Last week was a pretty big week for gaming especially in the FGC. There was the announcement of a Tekken 8 stress test, pre-release of a new indie fighter and our first look at the upcoming Mortal Kombat sequels (movie/game). But in some less known about news, we witnessed Tekken heavy-hitter Arslan Ash get downloaded and bested in an online First to 3, by who is now being herald as “Online Marduk”
So who is this “Online Marduk”? It happens to be Pro Tekken player Shaun “Shaundude” Oyakawa. In the video I’ve linked, Shaundude loses 1 set to Arslan’s Kuni but it wasn’t an easy win for Arslan by any means. After that set, Arslan switched to King while Shaundude stuck with Marduk.
See the VOD here -> https://youtu.be/aKWTx-bDvaM Be sure to go subscribe to his Youtube Channel.
From that point on, Shaundude was in complete control. Shaundude is an extremely adaptive player. He makes adjustments on the fly, downloads his opponents piece by piece stripping away their strategies forcing them into a panic in most cases to rethink their approach. That’s my personal takeaway from this matchup. I felt Shaundude made Arslan sweat and possibly panic having two of his characters played to perfection!
I would definitely put Shaundude at the top of your list of players to watch as EVO 2023 quickly approaches.
GGs,
-Stix