Another Filipino Tekken star, Andreij "Doujin" Albar has qualified for the game's event that will be held at the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The development comes after Doujin scored a podium finish in the recently held 2024 CEO Fighting Game Championship.
The player previously represented his home country in the World Esports Championship which was organized by the International Esports Federation and won the Tekken event in 2017.
Filipino Tekken Player Qualifies for EWC
(Photo : Esports World Cup Foundation / Screenshot taken from official website)
Two years after that impressive feat, he won the bronze medal during the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019, wherein esports made its debut as a medal event.
Albar, who is now signed with Blacklist International, previously failed to qualify for the Esports World Cup after he was defeated in the loser's bracket of the DreamHack Dallas 2024.
His loss last month caused him to have to get at least a top-two finish in CEO 2024 in order to secure a spot in the Riyadh tournament.
In the Pools, Albar went undefeated and beat the likes of ZETA's Takakubo "Double" Shoji, Team Liquid's Marquis "Shadow_20z" Jordan, and Varrel's Akihiro "Ao" Abe, according to Philstar.
But in trying to finish the tournament as the champion, Albar lost to Japanese player Takaba Keisuke and fell to third place.
However, with Keisuke already qualified to play in the Esports World Cup, it was instead awarded to the bronze awardee, Albar. He also secured 300 points for the Tekken World Tour leaderboard.
The Filipino Tekken star now joins fellow Philippine player Alexandre "AK" Laverez, who is now part of NAVI, for the upcoming Tekken 8 event at the Esports World Cup. The tournament will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in August.
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The Esports World Cup tournament series will start on July 3, 2024, and is considered to be one of the biggest in esports in recent history. It has a record $60 million prize pool up for grabs during the entire competition.
The organizers of the event also introduced a program for the cybersports organizations that will be participating in the tournament. This is on top of the large monetary prize that players will be competing for. The top 16 clubs will also share a $20 million prize pool, said Navi.
The Esports World Cup
The tournaments that will be held in Riyadh will be in 19 disciplines, including Call of Duty: Warzone, Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Starcraft II, PUBG, and Tekken 8, among others.
Albar qualifying for the Tekken event at the Esports World Cup comes as Filipino PlayersUnknown Battlegrounds squad Harame Bro also qualified for the series. The latter first secured their slot after they won the PUBG Mobile Challengers League-Southeast Asia (PMCL SEA) Summer Split.
Harame Bro's Jholo "FEDERALES" Leon said in an interview that the PUBG team faced a lot of difficulties in working to qualify for the Esports World Cup. Each member stayed in their own homes and some of them had issues with their internet connection.
Other than Harame Bro, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang teams Liquid ECHO and Falcons AP Bren, as well as Dota 2 team Blacklist Rivalry and the all-female team Smart Omega Empress, will be participating in the Esports World Cup, according to ABS CBN News.
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