My first international major! — SEA Major 2025 Recap

Hey all, in this article, I will share my experience competing in an international Tekken World Tour Challenger event — SEA Major! I will be recapping my trip there, my tournament run, and what I learned during the event. If you want to watch a quick video recap of the event + some match VODs, **Click Here!**

I have always wanted to compete in an international major for Tekken. The last major I competed in was VSFighting 2022 in the UK when I was living there for University. Ever since Tekken 8 was released, I wanted to compete in one of these events and see how I would do in an international competition. Fortunately, I was able to go and compete in a challenger event in Singapore — SEA Major! I will be talking about the trip itself, my tournament run, and what I learned during the event. Hope you all enjoy!

Day 1 & Day 2 — Calm Before the Storm

SEA Major took place earlier this month, and it’s a 2-day event on the 4th and 5th of October. Since Tekken is a one-day event on the 5th, this means that we have one free day before the event. My friends were also competing: ONIC RTM, Nama, Legendre, and Hanswer from Indonesia. We arrived in Johor Bahru at night, so there’s not much to do during that time. The second day of the trip was a pretty busy one as there was an offline Tekken gathering in Singapore during that time. I went there with the Indonesian players and two Malaysian players, Mr. Jacket and Orque.

At the casual event, we met with local Singaporean players as well as other international players, including Yagami from Australia, Edddyy from the UK, Book from Thailand, Farzeen from Pakistan, and DanielMado from Italy. I played against Yagami and Edddyy, and the experience made me realize the level that professional Tekken players play is insane. It opened my eyes to what I need to work on, and there are honestly many aspects of the game I can study.

Day 3 — My tournament run at SEA Major

The venue of SEA Major was located at the RAZER SEA HQ in Singapore. It was a very cool venue with a large LED screen for the attendees to watch the matches. Going into the tournament, I was honestly very nervous as this was my very first international major since 2022.

[embed]Me (Feng) vs AK (Claudio)

My very first match of the tournament was against AK, the Philippines’ best player. I already knew that this match was going to be very difficult, as AK is one of the best players in the world and a contender to win the whole event. In game 1, AK recently switched to Claudio from his main, Shaheen, and the game went to the final round, but AK clutched it out in the end because after Feng’s DB+3 on hit, I decided to dash in instead of frame trapping, which caused me to get hit by Claudio’s hopkick. Game 2, however, not only did AK fully download me, but I was mentally defeated because I was ruminating on the mistake in game 1, which is something that a competitor must not do. AK proceeded to beat me 3 rounds straight, putting me in the losers’ bracket.

In the losers’ bracket, my first match was against a Jin player, Unknown, and I won 2–1. There was an issue with the PS5, which caused my controller to disconnect, but I’m glad that I was able to keep my composure during this match. However, I noticed that I was very nervous coming into this set as well as the upcoming sets. My second match in the loser’s bracket was against a Leo player, and the game was extremely close, but I fortunately clutched it out again with a hopkick read in the end (The Place Special, as the others called it), but even then, I was still very nervous during that set. The next match I played against an Azucena player, and I fortunately won 2–0.

[embed]Me (Feng) vs KrissW (Victor)

The next match in losers, which was a top 16 qualifier match, I fought against KrissW, a very strong Thai player and one of the country's best. At this point of the tournament, my stamina was depleting, affecting my focus; however, that is 100% my fault, and I need to work on my stamina when competing. I lost 0–2 against KrissW, and I finished 17th out of 68 players. Looking back, I’m happy with the results, considering this was my first international major for Tekken 8.

Skills that I need to work on

After taking some time to reflect, I realized there are four skills that I need to work on:

1. Dealing with tournament nerves better: I realized that the reason I’m nervous in tournaments is because I’m uncertain with my own gameplan and the opponents I’m about to face. To fix this issue, I need to be confident in my own abilities and have a solid gameplan that I can count on. In terms of the uncertainty of my opponents, I need to do homework and improve my matchup knowledge, so that I will be more confident in matchups and focus more on the player, rather than the characters.
2. Don’t ruminate on past mistakes and focus on the game: Ruminating on my past mistakes that happened during a match was bad because it affected my focus. It is important for me to accept that I made a mistake, but quickly move on to the next interaction.
3. Maintaining tournament stamina and focus: Another thing I realized is that as the tournament goes on, my stamina (or gas tank) gets depleted. Meaning in later sets, I have way less energy to focus. Therefore, I need to figure out a way to maintain my stamina through the tournament. Be it taking breaks between sets, practicing breathing techniques, drinking water, or even eating a light snack to keep my focus going.
4. Having a clear gameplan that you're confident in: As mentioned before, I need to have a clear gameplan that I’m confident in.

I’m currently working on these skills, and while it might take a while for me to be exceptional in these skills, I’m confident that I will reach these goals and do better in future tournaments!

Closing Thoughts

SEA Major was such a great experience, as not only did I get to travel with my friends, but I also got to learn what it’s like to compete in an international major. Hopefully, I can compete more internationally for next year’s Tekken World Tour. Events such as Evo Japan 2026 and Thaiger Uppercut will be the next events I really want to go to!

And for those who are interested in competing internationally, I recommend doing so if you have the resources, as it is valuable experience in terms of improvements, while also visiting new places and meeting new people.

If you guys haven’t read my previous article!

• ***Fighting Games and Third Place***
• ***A Glimpse into the Indonesian Tekken Community: A 64-Man Tekken 8 Dojo Experience and What I Learn***
• ***It’s been a while😅 — updates on my Tekken journey and the tournaments I joined***
• ***It’s Been a While (Again): My Tekken/Fighting Game journey until now (SEA Team Battle, Japan Trip, Tekken 8 Season 2, and TWT 2025!)***
• ***Arcade Sticks: I Ramble About Why Arcade Sticks Are Cool and Why I Love Them***

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