With Tekken 7 Season 2 starting in the next few days, we sat down with a few tournament players to discuss how their reactions, feelings towards the update and how familiar with Negan they are.

How did you react to the Season 2 announcement?

District G | Kaneandtrench: I thought the announcement was pretty cool, seeing more old characters coming back like Anna and Lei will definitely make people happy and serve to make the game more interesting. The changes introduced to all the cast as well – new moves for the new characters, universal wall bounce, etc. will also definitely change how matches play out in a lot of ways. So overall, I think the new season is exciting and I can’t wait to see how each character performs with the changes, as well as the remaining three unknown characters to be announced!

CRaZY | Super Akouma: I was at EVO when the trailer dropped, the crowd went crazy and so did I. TEKKEN 7 is already amazing but they managed to find a way to keep it fresh. I’ll be honest, I didn’t want Lei in the game even if he’s quite cool. Anna, on the other hand – I’m happy about her and her new costume and Rage Art look amazing. I’m mostly excited about the balance patch because we have been playing the game way too much thanks to the TWT and this will make us avoid a potential burn out.

ROX Dragons | Knee: I look forward to Season 2. It was a little bit disappointing because it was not the announcement of the Tekken 8. Regardless, the announcement of new characters is interesting.

UYU | SpaghettiRip: I reacted extremely positively to the announcement. The reason I say this is because you can tell that Bandai Namco is doing what they can to keep this game fresh for everyone. Adding back Lei and Anna shows that they have been listening to fans. Not only this, but the ‘Rank Progress Meter’ has also shown that they have been carefully listening and trying to improve the Tekken 7 experience for everyone. The buzz surrounding the new mechanics, characters and features is something I’m not used to but definitely love.

What do you think about Negan as a guest character? Are you familiar with The Walking Dead franchise and its TV show?

Kaneandtrench: I am familiar with all adaptations of The Walking Dead as well as Negan as a character, and if I’m being 100% brutally honest, I think Negan was a silly choice for a guest character, even more so than Noctis from Final Fantasy XV. My main reason being that he’s being taken from a TV show adaptation from the franchise, and he is known for being very brutal as well as having one of the dirtiest mouths on him. So much swearing and sexual innuendos. I mean he’s a guy who causes a lot of gory scenes in the TV series as well, either with Lucille or some other weapon. If you ask me, his personality, the series he comes from as well as how he “deals” with his enemies fits a fighter more along the lines of Mortal Kombat. Also, the most important question is, who exactly wanted this guy in comparison to a certain #1 voted character? You know who I’m talking about. If people are fans of the TV Show, or not, and still enjoy the fact he’ll be in the game, then fair enough. But I personally don’t think he was necessary at all, because I highly doubt Tekken will be able to fully capture the kind of person that Negan is.

Super Akouma: Harada never disappoints when he announces a guest for this game, I was telling everyone Sonic the Hedgehog was going to be in the game as a joke and they still found a character to shock me more than if I was right. I don’t personally watch The Walking Dead but I know of it and Negan is a really cool character to pick and I’m happy with it. I have no idea how are they going to translate him to Tekken but it’s definitely going to be interesting.

Knee: I do not know it, so I did not know who the character was at first. I won’t research it either, I’ll just enjoy it. However, I like characters with psychopathic tendency very much.

SpaghettiRip: I haven’t watched many TV shows recently, but The Walking Dead is one that I have. Honestly, this was so unpredictable. I must say that, in my opinion, Negan is one of the best (if not the best) villains in anything I’ve seen, so I’m personally very happy with this choice. I’ve also spoken to friends who said they will be buying Tekken 7 just for that character. So overall pretty positive.

What are your expectations regarding your main character?

Kaneandtrench: So the changes I’ve seen so far in recent Season 2 trailers for Yoshi have made me happy. Now all I really want to see is slightly more damage on either his normal launchers (like his hopknee) or his string enders as he suffers from relatively low combo damage, and his unblockable oki setups which are meant to compensate for it won’t always be guaranteed. Oh and also make his WS 1,2 13 frames; don’t get me wrong, I’m glad his WS 4 transitions into KIN stance for mixups now, but again, no guarantee they’ll work so at least WS 1,2 being 13f will make his crouch punishment perfect in my opinion. The frame data in general is something I think everyone wants to know about for their characters sake.

Super Akouma: I don’t expect much to be honest but I hope they give him better sidesteps and more consistent Demon Flip 1. The trailer raises more questions than anything for Akuma players because WS 3 becomes special cancelable but we don’t know what is guaranteed of it, if Hadoken works then WS 1 becomes useless since it’s also 13 frames fast but a high and what happens to the counter hit properties? Do you still get the combo? Can you still get a combo if you cancel it? Also how fast is the cancel? because for Demon Flip that makes a huge difference, canceling WS 2 or d+3 with a Demon Flip does not give you the same situation. Many questions with easy answers but we’ll have to wait and see.

Knee: I like Bryan Fury, so I want to use him in tournament, but in Season one it was not easy. I hope he will be strong in Season 2.

SpaghettiRip: I’ve recently come to realize that Eddy is the character I truly main. Having dropped him for a period after thinking he wasn’t good, I still think he lacks things to make him strong in long set Tekken and think he is too 50/50 in short sets. I would expect his df+2 elbow to be given tracking again and maybe given a consistent strong punish under i15. With regards to Katarina, who many know me for, I don’t know if there’s anything she needs to be given really. Some would say safer lows, but we shall see.

The update takes place mid-season. How will this affect the Tekken World Tour?

Kaneandtrench: I think it will prompt some players to immediately go and pick up Anna and Lei assuming they are their true main characters, so maybe that’ll help them turn in stronger performances due to their synergy. And depending on which characters are buffed or nerfed, we might see some changes mid season on how players will perform, as they can make or break a character sometimes, but of course fundamentals are what matters in the end, as they will make the buffs and nerfs look trivial at best. I personally think it’s a strange time to change things up when the tour is so close to the end, but I suppose being a pro player is all about adapting to changes as they come ASAP.

Super Akouma: I think it’s too late in the season to make that big of an impact. The current top 12 or 13 players are relatively safe in terms of qualifying for the world tour because of the point lead. Spots from 15 to 19 should be careful though. In terms of training mid season, I think it’s okay because events are more spread out than last year, we have time to train.

Knee: There are people who welcome this but there are people who do not. As for the balance changes, the tiers are expected to change. I was feeling a bit bored with Tekken 7, so Season 2 gives me this new feeling of excitement.

Spaghetti Rip: This WILL affect the TWT. Mark my words, there will be top contenders being eliminated by Lei and possibly Anna, even though there aren’t a lot of people who play them around the world competitively. Also, we have no idea about balance changes that may make people change main characters mid-season. Jack, Saint – JDCR, Dragunov?

Recently it was announced that the French TWT Master, The Mixup, despite happening 2 days after the Season 2 update, will still be played on the older version of the game. What’s your opinion on this idea?

Kaneandtrench: I think it’s a good idea because otherwise players would be forced to spend two days of hard labbing studying how Anna and Lei work in Tekken 7, as well as all the changes, frame data, wall bounce combos and so on. Not all players have that kind of time on their hands due to having jobs or other important commitments, and even if they did have the time, two days is typically nowhere near enough to be fully prepared for what Season 2 has to offer. So I’m glad this decision was made to keep things fair until we are 100% ready.

Super Akouma: I was saying we had time to train. Two days would definitely not be enough, though. They made the right call for the players even if some spectators would have liked to see some tech or some season 2 upsets from buffs, nerfs or unfamiliarity.

Knee: I think it is right to go with Season one. Players would be distracted if they were supposed to play with the next update.

SpaghettiRip: 100% correct decision. Also 100% upset that I couldn’t witness and commentate the absolute chaos that would have ensued.