ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s celebrated Tekken player Arslan ‘Ash’ Siddique bagged the Tekken World Tour 2023 on Sunday, beating the top players of the fighting game from around the world to add another feather to his cap.
Considered one of the greatest Tekken players in the world currently, Siddique, 28, became the first professional gamer in August 2023 to win the global Tekken 7 title four times. In October last year, Siddique bagged the ‘Uprising Korea 2023’ Tekken tournament in Seoul.
The Tekken World Tour is an annual competitive circuit for the popular fighting game. Organized by Bandai Namco Entertainment, the Tekken World Tour features a series of tournaments held around the world, where players compete to earn points based on their performance.
Siddique defeated Jae-hyun “CherryBerryMango” Kim from South Korea in the final to win the tournament.
“The Greatest #TEKKEN7 player of all time. PERIOD,” Bandai Namco wrote on social media platform X. “Congratulations to your #TWT2023 Global Finals CHAMPION @ArslanAsh95.”
In a subsequent post, Bandai Namco uploaded a video in which Siddique can be seen receiving the trophy amid loud cheers and clapping from the crowd.
Siddique hails from Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore and has won international Tekken competitions after learning to play as an 8-year-old in gaming arcades in Pakistan.
He was already a known name in the local gaming circuits by his teenage years. Siddique was also part of the Pakistani trio that won the Nations Cup in Riyadh in July 2023, the first country-based Tekken tournament in which Pakistan emerged as winners by remaining unbeaten throughout the cup.