15-year-old Chilean prodigy ‘Blaz’ took second place at Evo France in one among his greatest victories but, whereas a breakout 16-year-old participant shook up Tekken brackets and completed seventeenth.
Extremely-anticipated preventing recreation match Evo France passed off in Good from October 10-12, marking the first-ever European department of the Evo model that began in Las Vegas means again in 1996.
Whereas younger gamers have made waves within the preventing recreation group for the reason that style’s ‘golden age’ within the mid-90s, it’s fairly widespread to see older opponents persevering with to position extremely in main tournaments to today.
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However now greater than ever, teenage gamers are dominating the aggressive preventing recreation scene, as evidenced by the outcomes from Evo France this previous weekend.
Blaz takes second place at Evo France
The obvious instance of this pattern is Derek Blaz, a 15-year-old Road Fighter professional from Chile who began shaking up the scene upon the discharge of Road Fighter 6 in 2023.
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He’s received numerous on-line tournaments within the official Capcom Professional Tour and has additionally secured a number of High 8 placements at majors like Blink Respawn, Combo Breaker, and Final Combating Area.
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Much more spectacular are his two second-place finishes at two of the most important Road Fighter tournaments on the earth; the 2025 Esports World Cup and Capcom Cup 11.
He continued his reign of terror at Evo France, the place he put up a tricky combat from the decrease bracket in opposition to Korean professional Leshar in Grand Finals. Having made second place in three of the world’s greatest preventing recreation tournaments at simply 15 years previous, Blaz is a rising star on nearly everybody’s radar.
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16-year-old Tekken participant beats seasoned execs
He wasn’t the one teen shaking issues up at Evo France, both; a 16-year-old Tekken participant named Neia went viral that weekend for making it to the High 24, the place she notably defeated professional gamers Hakim ‘Skywalker’ Touré and Jonathan ‘Tibetano’ Medina.
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Not a lot was identified about Neia earlier than her jaw-dropping efficiency at Evo France. Now, she’s solidified her place within the aggressive scene and made her mark on the map as a breakout expertise, incomes reward from the French group for her abilities.
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These two gamers made waves at Evo France, however much more teenagers are making waves in preventing recreation esports; 17-year-old Hong Kong-based participant Micky made it to the High 8 at Evo Las Vegas earlier this yr, whereas Chilean Road Fighter participant ‘Craime’ shocked viewers after securing fourth place in Blink Respawn 2024 at simply 13 years previous.
Evidently youthful gamers are beginning to steal the highlight throughout the preventing recreation group. The older era is now passing the torch to those rising stars, and solely time will inform how nice they’ll grow to be as they proceed to hone their abilities.
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This isn’t the one large information from Evo France this weekend, both, because the occasion broke data to grow to be the most important preventing recreation match within the historical past of the European Union with a whopping 93 international locations represented by taking part entrants.
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