Last weekend, Bandai Namco hosted a Tekken 8 tournament, Thaiger Uppercut, in Thailand, and despite getting off to a good start, everything ended in disaster after one player was disqualified ahead of a top-eight finish. 

Tekken 8 player xiaochenchen (XCC) got off to a terrific start, defeating anyone that came up against him in his bracket. Unfortunately, XCC wasn't able to see the tournament through, as shortly after his impressive winning streak, officials from the tournament announced that he would be disqualified. XCC wasn't cheating or anything sinister like that, but he did break one rule in particular: “This tournament is only open to players who, from time of entry until all prizes have been awarded… are legal residents of one of the countries specified in” Tekken 8's official rule book. 

There are 189 eligible countries included in the “Territories” section of Tekken 8's rule book, but China—where XCC is from—isn't in there. I was pretty surprised to find this out because the list of eligible countries is just so long—even my humble homeland of Wales is included. 

There's no official reason as to why China isn't on the list of eligible countries, but one reason could be that Tekken 8 doesn't have any dedicated servers in China, meaning the game isn't officially supported in the country. 

But regardless of eligibility, XCC didn't lie about his nationality. You can see that he clearly put Shenyang, China when he signed up for the tournament on start.gg. So the question is, how was he allowed to compete? To be fair to officials at Thaiger Uppercut, there were 550 attendants to worry about, but even still, XCC managed to knock out a bunch of players who could have had a real shot at winning the tournament. The whole debacle has left a shadow hanging over the event. 

Fans are understandably upset, not just on XCC's behalf but for all the players who aren't allowed to compete in what Bandai Namco calls the “World Tour.” “This situation is some grade-A bullshit,” one player says. “It's one thing that there are countries that aren't allowed to compete in a tournament literally called “Tekken World Tour,” it's another that they let XCC play for so long before disqualifying him. Bamco may want to exclude 33% of the world for whatever reason, but I hope the buzz this gets goes global. I do not want people to stop talking about this—something should really be done here.”

But not all is lost. After a wave of upset fans shouted loud enough about XCC's disqualification, Bandai Namco and Tekken 8's Game Director, Katsuhiro Harada, spoke out. “We sincerely apologise for disappointing our players and community due to the disqualification at the recent Thaiger Uppercut event,” Bandai Namco says in a tweet. “After careful consideration, for the Tekken World Tour 2024 global finals, we will update the official rules to allow players from China to compete via The Last Chance Qualifier. We will be reaching out to the affected players from the Thaiger Uppercut event to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. We will also be inviting XCC to Tokyo to compete in The Last Chance Qualifier.”

Harada backs this statement up by confirming that Bandai Namco will be looking to “increase the number of participating countries in the future,” although there are still other issues like visas that may get in the way of this. 

It's a good end to a messy situation, especially because XCC has been invited back to test his mettle at another Tekken event. But Bandai Namco didn't really have a choice in this instance—it had to appease players somehow, especially as so many are equally angry about the increasing number of microtransactions in Tekken 8. The game currently sits at 35% mostly negative reviews on Steam, thanks to a review bombing campaign. “This game's monetisation is rotten to the core,” one Steam review says. So staying quiet on XCC's situation may not have been a viable option, not if Bandai Namco didn't want their fanbase to entirely implode out of rage.