The Tekken Online Challenge circuit continues with a stunning showcase of talent in the Tekken capital of the world, Korea.

While the exhibition matches featured legends like Kim “JDCR” Hyun-jin and Bae “Knee” Jae-min, TOC Korea’s open tournament finals presented fans with some lesser-known, up and coming players.

From the winner’s bracket, Meo-il entered the grand finals with his main, Geese Howard, while Jeon “Jeondding” Sang-hyun fought through the loser’s bracket and put his new character, Julia, to the test in the thrilling final series.

Despite using a pocket character, Jeondding’s Julia was impressive from the get-go. Keeping himself close to his opponents, the UYU player easily challenged Meo-il with flurries of pokes and eventually took game one with a safe armored attack.

Jeondding’s success continued into game two. While Meo-il selected Devil’s Pit to generate distance on the last round, he was no match to Julia’s counter-attack strategies. Meo-il did his best to lay down some heavy hits, but Jeondding blocked patiently and got his turn with a Lashing Arrow and Lift Kick punish.

Even though Meo-il was able to tie up the scoreboard, Jeondding was already feeling hot by the series-changing game. To secure the reset, the Julia player stayed quick on his feet, keeping offensive pressure on Meo-il. When Meo-il tried to keep up with his own high pokes instead of burning his meter, Jeondding immediately claimed the reset with a great wall-splat combo.

With the momentum on his side, Jeondding continued strong into the reset. Despite having to fight Geese Howard on his own estate, Jeondding’s Julia was a counter-hit-heavy threat to his opponent, always using the backdash to create some space for retaliation. With just one misstep, Jeondding took the round with some knock-down running attacks and a few Lift Kick punishes.

Even though Jeondding was taking the lead, Meo-il had finally figured out the Julia player. With the consistent use of his low CH kick, the Geese player opened up his offense for the character’s trademark meter-burning moves. Meo-il eventually stole a game with an incredible duck under a Lashing Arrow.

Now cautious from the deadly low kick, Jeondding’s attacking options started to dwindle. Seeing as his wind roll and swift step stopped giving him an offensive edge, he tried to punish Meo-il with some risky, hard-hitting attacks. With just another duck under a Flaming Arrow, Meo-il immediately went for the screw combo and claimed his second game of the reset.

Having fully downloaded Julia’s exploits, Meo-il had no trouble closing out the series. From the start of the final round, the Geese player got a beautiful low-parry that converted into a wall-splat, double Reppuken combo.

With another consecutive CH wall-splat combo, Meo-il closed in on Jeondding with a solid mid-low mix-up that caught the UYU player ducking, claiming his final series and crowning himself the champion of TOC Korea.

With the championship win, Meo-il goes home with US$500 while runner-up Jeondding takes US$250. With the current final-boss format of the TOC circuit, Meo-il faced a final boss in the form of Son “Qudans” Byeong-mun to double his cash prize, but unfortunately, the Geese player fell to the legendary Devil Jin specialist.

The next Tekken Online Challenge will feature the US East region on September 26-27.

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