Is there anyone that can stop Bae "Knee" Jae Min? Despite becoming a bit of an afterthought during the 2017 season, Knee has stormed back to the forefront of the conversation with a string of dominating performance at just about every event he attends.
Just look at his record at events this year.
- EVO Japan 2018: 1st Place
- Final Round 2018: 1st Place
- TGU 2018: 2nd place
- Battle Arena Melbourne 10: 1st Place
- Combo Breaker 2018: 1st Place
Not too shabby. It gets even more ridiculous when you realize that he beat Choi "SAINT" Jin-woo at EVO Japan, then beat SAINT and Kim "JDCR" Hyun-Jin at Final Round, then beat SAINT again twice more at BAM 10. Oh yeah, he beat SAINT again during the winners' semifinals here at Combo Breaker, too. The man is simply on a tear unlike we've seen in some time.
When you watch him play, he is simply head and shoulders above his competition. Sure, rounds sometimes end up going down to the wire. But the adjustments that he makes are what really sets him apart. He frequently tends to take the first game to feel out his opponent before popping off.
That was perfectly seen in the grand finals when he found himself in the midst of a winners' final runback with the crowd favorite, Jeon "JeonDDing" Sang-hyeon. After JeonDDing jumped out to a 1-0 lead and then pushed Game 2 to a fifth round, Knee fired back.
And then fired back again in Game 3.
And then did so again in Game 4 to close things out.
Knee pretty much feels like a freight train these days. It might take him a bit to gain momentum, but once he does, he's damn near unstoppable.
For all Knee's prowess in the grand finals, though, it would be a shame to not highlight the incredible tournament that JeonDDing had this weekend. He didn't attend the World Finals last fall, but he's been steadily on the rise this year. He doesn't have the same string of results that Knee has, but he's getting close, having won Saigon Cup, placed third at BAM 10 and then second here at Combo Breaker.
Perhaps most surprising of all is that he's doing it with characters that are widely considered to be in the low-tier. It's rare to see his characters of choice, Eddy or Lucky Chloe, outside of the B rank on most tier lists, meaning they sit at the very bottom of the majority of lists. Usually, this would be a death wish for a player in a fighting game. Not for JeonDDing, though. Just look at what he did against Knee in the grand finals.
Using Eddy's breakdancing style of play, he's making his opponents look simply foolish at times. Sure, he hasn't yet won a major event just yet. But he seems to be on the cusp of a breakout, making him one to keep an eye on throughout the rest of the 2018 Tekken World Tour.
