In another crown for Pakistan’s fighting game community, Atif Butt emerged as the new “King of the Iron Fist” on Sunday after winning the Tekken World Tour 2022 videogame tournament in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The Tekken World Tour (TWT) series from videogame producer Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc put together an international offline tournament series where the “best compete to be crowned The King of the Iron Fist”.

The King of the Iron Fist tournament is the central focus of the massively popular and successful fighting video game franchise Tekken.

The TWT 2022 series kicked off on June 24 with regional tournaments in 16 regions, including Pakistan as its own region for the first time, to culminate in the final tournament — an invitational event for the 24 players who qualified from the regional finals, regional placements or a last chance qualifier.

The TWT 2022 Global Finals tournament was played at the Theatre Amsterdam on Saturday and Sunday.

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Bandai Namco Esports’ Twitter account shared the winning moments of Butt’s final match against South Korea’s Sang-hyun “Jeondding” Jeon, which secured first place for the former and prize money of $50,000.

Meanwhile, Tekken’s official Twitter account said: “It’s official — the new King of the Iron Fist is Atif Butt.”

Expressing his jubilation, Gujranwala-based Butt said he was “out of words” and that it was a surreal moment for him.

“Humbled and overwhelmed by all the messages and wishes coming my way! You’re all too kind! Thank you so much!!

“All of this feels so very unreal, thank you all for everything, upwards and onwards! This is just the beginning!” he tweeted.

The two finalists posed together in a display of sportsmanship and Jeondding congratulated his opponent for his win. “I really wanted to win, but I was sad that I couldn’t. Thank you to everyone who supported me,” he said.

Pakistan FGC trailblazer Arslan “Ash” Siddique also shared a picture with the winner.

Ash himself finished 13th in the final. “I need to improve a lot. God willing, next year,” he said reviewing his own performance.

However, he added that “at least I was able to do what I had been preparing for.”

Ash is the founder of Ashes Gaming which describes itself as a “dedicated eSports team geared towards promoting and unearthing new talents In Pakistan”. Butt himself is a member of the team.

That fact was not lost on the general manager of the annual fighting video game event Evo Championship Series, who observed: “Atif Butt making it to TWT2022 Grand Finals while representing the esports team founded by Arslan Ash feels like a giving back to your scene story closing in on its final chapter.”

Ash had bagged the top spot in Evo 2019 and third place in Evo 2022.