Nobody in the international fighting game community knew who Pakistan’s Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique was before he defeated Knee at the OUG Tournament 2018 held at Dubai.
Till then South Korea’s Jae-Min “Knee” Bae was hailed by many as a Tekken God. The greatest player to have played the game of Tekken. A two time EVO champion Knee was undoubtedly the best Tekken player at the time.
Arslan swept Knee 3-0 in the grand finals attracting worldwide attention having slain the god of Tekken.
Fast forward to February 2019 and the pair would meet again in the fourth round of EVO Japan 2019 sweeping Knee 2-0.
The game wasn’t live streamed on the main broadcast but word soon spread out that an upcoming star was tearing through the lower bracket of EVO and had just slain Knee, again.
Arslan’s journey to EVO Japan was that of immense struggle and multiple setbacks. After resolving the difficulties in attaining a Japanese visa with a Pakistani passport Arslan had to take five flights and travel over two and a half days sleeping at an airport to finally reach Fukuoka, Japan where EVO was being held.
After conquering several adversities and brushing off some of the best Tekken players in the world Arsalan found himself in the grand finals up against the young Filipino competitor Alexander “AK” Laverez.
AK’s offensive mixups were no match for Arslan and his Kazumi’s impeccable defense and Arslan reset the bracket with a quick 3-0. What followed was a thumping 3-1 win to seal Arslan and Pakistan’s first ever EVO title.
Arslan had proved to the world that his victory over Knee twice was no fluke, he was one of the best in the world. But his conquest hadn’t ended yet, there was one last kingdom to conquer.
In August 2019 Arslan flew to Las Vegas to participate in Evolution Championship Series 2019, the Mecca of fighting games after having secured an US visa with the help of E Fight Pass community who rallied behind him.
This was his first time competing in North America in front of the biggest audience in the fgc and against the best players on the planet. Arslan swept aside the early rounds of the competition defeating Jeannail “Cuddle_Core” Carter, and Takumi “Noroma” Hamasaki two of the best in the competition to make it to top 8.
Arslan and Knee would first face off in the semi finals winners bracket with Arslan’s Kazumi winning 2-1 against Knee’s Geese in what was a close contest.
In the winners’ final Arslan defeated American Hoa “Anakin” Luu in straight games 3-0 to make it to the grand final on the main stage of EVO. Having dropped down to the lower bracket losing to Arslan for the third time straight Knee was gunning for revenge, narrowly defeating Anakin 3-2 in the Losers’ FInal to earn another shot at redemption.
One of the fiercest rivalries in Esports had reached its pinnacle, Pakistan vs South Korea, Arslan vs Knee for the title of EVO 2019. What followed was some of the greatest most technically gifted Tekken ever seen with Arslan and Knee matching blow for blow. Arslan took the two of the first three games defeating Knee’s Kazuya forcing Knee to change characters as he switched to his famous Devil Jin.
Even though Knee’s Devil Jin managed to outsmart Arslan’s Kazumi in game 4 Arslan swept Knee 3-0 in the final game.
He became the first person ever to win both EVO Japan and EVO Las Vegas in the same year. He became the first ever undisputed EVO champion for Tekken 7.
With this victory Arslan not only cemented his position as the greatest Tekken 7 player in the world but also put Pakistan on the top of the Tekken world bringing much needed exposure to what we can now call was only a sleeping giant waiting to be woken up. Coming December 8th marks the beginning of the Tekken World Tour Finals 2019 where Arslan would compete as the unified EVO champion. At Bangkok on December 8th Arslan would be competing to be crowned as the undisputed God of Tekken.
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