With Tekken 7 having experienced its largest tournament ever at Evo 2018, many top players thirsted for its title. The prestige of winning a 1500-player bracket was undeniably one of the biggest motivators.
When the dust settled, Sun Woong “LowHigh” Youn took the most important tournament of his career to date, with his Shaheen play overcoming everyone in his path. After the tournament, I got a chance to sit down for a quick interview with the champion.
Responses edited for length and clarity.
Corey “Missing Person” Lanier: First of all, congratulations on your win at Evo 2018. As a first timer on the Evo finals stage, how did it feel?
Sun Woong “LowHigh” Youn: When I first walked on the stage, I couldn’t imagine how many people were there to watch. When I saw them, my mind went black and I felt like I was going to faint. Once I sat down at the station though, I felt no nerves at all.
Missing Person: At what point did you start to think you could win this tournament? Was it in Winners Semifinals, where you beat Qudans, or was it in Winners Finals where you beat Lil Majin?
LowHigh: It was definitely in my first set with Qudans. It was the most tense set for me, as it went down to the wire, but when I won that, I realized this could be my chance.
Missing Person: It’s interesting that you say that was the toughest set. Let’s talk about Grand Finals, where you again faced Qudans, and he started off by resetting the bracket. What was going on in your head when he reset?
LowHigh: When the reset happened, I just took a second to process it. I realized that I was taking too many risks, and using a lot of high risk moves. They were all caught by Qudans. So when the reset happened, I optimized my play, and tried to play more stable.
When it reset, I really wasn’t disappointed with myself. I tried to match him damage for damage, and it just simply wasn’t working. So I had to make adjustments, and I was able to do so.
Missing Person: You’re now an Evo champion, but the Evo tournament was nowhere on the Tekken World Tour. With the finals of Tekken World Tour coming up, which would be a more prestigious win for you: Evo or Tekken World Tour Finals?
LowHigh: I feel like the Tekken World Tour Finals would be a bigger win personally. As you know, TWT Finals is an invitational, and the bracket would be set in stone. I would have a lot of time to prepare for the tournament, so I feel like the win would be better for me than Evo.
