With news of the Tekken World Tour, quite a few team acquisitions and free agencies have taken place in the past couple of weeks and we haven’t had a chance to cover them all individually. We wanted to make you aware of them so that you’ll know who is where and who is available.
UPDATE: June 24, 2017 @ 1:06AM EDT
Ricky ‘Pockhop’ Walker Jr. | @pokchop50
It looks like acquisitions are already taking place. Pokchop out of Atlanta, GA, who placed top 8 at CEO 2017, has been picked up by Virtual Storm Gaming LLC, an esports organization based out of South Carolina. Joshua ‘Big Jio’ Otis, also an ATL native, was acquired by this team in late May. This is a great look for Pokchop.
UPDATE: June 23, 2017 @ 10:30PM EDT
Just moments ago it was announced that Jody ‘Tha Great’ Woods has signed with esports organization, Cutting Edge eSports, as their resident Tekken player. It was about a month ago that he signed with Team EcHo, but apparently the imprint wasn’t the right fit for Woods. I am pleased to see that his new team has been around since 2013, has an official website, and provides details about who they are – owners, managers, staff, and players. Hopefully this team makes a great fit.
Original Story
As you should already know, Hoa ‘Anakin’ Luu parted ways with Circa eSports and has become a player and brand ambassador for live-streaming platform StreamMe. He made his debut with the team at the Tekken 7 Invitational at Twitch Esports Arena presented by T-Mobile at E3 earlier this month. He placed 3rd this past weekend at CEO 2017.
Veteran Tekken player Shaun ‘NYC Fab’ Swain out of New York has come out of “retirement” and already found an esports home with organization Fable E-Sports. Both he and the organization made official announcements this past Monday, immediately following his 5th place appearance at CEO 2017. Not bad for someone who just got back into the scene.
Michael Kwon, better known as MYK, is player out of SoCal who is widely known for his contribution to the myriad of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 “Bread and Butter” videos produced by Level Up Your Game (owned by Reepal Parbhoo). Well, huge Tekken team InTheSkies announced on June 10th that he has joined their organization. We suppose he’ll make his first official debut with the team at EVO next month.
Note: ITS has also picked up veteran Tekken player Chet Chetty, also from SoCal, and plays Paul.
After the Tekken Tour last year, culminating with the NA Finals, in January Speedkicks wrapped up his deal with Circa Esports and soon after signed with InControl. As far as we know, he never officially represented the team, but ended up joining Hazardous Gaming in February. After representing Hazardous one last time at CEO 2017, he has now made it known that he is a free agent, ready and willing to sign with a very reputable brand.
Pekos
According to Flying Wonkey, Japanese Tekken player Pekos has been picked up by GetNews and will represent them at EVO in July.
Free Agents
As far as we know, other players that are on the market as free agents and will more than likely be picked up are (in no particular order) Rip, Fighting GM, Inkognito, Pokchop, RenoFace, Mateo, Rickstah, BloodHawk, ATL Tiger Mask, Runitblack, Shinblade, Mystic Bill, Tasty Steve, GeeseMaster, Ace Unlimited, Rick Tha Ruler, OniJin, and many more. Search these names on Google. You’ll find them on Twitter and should be able to reach out to them.
One player we aren’t too sure about is Jimmy J. Tran aka Mr. Naps. At one time he was sponsored by Eightarc. He may still be. Not sure.
Expect to see many of these players and more getting ready for battle in the Tekken World Tour.
Know a player we may have missed in recent news, or a free agent who’d make a great pickup? Let us know in the comments.
