Thanks to MetalQueerSolid for the intel
It was a winning weekend for UK fighting game players a few days ago, with several established players on top.
All-UK Street Fighter final at Brussels Challenge as teammates go head to head
First up, UK Street Fighter 6 pro players and teammates, EndingWalker (left) and ProblemX (right), had to swap training practice for a competitive grand final face-off.
The players, who represent esports organisation Mouz, both made it to the final of €1,240 Brussels Challenge 2024 Major Edition on the weekend.
EndingWalker carved a path through the upper finals bracket, defeating Xerna (Netherlands) and Kilzyou (France), while ProblemX made a strong run in the lower bracket, beating HeyyPepito (France), Valmaster (France), Tokido (Japan) and Kilzyou (France) to face his sparring partner in the final.
EndingWalker beat ProblemX 3-1 to take the title.
He said it was a super fun tournament:
ProblemX added: “Got second at Brussells challenge SF6 2024, congratulations to my training partner and teammate EndingWalker for getting the win!
“We also won the team tournament (alongside [Guild Esports player] Takamura). It was an all-Mouz clean sweep.”
Many took to social media to congratulate the pair, including commentator and personality Logan, who said: “Huge congrats to EndingWalker and ProblemX sweeping the top two spots Brussels Challenge. It really does highlight the importance of finding solid training partners and working hard to level up as a group.
“I hope more players can follow this model for success!”
UK FGC legend Ryan Hart was also at the event:
The news comes a few months after both EndingWalker and ProblemX played in the top-level Capcom Cup X.
JoKa crowned The Baaz Gauntlet Tekken 8 champion
UK/Pakistani Team Falcons player JoKa won The Baaz Gauntlet $3,750 invitational on the weekend.
He defeated Pakistani player Ahsan Ali 3-2 in the final to be crowned champion.
JoKa said:
JoKa added: “It still feels surreal that I won the Baaz Gaunlet and had the best tournament run of my journey thus far. I hope I can continue to perform on an international level, inspire others whilst building the UK community and put on a show for the fans with my style of Tekken.
“I sincerely appreciate all the kind messages and hope to get back to everyone because even the smallest type of support means the world to me! Thank you to Baaz and everyone for inviting me to such a legendary event and being super hospitable as always.”
The Baaz Gauntlet featured mostly Pakistani players, with JoKa and K-Wiss from the UK, YUYU from Japan and LowHigh and Knee from South Korea.
JoKa has played in numerous tournaments over the years, including VSFighting, where he finished second in 2022, and he won the Tekken EGX tournament in 2023, which was interrupted by Just Stop Oil protestors.
Brit, Grant Rousseau, Team Falcons’ Global Director of Esports and EU Operations, also commented:
It’s been a busy time for Falcons recently, with Falcons winning the Dota 2 ESL One Birmingham 2024 tournament last month, signing new sim racers this week and Farzeen joining as another Tekken player at the org. They will also be playing at the Esports World Cup.
Redslasher wins Brussels Challenge 2024 UNI2 tournament
There was a mix of UK and Ireland players in the Brussels Challenge 2024 tournament for Under Night In-Birth II (UNI2).
Redslasher won the tournament in the final, beating Slovenian player Ram, after defeating Irish player DrK, who ended up in 5th/6th.
UK player Skarfelt and Irish player Jeshter also took part, finishing 7th/8th.
Redslasher is listed as an Irish fighting games player on his Twitter page but Liquipedia lists him as UK/Northern Irish/Irish on different pages, so his nationality isn’t clear. We’ve reached out to him to check and will update this article if we hear back.
In the other tournaments at the Brussels Challenge 2024, Raef (Saudi Arabia) won in Tekken 8, Slash (Saudi Arabia) in Guilty Gear Strive and Fitizen (Germany) in Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising.
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.