me, my toughest opponent will be Awais Honey. We used to play together, we are training partners. And from other people, it can be Danielmado and JDCR. I think I'll be ready for them, and I'll try my best to win. My top-4 predictions are JDCR, Awais Honey, Danielmado, and me. I've played versus most of my group opponents. I think I know well what they are going to do tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I’ll also be watching their recent matches on YouTube to remind myself of the things they're going to do. It's like homework. So I'll do my homework, and I'll be ready before the matchday. But I know that there is a guy Danielmado, he can be troublesome for me, he can create some problems.

Super Akouma

There are only two groups, but I think I'm in the hardest one. However, I think the level is not that far apart from the best to the worst in the group. So it's gonna be a really interesting one, I think anyone can realistically expect to get out of it. So it's gonna be a good one.

The toughest opponent for me is definitely, not Awais Honey. Definitely not. It's probably between Awais and JDCR. Level-wise, they're around my level, but I just struggle against them. Fergus tends to beat me in tournaments. I've lost BLACKBEARD a lot. Jopelix, too. I've lost a lot to a lot of my group, even though I should be able to be all of them. So let's hope today's the day I finish the job. There was no preparation for the tournament for me. We can't play offline as we're stuck in COVID lockdown. I've been focusing on my content and I'm just seeing what happens. I'm trying to get as much practice in while I'm here because everyone's practicing together. So that’s how I'm preparing, I guess. But before coming to Ukraine, I didn't do anything. I'm just hoping for the best.

It feels amazing, being back offline. Now that I've played the guys, that's how I know this pool is going to be pretty close. I'm feeling more confident now that I've actually played the tough guys. I did well, I did pretty well. So yeah, I feel confident. The top four players in the group will probably be JDCR, Awais Honey, Bilal, and Super Akouma. There's also Danielmado, but I still think Bilal will make it over him because there are people in the group that can beat Daniel. I think I might lose to Bilal, but I don't think I will lose to Daniel.

BLACKBEARD

Both of these groups are really hard. I can't say if Group A is better or Group B is better. Some of the strongest players in the world right now are the Pakistani players, and I have two of them in my group. So my expectations are that, I hope that I can give them my 100%. I've been a little bit out of practice because it's been an era of lockdown and online. I didn't like playing online that much, I prefer an offline environment. So it's good to be trying to get back in shape. But I hope I can maybe clutch the fourth place and get into top-8. But I'm not going to underestimate anyone because I know all of them are top players. I can't say this guy is worse than this guy because all of them are great in their own way. Everyone has a unique playstyle. So it's all about trying to clutch it out, and hopefully, get a qualification from the group.

I don't think it's really the characters that are problems. Of course, they are strong characters in this game. Someone like Awais Honey, who plays Akuma – and Akuma is one of the if not the strongest character in this game – is going to pull him out. So I think he could be a problem. But also someone like Bilal, one of the best Bryan players in the world right now. Very, very effective, very consistent. My eyes are definitely on the Pakistanis, but all the rest, like Fergus and Danielmado, are also super, super strong. So I don't focus specifically on anyone. I'm just gonna take it at the moment and just play my game.

I've been a little bit out of the scene lately. When offline was around, I was around. But this last year, it's just been all about online, and haven't really participated online. Because I don't like online, it's a different game, it's a different dynamic, it's a different rhythm. The thing is, everyone in this tournament is recognized in some way. So if I have to be fair, no one's heard about borissonic, for example, but he's in another group. I would like people to pay attention to him, this could be his breakthrough performance. But in my group, people know who everyone is. So I'd say, pay attention to everyone in the group.

Awais Honey

At this tournament, I will try my best to beat everyone. I expect that JDCR will give me a very tough time. There's also Bilal. We are training partners back in Pakistan, so I think we know each other's game very well. He can also give me a very tough time.

I heard about this tournament two months ago. So I prepared too much for this tournament. But I didn't expect to see these players. Someone else who was supposed to come got problems with COVID, so everything changed. I'll just prepare now. I think the players that the viewers should keep attention to are JDCD and Bilal. Probably also Danielmado and Super Akouma.

From the characters, I think facing Fahkumram is very hard. Anyone who plays Fahkumram - I hate you. I also don't really don't like to play against Eddy. Addy. I hate him ever since I started playing the game. His playstyle is very different, he's always down low down on the ground, so you can't do anything.

Jopelix

My expectations for the group are that I'm gonna make it through. I'm confident. I'm feeling it, you know? I got a good character, I picked Claudio. I've been practicing and been playing well recently. I played with the guys today, and I was doing good. I think I can make it through. Probably. We got Awais Honey, Bilal, and JDCR. They are the favorites, and then people are gonna say, "Oh, those three and Super Akouma." I don't know, chief, I don't know. I mean, I'm homies with SuperAkouma. Danielmado is really good. BLACKBEARD. First to two? He's got that on lockdown. He does a lot of crazy stuff. But who's gonna make it through? Of course, I'm going to say myself. Yeah, I'm confident like that. Then I feel like Bilal is gonna make it. I like his Bryan. Next, I'm gonna say, is SuperAkouma. And then it's a 50/50, which one? Yeah, it's JDC.

Keep in mind that I've been preparing for the tournament. I'm gonna do a b+1 with Claudio all the time. That's the only move I mash. People are like, "Oh, he's gonna do something different." No, I just mash b+1. They think, "Okay, that's all he's gonna do." But then I'm gonna mash even more b+1. What can I say, I'm a genius.

The biggest problem I'll have will be Akuma players. Because it's different. It's not Tekken, you know? "Oh, but they're in Tekken!" It's not Tekken, come on, guys. So Super Akouma and Awais Honey. Although I’ve played against Super Akouma a lot. Beat him a lot. He's beaten me a lot. So I got something of a craving for the Akuma matchup, but it's still no fun because he's so explosive as a character. I don't really look forward to facing those two guys. The person people don't know is really good is Danielmado. Because he hasn't been in those huge, huge tournaments. I think this is the first big major for him. And he's really defensively solid. He's from the EU, so people don't expect that, so they could be surprised: "Oh shit, he's not doing dumb stuff." He's actually defending properly, in what people call a Korean style of Tekken. I think he's gonna surprise people. He could take a lot of games like from the top players, but I don't know if he can make it through because I'm gonna make it through.

Danielmado

I think the strongest players in my group are JDCR, Awais Honey, and Bilal. They will probably make it out of the group. We have one more spot, and I will give my 100% to reach that goal. For that, I have to beat one of them. If I can beat one of them, it will be easier, and my chances will increase a lot. I think I have a chance, so I will try to beat them. During this time I spent with them here, I saw that they are very strong, but everything is possible, especially in a tournament. It will be very fun, and I will show my true power.

I'm practicing and watching the matches a lot. I also practice with my friends, thinking about how to beat those strong characters. I studied the matchups both when they lost and when they won. So now I have something in my pocket to beat them. I would like to play against Arslan Ash, but it will be very hard to beat him. I think he is the strongest in the world right now. That would be amazing, as I never get the chance to play against him in tournaments. I think all players in my group are very strong. Of course, some are stronger than others. But every one of them is a top player. I will be ready for everyone.

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