Laus Playbook’s Alexandre “AK” Laverez has cemented his legacy as the best Tekken player in the Philippines, Saturday evening.
This, as the 20-year-old wunderkind, rose back from the lower bracket and did the improbable, forcing the first-ever grand finals reset in tournament history to claim his third title via a huge 3-1, 3-2 victory over Smart Omega’s Juliano “Jules” Lozano in The Nationals Season 3 Tekken 7 Conference.
AK, who needed a reset in order to have another shot at the title, went all out with Geese and took the first game of the grand finals. Jules, who played Marduk for the second time, quickly bounced back in Game Two to even the series.
However, another masterful Geese performance from AK in Game Three put him at match-point, forcing Jules to make the switch to Heihachi in Game Four. The former then delivered the lethal blow via a 3-1 win, making history as the first player to ever force a bracket reset in the finale.
Despite the dominant win, AK still figured in a nip-and-tuck affair with Jules comes the second series.
The 2019 Southeast Asian Games silver medalist took Game One before surrendering Game Two to Jules’ Jin. AK then snatched Game Three to move a game away from clinching the title, but a late Rage Drive from Jules in Game Four threw the series to a winner-take-all Game Five.
AK finished off the same player that sent him down the lower bracket for the first time in his The Nationals career with a 3-0 sweep in the decider.
“Kasi yung Law and Paul ko yun talaga yung plano namin, simula pa lang yun yung gagamitin ko. Ayun, na-feel namin na parang masyadong nabasa [ng iba]. Nag work siya nung una pero nung ‘pag dating na kay kuya Jules [sa upper bracket finals] hindi na gumana,” said AK in the post-match interview.
“So nung 0-3 na, naisip namin ng papa ko saka ni coach Doujin na parang ito na siguro yung oras para i-asa ko na lahat kay Geese so edi ginamit ko na. Bahala na kahit ano nang mangyari basta all the way Geese. Masaya naman kasi nag work,” he added.
AK now has the Conferences One and Two titles, the Season Finale championships in Seasons One and Two, and the Season Three championship.
Season Two grand finalist Maru “Maru” Sy of Bren Epro, who almost took down AK in the losers’ finale, settled for the third spot.
AK bagged the P150,000 lion’s share of the P265,000 prize pool while Jules and Maru took home P75,000 and P40,000, respectively.
Jeffrey “Coffee_Prinz!” Gonzales took fourth place after losing to Maru in the five-game losers’ semis. Cignal’s Daniel “Kunicat” De Leon and STI’s Michael “Hapon” Magbanua finished at fifth to sixth place while Smart Omega’s Mark “MachineHead” Eking and Cignal’s Ralph “Vermillion” Cueva placed seventh to eight.
