[EVO Japan 2025] Interview with Tekken 8 winner DRX Knee! "Want to play in Pakistan again"

We interviewed DRX Knee(@holyknee ), the winner of the " Tekken 8 " division at the " EVO Japan 2025 presented by Levtech (EVO Japan 2025) ", a fighting game festival being held from May 9 (Fri.) to 11 (Sun.), 2025.

Interview with DRX Knee, the winner of Tekken 8!

- Please give us your honest impression of the game.

When Tekken 8 was released, I actually thought it was a bad match for me at first. But I still received a lot of encouragement from fans, and that encouraged me. I am very happy about that.

- What did you do to overcome the incompatibility?

I have been playing Tekken since the first version, and until now I have been good at playing defensively. But with "Tekken 8" I decided to change to an aggressive stance, and I think that decision paid off.

- In the grand final, there were scenes where you were pushed into a corner.

At first, I was showing slow moves due to nervousness, but as I played, I think I was able to turn things around with my years of instincts and skills.

- Knee is famous for his episodes in which he plays against strong players from all over the world.

I would like to go back to Pakistan, where there are a lot of good players (laughs).

- What is your impression when you fight against young players?

Some of them are 10 or 20 years younger than me, but I am willing to challenge anyone regardless of age. I hate to lose, so I want to put my experience directly against them! I am not afraid of losing, so I want to put my experience to the test!

- Do you have any advice for the younger players to beat the current Knee players?

As you can see today, I was taken out in the first two rounds, but I was able to adapt to the fight and win. I think that the strongest players are the ones who can play with their opponents by preparing different patterns of attack and defense, for example. In the finals, I was especially fired up because I was on the stage and was able to win, but I honestly feel that I would have lost if I had played against a stronger opponent in the qualifying rounds.