Grandma, 92, knocks out rivals to become Tekken champion
A 92-year-old Japanese woman has won a Tekken 8 championship – winning praise for her ‘brutal combos’ and ‘passion’ for the video game.
Hisako Sakai beat seven rivals to the Care Esports crown at last month’s tournament.
The nonagenarian said she was ‘so happy’ with her victory, secured while playing as the character Claudio – an Italian demon banisher.
The Care eSports Association, a Japanese gaming organisation, hosts competitions especially for gamers aged 73 to 95.
At this year’s event, watched by thousands on YouTube, players battled it out on Tekken 8 – the latest edition of an iconic Japanese fighting game series.
The aim of the game is simple – beat your opponent into submission using your character’s special moves.
Viewers joked that the competitors were mostly ‘button mashing’ – a technique where players randomly press buttons.
PC Gamer, a gaming magazine that reviewed the competition, wrote that while ‘[players] mostly relied on mashing and spamming throws—there were still some moments of breathtaking hype.’
Hisako defeated a 74-year-old man named Goro Sugiyama in the final. Goro chose to play as Lili – a teenage gymnast known for her acrobatic fighting style.
Care’s tournaments, based in the Mie, Gifu and Aichi prefectures, aim to create ‘an environment in which the elderly can casually participate in esports,’ according to its website.
Pensioners’ relationships with video games – typically seen as a young person’s pastime – have often fascinated console fans.
When GTA V was released in 2013, YouTube was flooded with popular videos of senior citizens cruising around the virtual gangland.
The series ‘Elders Play Grand Theft Auto V’ led to memorable clips where pensioners enjoyed running over pedestrians, visiting strip clubs and shooting rivals.
Playing certain video games can also be good for the brain – evidence that could prompt more elderly people to pick up the controller.
A 2018 study by Dr Gregory West, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Montreal, found that playing 3D open-world games saw grey matter improvements in the hippocampal region.
However, while games like Super Mario 64 and Zelda saw these positive outcomes, first-person shooters like Call of Duty were found to have an opposite, negative effect.
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