Tekken 7, the final esports event of the 30th Southeast Asian games began and concluded on December 10, 2019, at the San Juan Arena in San Juan, Metro Manila, and saw Thailand’s Nopparut Hempamorn take home the gold after defeating Philippine Sibol national team member Alexandre Laverez in the grand finals.
Despite being unable to grab the gold at the event, Laverez and fellow Sibol Tekken 7 teammate Andreij Albar were able to secure two podium finishes for the event, taking home both the silver and bronze medals for the country.
Fresh from their stint at the Last Chance Qualifier of the Tekken World Tour Finals held last December 7, 2019, both Laverez and Albar began their run at the 2019 SEA Games Tekken 7 event with second seed finishes in the group stage. Lavarez would then be sent to the lower bracket in the early stages of the playoffs with a loss to his eventual grand finals opponent, Hempamorn. While Albar had an opportunity to avenge his teammate in the upper bracket finals, he also fall to the lower bracket to Hempamorn.
The two Filipino contenders were then forced to battle each other in the lower bracket finals for the chance to once again face Hempamorn in the grand finals. While the two Sibol national team members pulled out all the stops in their lower bracket finals match, it was Lavarez that would eke out the win against Albar and advance to the grand finals. With his loss in the lower bracket finals, Ablar earned the bronze medal for the event.
The grand finals wasn’t an easy task for Lavarez from the onset, coming from the lower bracket meant he had to beat Hempamorn in two straight best-of-five sets. Unfortunately, in spite of his valiant effort and a very close match, Lavarez was unable to win the first set and reset the bracket, granting Hempamorn the gold medal and securing the silver medal instead.
Lavarez’s silver medal and Albar’s bronze medal finish in the Tekken 7 esports event of the 2019 SEA Games helped give the Philippines the most medals in the competition’s esports events, with the country also earning medals in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Dota 2, and StarCraft II. Tekken 7 was also the only esports event of the 2019 SEA Games wherein one country took two of the three medals. In total, the Philippines secured five medals (three gold, one silver, one bronze) in the 2019 SEA Games esports events.
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