The second iteration of Tekken 7 LAN Red Bull Golden Letters is returning to London on Saturday March 4th and Sunday March 5th 2023.
The tournament aims to ’empower’ amateur players from across the UK to fight for the opportunity to battle against some of the world’s elite Tekken professionals and be crowned champion.
Hosted at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London once again, Red Bull Golden Letters’ unique way-to-win format also makes its return, incentivising perfect play and putting players under pressure as they race to win in a first-to-three format.
Saturday will see an expanded 128-person open qualifier take place, offering aspiring pros the chance to stake their claim among the nation’s best and compete for their place in the finals showdown.
After taking home first-place and claiming the title of champion in an underdog win last year, UK player Richie ‘AyoRichie’ Olusanya who won Red Bull Golden Letters in 2022, will also be returning for 2023.
AyoRichie (pictured above) said:
“The [Red Bull Golden Letters] format brings so much hype to it, the scoring can work against you but it’s sick and so great to watch and play in. It was unbelievable playing here in front of a live audience – with people cheering you on there’s nothing like it at all and that atmosphere definitely inspired some of the performances today.”
AyoRichie
Across Sunday’s finals, the eight finalists from the open qualifiers will face off against the eight invited professional players, including Red Bull player and Tekken pro Hoa ‘Anakin’ Luu, joined by two South Korean legends: two-time Tekken Evo champion Hyunjin ‘JDCR’ Kim and three-time Tekken Evo Champion Jae-Min ‘Knee’ Bae, alongside last year’s champion Richie ‘AyoRichie’ Olusanya to claim the Red Bull Golden Letters crown.
AyoRichie also recently won the KingJae Tekken event in London.
Players who manage to secure three of Tekken’s ‘Perfect’ or ‘Great’ scores – the eponymous ‘Golden Letters’ – will win the entire set in these clashes.
Red Bull Golden Letters 2023 desk talent and broadcast
The tournament will be hosted by UK fighting games commentator Hassan ‘Spag’ Farooq and special guests Steven ‘Tasty Steve’ Scott, Rasheed ‘Bubsy’ Jenkins and Kobi ‘K-Wiss’ Scarlett.
Following the success of last year’s tournament, Red Bull Golden Letters will kick off on Saturday with the open qualifiers. The weekend will also see the return of the ‘Beat the Pro’ feature, challenging the community to try their best to best Red Bull Player and Tekken pro Hoa ‘Anakin’ Luu, with rewards available across the weekend.
Red Bull Golden Letters will be streamed live on Red Bull’s Twitch and Red Bull’s YouTube channels.
Red Bull Golden Letters is open to all UK Tekken 7 players and members of the fighting game community, with sign-ups for the open qualifiers open now via www.redbull.co.uk/goldenletters.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
