Pools: Saturday, 6am - 10am ET (3am - 7am PT)
Top 32 to Top 8: Saturday, 11am - 2pm ET (8am - 11am PT)
Top 8: Sunday, 9am ET (6am PT)
Brackets can be found here.
All action streamed on twitch.tv/TEKKEN
After a week off, the TEKKEN World Tour returns to action at Fighting Games Challenge. The Polish event is the third consecutive Master event on the Tour over a four-week span, as well as the season’s first Master event in Europe.
The field of more than 180 players includes several top European players, including all five of the European players who qualified for last year’s TEKKEN World Tour Finals. Korea will be well-represented with a contingent including Knee, LowHigh, Kkokkoma, and more. And the United States will also be represented thanks to Joey Fury, who scored a statement-making win over JDCR at Combo Breaker.
Here are just some of the storylines to follow during this weekend’s action:
Will Knee make it a clean sweep?
Fighting Games Challenge marks the end of a run of three Master events over a four-week span, and Knee will be sad to see it end. The Korean legend has had himself a heck of a month, winning at both Battle Arena Melbourne and Combo Breaker. An incredible third straight Master event win - and fourth of the season - would cap a dominant run and, with more than half the season to go, mathematically secure his place in the TEKKEN World Tour Finals.
Victory won't come easy for Knee. Should he win his pool, he could potentially face 2017 Tour Finalist Super Akouma in the Round of 32. His reward for surviving that match: potential showdowns with both Joey Fury and Chanel before reaching the winners' final.
Can Kaneandtrench build turn in another strong performance?
As hot as Knee has been over the past few weeks, he is not invincible. 2017 TEKKEN World Tour finalist Kaneandtrench proved that this past weekend by scoring a 2-0 win over Knee at non-Tour event DamaGErmany. Although Knee won the tournament by defeating Kane 4-2 and 4-0 in the grand final, Kane reminded the world that he and his Yoshimitsu can take out anyone in the world.
If neither player loses, Kaneandtrench and Knee would square off in the winners' final of this weekend's tournament. That, however, is a big 'if.' Kaneandtrench could face a stiff test in pool play in the form of Mitrust-Storm. Should he survive that showdown, his path to the winners' final could be a murderer's row of top talent. Kane may have to face Qudans, LowHigh, and Kkokkoma before even thinking about getting another crack at Knee.
Which big names can survive pool play unscathed?
There are plenty of top names scheduled to compete this weekend, including nearly half of the Top 25 on the Tour leaderboard and several more players who made an impact on last year's Tour. All of that talent will be packed into just 16 pools, meaning that there will be some big showdowns in pool play. An early loss can be devastating to a player's chances of making a deep run in a tournament as stacked as this one, so those matches will be all the more important.
Loveneet has already made some deep runs in Tour events this year, but his path out of Pool 8 could take him through Tissuemon, the top European finisher on last year's Tour. Top European threats Ghirlanda and Kirakira could square off in Pool 12, as could The Phantom and 2017 Tour finalist Blackbeard in Pool 16. And there could be multiple showdowns in Pool 11, which includes Asim, The Boss, and DougFromParis.
