TOKUSHIMA -- In the field of esports -- a type of video game competition -- a female pro e-sports player in Osaka is eager to contribute to the popularization of the new sporting category to help revamp local areas. Her name is Tanukana and she hails from Tokushima. A member of the winning team of a world esports competition in 2018, she focuses on battle tactics and is aiming to take an individual top prize in 2019 with her ingenious moves.
Tanukana is an expert in the famous fighting game Tekken (see below) and contributed to her team's victory at the worldwide competition for the game held in Saudi Arabia last July. Esports is getting more popular and is being considered as an event in the National Sports Festival. "I want to familiarize [people with] esports, and contribute to regional vitalization," she said.
The 26-year-old Tanukana signed a contract with a pro esports team called "CYCLOPS athlete gaming" in Osaka two years ago, becoming only the second female pro gamer in the nation. She started to play video games when she was 5, and encountered Tekken in her junior year of high school.
She visited a game arcade and played every day. She is the type of person who hates losing and keeps playing until she has won. Consequently, she started participating in a number of domestic and overseas tournaments and began to draw attention.
CYCLOPS started recruiting pro gamers in 2016. Tanukana's image of being a pro esports player was negative -- she imagined it would be unsustainable to live on prize money. So when she took the test to become a pro member of CYCLOPS she saw it only as a side job and intended to continue at the clothing sales company where she worked.
Even during the process of doing the test, she thought she wouldn't become a pro gamer. However, the annual salary offered in the final interview was high enough to live on.
"I'll regret it if I don't take on the challenge," she thought. She convinced her parents, who initially had not agreed, and signed a contract in November. She then quit her company.
Although reflexes are crucial to win games, she critiques herself by saying, "I don't have good reflexes."
She trained herself to "read the minds" of her opponents to make up for her weak points. For example, in a situation where she has caused damage to another player and driven them into a corner, the opponent tries to turn things around with one big move. She deliberately gets closer and waits for such an attack. The second her opponent makes their move, she runs away, catching them off guard, and makes a counterattack.
The character Tanukana chooses in Tekken is Ling Xiaoyu, a high school student and kung fu player, because she has an excellent ability to avoid attacks by using mind games.
The young pro plays the game more than 10 hours a day, taking notes on the characteristics of attacks, the best distance between the opponent and other aspects. She then uses what she has learned in actual competition. By doing so, she has built up her skills.
"Game is smell. After training, I become able to sense what comes next," Tanukana said.
However, in her first year, she was bewildered by performing in front of hundreds of audience members and could not lodge a good result. But after brushing up her skills, she participated with her team in a world competition in Saudi Arabia last July. In the final stage, which was played as three-on-three, she beat two opponents and grabbed the victory.
Tanukana is aiming for an individual victory in 2019 and wants it to be at EVO Japan, one of the biggest worldwide fighting game competitions, to be held in February in Fukuoka Prefecture. "The world of professionals is all about victory. I want to stick to the idea of winning," she said.
Tekken
A player-vs-player type fighting game released in 1994. Players choose and control one of various characters that has both strong and weak points, and a player wins when their opponent's vitality gauge reaches zero. The latest game in the franchise, Tekken 7, is on sale now.
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