This article is part of our Tekken series.
Remember when I said after Combo Breaker that Jeon "JeonDDing" Sang-hyeon was on the cusp of a breakout? Well, that breakout came on Sunday afternoon when he won his first Tekken 7 event at CEO 2018. It was clear from the start of the day he was feeling looser than ever and ready to make some waves in Daytona Beach.
Unfortunately, things didn't go JeonDDing's way coming out the game in the winners' semfinals, though. He opened the day against Son "qudans" Byeong-mun, a juggernaut in his own right, and was knocked down to the losers' bracket with a 2-1 loss. It was at this point, though, that JeonDDing flexed his muscles (did you see those things during his entrance?!) and put on quite a show in that losers' bracket.
His first two matches went off without a hitch, taking out Nopparut "Book" Hempamorn and Terrelle "Lil Majin" Jackson to move into the losers' final. Although I have to give a shoutout to the Last American Tekken Hero, Lil Majin, who made one hell of a run this weekend. He may not have gotten as far as he wanted to, but losing to the eventual champion is nothing at all to scoff at.
But back to JeonDDing and his massive arms (did I say that out loud?). Now in the losers' final, he was tasked with going up against Kim "JDCR" Hyun-Jin, the reigning EVO champion. gulps
JeonDDing showed no hesitation whatsoever and jumped out to a 2-0 lead with his Eddy against the Dragunov of JDCR. This is the EVO 2017 champion we're talking about, though, so you knew that things wouldn't be over that fast. JDCR bounced back with two wins to force a Game 5. It might have been a bit anticlimactic, but JeonDDing ended up holding on just barely to make his way into the grand finals.
Against qudans, the man who sent him into the losers' bracket in the first place, JeonDDing had his work cut out. Right off the bat, though, he looked to be in rare form as he cut through qudans' Devil Jin with ease. As you can see in that clip above, qudans was no match for him as JeonDDing stormed his way to a 3-0 win that reset the bracket.
The grand finals reset was nothing like the first set, however, as qudans found his footing and made things very interesting. Coming right out the gate in this set, qudans looked to be back in full control with a 3-0 win in the first game to take a 1-0 lead in the reset. JeonDDing would not be denied, though. Losing just one round in the next two games, JeonDDing put himself on tournament point with a 2-1 lead.
Qudans wasn't ready to pack it in that quickly. Wading through a five-round Game 4, qudans barely nudged out JeonDDing to push this thing into a Game 5. Of course, this final game also went five rounds because would we want this any other way? While we've seen JeonDDing come up short in these situations before, he rose to the occasion this time around with one of the fiercest Spring Kicks you'll ever see.
And with that, JeonDDing is your CEO 2018 champion for Tekken 7. He'll pick up 300 World Tour points which (if my math is correct) should put him in third place on the overall standings. Now that just about all the top names in the world of Tekken 7 have a win under their belt, the remaining four months on the World Tour will be quite the sight to behold.
