Street Fighter 6 might be dominating the conversation for EVO this year but pretty much every major fighting game has an event here too. Tekken 7 is one of the biggest outside of the brand-new titles. As a part of the 2023 Tekken World Tour and sporting a pretty impressive prize pool of its own, Tekken 7 at Evo 2023 is an exciting event.

This could even be one of the final EVOs for Tekken 7. We’re gaining up on the Tekken 8 release date. The tournament will be a swansong for the title at EVO and part of the even bigger Tekken World Tour. With a lot at stake some of the top talent is showing up, these are some of the best players to watch for at Tekken 7 in EVO.

Source: EVO

Tekken 7 at EVO 2023

Tekken 7 at EVO is being played with the same format as others. It’s roughly the same as Street Fighter 6 or Guilty Gear Strive at EVO. If you’re not up to date though, it’s pretty simple. There’s a wider round of Pools as we narrow down from over 1500 players to something a bit more manageable. Eventually, the top players in each section as put into a bracket. They compete until we narrow things down to the Top 8. Then, they play in a double-elimination bracket to find the very best player.

There’s a prize pool of $45,800 for Tekken 7 at EVO 2023, and a bonus pot of $5,000 Included too. It’s Master+ event on the Tekken World Tour though. This means it’s worth a crazy number of points for making it to the finals of that tournament.

Top Players to Watch at Tekken 7 EVO 2023

The Tekken 7 at EVO 2023 tournament has a record number of participants. There are some key names which are worth keeping an eye on at the event though.

Knee

Source: @holyknee

Knee is coming into Tekken 7 at EVO 2023 on top of the leaderboard for the Tekken World Tour. They’ve already got a solid chance at the finals, but this is a chance to really solidify that lead. Knee is probably the biggest player to watch at the tournament from Japan.

Anakin

Source: @TK_Anakin

In the past, Anakin has managed to make the Top 8 at EVO for quite a few games, like Tag Tournament 2 and T7 before. He’s coming into this event with some good finishes behind too, like winning the Dreamhack Dallas Fighters Tekken 7 event.

Cuddle Core

Source: @Cuddle_Core

Cuddle Core has recently signed to Cloud9 Tekken roster, and has already managed to secure a win under the org. She won Defend the North 2023 recently. At the moment she looks like one of the fastest-rising Tekken 7 players and EVO could cement her at the peak of the game.

JeonDDing

Source: @Jeondding_tk

JeonDDing is a South Korean player who has some impressive achievements across the biggest fighting games. Most recently for Tekken 7, he’s won CEO 2023. At last year’s TWT Finals, he just came in second. With this kind of recent pedigree, he’ll be one of the top competitors at EVO.

As one of the biggest tournaments of the year, there are tons more players who stand a decent chance at going all the way. Those are 4 of the biggest to watch out for in Tekken 7 at EVO though.