Meet Taisei, a veteran Japanese player who wants to win Evo for his single mom

(L) Chikurin, (M) Taisei, (R) GenHailing from Fukuoka, Japan; Taisei enters the Evo 2017 tournament taking place in Las Vegas this weekend. A veteran figure in the Japanese Tekken scene, Taisei has made a strong name for himself during his Tekken years for consistently staying at the very high end ranks during the years of Tekken 6, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and now Tekken 7. For the first time in his Tekken career, Taisei will finally make his way overseas to compete on the world stage for Tekken and hopefully leave his mark on the world. Get to know the Japanese Tekken player Taisei personally through the newly published MASTERCUP Interview feature with him:

MASTERCUP Evo 2017 Taisei Interview ≫ http://mastercupofficial.com/17582

▌MASTERCUP EVO 2017 Interview: Taisei
￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣

Player Background:

Taisei is from the Kyushu region of Japan. For the longest time most of the notable Tekken played in the country were from Tokyo or Osaka but players like Taisei, Gen (2nd place at Evo 2014), Chikurin (Sponsored Tekken streamer), Thai Curry and a lot more have recently brought the southern region forward.

Taisei has been known to play Steve as his main but he is famous for getting a large chunk of the Tekken roster to a really high rank in multiple Tekken games in the arcades.

• Tekken 6: Tekken Emperor achieved which was the 2nd to last rank you could achieve in that game. He had another 6 characters which were over the high blue Rank 20.
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Tekken God rank achieved. Had another 15 characters over the purple Emperor ranks around Rank 29. (Tag 2 had 32 ranks total)
• Tekken 7: Yaksa rank achieved as of right now. Has another 16 characters over the Rulers rank in Tekken 7 around Rank 24 and up.

Mastercup Interview Snippets:

-- About the first time going to Evo

Thanks to the sponsorship from Tsubachan.com, Taisei was able to go to Evo 2017 and enter the Tekken 7 tournament. In the middle of a casual phone call, the idea to travel to Evo came up randomly and eventually ended up going to Las Vegas on a whim.

- Tsubachan.com is a blog specializing in travel experiences. They also do YouTube videos.

-- About playing the game at home

He doesn't have a PlayStation 4 or a copy of the game. He would go play the game at a friend's place. After hearing from Shana and Masakarijin, Taisei immediately went and bought the MadCatz TE2+ arcade stick with the Type-N Namco Noir Metal panel online. It was pricey but he's a true arcade gamer and wants to match the arcade experience as much as possible.

-- About playing the game in console tournament setting

Taisei plays at the arcade so he says he hasn't fully gotten used to playing the game with the stick on his lap yet. He can't say he is completely confident in his performance to play with the stick on his lap.

-- About playing other local players for training

Prior to Chikurin's trip to Rev Major in the Philippines, Taisei, Chikurin, Thai Curry & Noroma got together for 4 days to train and has slowly been getting used to playing with the stick on his lap. To his surprise, Chikurin was really flexible and could switch to using any stick and still play really well unless he has a really bad lever. Taisei was really envious of Chikurin's ability to adjust and play in the console environment. Since Evo will be Taisei's first console Tekken tournament, he has been training with Gen to prepare for Evo and even deal with console characters.

-- Players he's looking out for

Bats, the Hwoarang player because of having bad luck against that character. Knee, although he didn't get to play him much when he came down to Kyushu, he's confident in himself to take him down. While watching JDCR & Saint's videos from the Tekken World Tour, they're notable for being able to play under all the pressure and stress in a tournament environment. If Taisei was to be so blunt, he's mostly looking out for a battle with himself on whether or not he can comfortably play on an arcade stick.

-- About BO3 format

Taisei prefers BO5 format but understands if tournaments can't run more than BO3 from the start. He uses a large portion of the cast really well so he can counter pick opponents who struggle against a certain character but with an arcade stick..... That might be a different story. Regardless of the circumstances, Taisei will do his best at the tournament. Especially for the the fans and people that have been supporting him, he wants to put on a good show for the world.

-- On what he'd do if he won the money

Buy things for the people who have taken care of him. Also, If either win or lose, Taisei wants to money match everyone at Evo because he feels confident against the 1200 of players that have come to play. Being raised by a single mom, Taisei has a strong sense of duty to repay her back for all she's done with an Evo victory.

-- On self confidence for winning

Considering his performance on an arcade stick, probably a 10% chance of winning the tournament but more like 3% if he seriously thought about it.  Matador has said this before he went to Evo but Taisei thinks anyone who has played this game at a level will also understand the percentage. No matter the format for the tournament or how many people enter, in addition to your Tekken skills, you need luck to win. Taisei has been fortunate enough to make great friends at recent events and for winning 4 tournaments in a row; Moribe Cup WG (30 entered), Hakai Ou Cup (50 entered), Kelot Cup 3 (200 entered) & Moribe Cup Kiwami (150 entered). To put it bluntly, anyone can get eliminated if you're unlucky.

-- Other remarks

Since Taisei doesn't play any other games but Tekken, he absolutely can't lose in Tekken. This will mark Taisei's first ever trip overseas for a highly prestigious tournament event for Tekken. In his home town of Iizuka, Fukuoka, he has almost a younger brother figure in Gen who got 2nd place at Evo 2014. "I want to leave my mark on the world."

--

You can find Taisei nowadays over on his Twitter account: @taisei___G

Read the interview source in Japanese over here ≫ http://mastercupofficial.com/17582