Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Combo

[Victorio Galindo]

Mygrowing fascination with esports, and their explosive growth in recent years, has brought me from Kansas City to see Combo Breaker, "a melting pot of games and competitors from all different titles under the fighting game genre," as one of its lead organizers, Rick Thiher, explains to me when I speak to him before the event. Fighting games are my point of entry into esports: I mean, I must have watched this video a thousand times.

But fighting games are, of course, just one side of a massively multifaceted esports scene, which is splintered into several assorted genres with a few massive franchises. It's hard to come to grips with it all, as every scene is constantly evolving via sequels and remakes, rebalancing updates, and meta-altering patches.

"The motto is a play on 'No Gods, no masters,' which was originally a french slogan, 'Ni dieu ni matre,' meaning 'Neither God nor master,'" Thiher explains. "I'm familiar with it thanks to a high-school experience failing to learn French and reading too much Nietzsche."

"Combo Breaker is neither a West Coast nor East Coast tournament, and therefore is not seen as the home of the FGC's [Fighting Game Community] more premier players or tournament series," he continues. "We've raised and serve no gods as a region. No kings. The Midwest, culturally, doesn't follow our scene's trends. Dead games live here. Vampire Savior thrives. Skullgirls stands tall. [Guilty Gear] Xrd has found hallowed ground. Celebrity privilege is ignored. No game is guaranteed a time slot and each tournament earns its prestige firstly from its player attendance. We put players before media, the stream, or the games themselves. All in, no masters but the people."

In other words: Whereas many an esports gathering promotes the elite and privileges heavily-sponsored games over fan favorites, Combo Breaker treats every player and game equally. If a game has fans, then it matters. If you can pay a small entry fee, you can challenge those who've become legends in their chosen disciplines. Legends like JDCR and Saint.

His name is Dominique McLean, but most know him as Sonic Fox. He's a celebrity in the FGC. He took the pro scene by storm when he dominated Injustice and Mortal Kombat X, winning both disciplines at the EVO Championship Series of 2014 and 2015. He also perfectly illustrates the odd melting pot that is the fighting game community. There's no barrier, outfield wall, or security guard to tackle you before you can speak to your favorite player. Fans are players, and players are fans.

"I think, atmospherically, when you go to a football game or a baseball game the atmosphere is energetic but it's not always frenetic," Thiher explains. "You're there specifically to watch something, and your relationship with what you're watching is that you're a viewer. You're a fan of it, so you're trying to be entertained. But when you go to a competitive gaming convention, a lot of the people in the room can be fellow competitors, so they're engaged in a slightly different way."

Fighting games differ from other esports because of how close fans and fellow players get to the action. Most players will never set foot on the main stage, it's reserved for the best of the best. The tournament starts with everybody playing at small tables setup with monitors and cheap foldable chairs you'd find at AA meetings. People crowd players during these lower-level matches, especially if one of them is a star. Watching competitors up-close or commenting on their play mid-match is expected, bad etiquette or not. Personal space doesn't exist, regardless if you're a legend or a scrub. Robert Paul, an esports photographer who's covered more than 75 esports events, has experienced this first-hand.

"I went down to New York City for an event there and I realized shortly after I arrived that I was watching a match next to Justin Wong," Paul tells me. "He was just standing and chilling with everybody else. Just hanging out, watching Street Fighter matches. That really struck me. Everybody there is kind of on the same footing, when it comes to how you perform in the game. It's something you don't get to see in a lot other esports. A lot of events are invitational or online qualifiers. But with fighting games, everyone is out there. Everyone starts from the same pools, the same brackets, as anybody else."

Fighting game crowds get rowdy, as I soon learn, though to what extent varies depending on the title. Further flavor is added by the announcers whose background chatter picks apart every move seconds after it's made. The announcer's commentary is played over the venue's PA, so unless you wear headphones, you can hear them talk throughout the whole fight. Add in dramatic lighting, and fans, friends, or even members of your opponent's family chirping you, and you get the most anxiety inducing environment to play a video game in, at least that I've been witness to. Even watching, I almost felt like I needed to pop a Xanax. This is so far away from playing a couple rounds of Street Fighter over a few beers and some light banter.

Being in the crowd is akin to going to a dog-track. Dollars exchange hands and side betting is rampant. Everything from "Who gets hit first?" to "Will the round timer end on an even number?" is up for wager. And the gamblers are a slice of the diverse fan community, as each game's supporter groups have quite distinct personalities.

"Each [fan group] can be looked at as its own niche, with its own follow throughs," Thiher explains. "A big contemporary one for Street Fighter V right now is the character Karin. After her critical art, she has a laugh that she makes. When that laugh happens at most events, you're going to have the entire crowd replicating that laugh. For something like Mortal Kombat X, or even Tekken 7 too, you have characters that have juggle-based combos. So, they're going to keep hitting somebody in the air and you'll wind up with good chunks of the crowd chanting along with that going 'oof,' 'oof,' 'yo,' 'oof,' and just kind of making noises akin to the sound effects of the game."

The complaint is no different to a basketball player shouting at a referee over a hard foul. It's a carefully crafted performance, complete with arm flailing, a temper tantrum, and a demonstration of the guilty button's "stickiness." It's well acted, but doesn't work. Like most, he'll go home empty handed.

Watching competitor after competitor play, the diversity within the community is also striking. A lot of esports scenes in North America tend to be dominated by young white men, but that's not the case at Combo Breaker. The fans are a true amalgam of genders, races, and abilities, with energetic discussions and arguments conducted in English, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Though these fans come from drastically different worlds, the language of fighting-game hype is universal.

Most inspiring (and frankly badass) out of all the competitors was Dayton Jones, better known as UAWheels. Jones has Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2 (SMA), causing him to require wheelchair assistance. In Killer Instinct, his main game, he's a combo master whose only limitation is how good his opponent is. Watching him feels like being in Rocky, cheering on a scrappy underdog who's proving everyone wrong.

Even Thiher, a professional who's been to countless events and spends most of Combo Breaker running around ensuring everything is going smoothly, stops to watch Wheels in the KI finals. He gloriously loses all sense of objectivity and joins the fans in their fervor. Wheels ultimately finishes in second place, but at the trophy ceremony he receives a louder round of applause than the champion.

Like Combo Breaker's motto, there are no kings in this sport, just fans, on stage and off. By the event's end, I grasp what's causing the people around me to cheer and wilt with every moment. During the Tekken 7 finals, I die with the crowd after each round, questioning how the match could get any better.

I have seen on the internet tekken tag combo's with f1+b1+b2 things like that.. I have a PS3 and can somebody make a list with ps3 controller buttons like triangle + square + right something like that?

Then there's some move abreviations for speciffic characters, as well as for other different things... really better to look in a Tekken moves FAQ, since they mention what each abreviation mean at the start of it (and there should be a sticky in most Tekken foruns mentioning what the notation mean).

The fighting games esports event Combo Breaker 2024 featured quite a few big games, and TEKKEN 8 was certainly among the heavy hitters. Not only did lots of players register for the TEKKEN 8 tournament, but also some of the players had come from remote locations. The stakes were super high, and the fights were uncompromisingly spectacular!

One of the biggest favorites of this tournament, Arslan Ash, fell to the loser's bracket in Round 3, after his match against Dr.theJAKEMAN, M.D. In the top 8 part, Arslan had a super confident run with his Nina, defeating four opponents, including another Tekken legend, Knee.

On the winners side, AK from the Philippines also played impressively! With Shaheen, he defeated Kuma of Rangchu and Victor of Farzeen.Quite interestingly, the Tekken 8 final brackets at Combo Breaker 2024 brought us almost no character swaps. Most competitors played one fighter throughout their all matches. Only JeonDDing switched to Eddy at some point, the first T8 DLC character.

The grand final between Arslan Ash and AK was back-and-forth, incredibly intense. Both players had their moments, and both got their rounds and games. Everything had to be decided in the very last round. Could Arslan reset the bracket?

AK was super patient when Arslan Ash activated Heat. When that was over, he found a couple of lows and performed a great launcher. With Heat on his side, he landed an effective combo and won the tournament.

There are so many matches to watch, and most viewers will be naturally be focused on the final top 24 or top 8 parts. Still, if you decide to enjoy a fight or two from the pools, here is the full schedule of the TEKKEN 8 tournament at Combo Breaker 2024.

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