Care Esports hosted an esports tournament in Japan, giving elderly patients the opportunity to practice and compete in a competitive multiplayer game. They hold tournaments for a new game every year, and, in 2025, seniors were competing to prove who the real King of the Iron Fist is in Tekken 8.
With competitors ranging from their 60s all the way up to 93, the Care Esports League pulled out all the stops for this one. Complete with full commentary and profiles that showed off each person’s chosen main and their name, it felt like a real esports tournament.
And, considering how intuitive Tekken is to pick up for newbie gamers, these matches weren’t half bad. While the winner went on record saying that her win was easy, her final match was just one round loss away from going to her opponent.
Tekken 8 senior tournament proves gaming is for everyone
As a series, Tekken is notorious for being one of the most difficult games to master. Each character’s movelist is 3-4 times longer than the average Street Fighter 6 character, with some fighters having upwards of 200 moves. It’s a lot.
However, each of the four face buttons are tied to a limb. If you want to throw a punch with your left hand, you hit the left hand button. For someone who’s never played video games before, getting into Tekken is surprisingly intuitive compared to most other fighting games because of that fact alone.
These folks picked up the game quickly and proved their might by doing some actual combos and putting on a great show for spectators.
By the time it got down to the final two competitors, things got heated.
Sadayuki, a King player, was doing some more complex game mechanics like breaking throws and converting launchers into his wrestling-style air grabs.
Yoshie, meanwhile, put a big focus on doing some low sweeps and going straight for the legs with Panda. She managed to convert a few launchers into actual combos as well, giving her just enough damage to pull off a reverse sweep win in the final match.
Not only were all of these competitors interviewed after their matches, actual trophies were presented as well to mark their achievement.
And, while we won’t see these players winning Evo any time soon, they’ve proven that gaming can be fun for all ages.
A similar story happened recently in the US, with someone convincing their father to beat Dark Souls as his very first video game. He pulled it off after months of work and immediately started playing Elden Ring next.
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