Just Stop Oil disrupt Tekken tournament by smearing paint on players’ screens

Activist group, Just Stop Oil, has sabotaged a Tekken tournament at EGX, a convention in London, by storming the stage and smearing the walls and players’ screens with paint.

Tekken 7 is on its way out the door ahead of Tekken 8‘s January 2024 release. This has led to the game’s most dedicated players entering as many tournaments as they can before the game’s decade-long reign as one of the biggest fighting games ends.

A Tekken tournament at EGX, a convention in London, had £5K up for grabs for the player who could take it all. With money on the line and well-known players such as Joka and AyoRichie in attendance, competitors were locked in and putting everything on the line to achieve first place.

However, the tournament got significantly delayed after protestors from the activist group Just Stop Oil stormed the stage and smeared paint everywhere, which sabotaged the tournament before one of the most important matches.

Tekken tournament delayed by paint smearing protestors

The fighting game scene is bigger than ever and thriving. With EVO setting attendance and viewership records in 2023 and fighting games’ biggest franchises all getting new titles to tackle within a year of each other (Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1, and soon Tekken 8), competitions are cropping up everywhere.

Enter a Tekken 7 tournament being held at EGX London, one that featured a great deal of strong European players and a cash prize.

But disaster struck when protestors affiliated with an activist group called Just Stop Oil rushed the stage in the middle of a match, spraying paint all over the stage with water guns and smearing paint on the competitor’s screens in the middle of the game.

The broadcast shows that the games got interrupted, with casters Spag and Bubsy being visibly confused and frustrated as to what was happening on stage. Viewers were also lost until videos and images started showing up on Twitter depicting what actually happened.

During the Winners’ Final match between Joka and KaneandTrench, protestors affiliated with Just Stop Oil ran onto the stage and smeared paint everywhere. They left the walls covered and the players’ screens caked.

Another video depicts the protestors being escorted out by police following their antics, with many fans wondering why they’d choose a Tekken event specifically to protest.

Their smearing led to tournament organizers having to quickly replace equipment in order to resume the tournament, and these additional pictures show the full extent of their damage.

Just Stop Oil have since posted their own video of the incident, along with their reason for protesting.

Fortunately, after some significant delays, the tournament was able to resume. Though AyoRichie had a strong run through the lower bracket, Joka reigned supreme with a dominant showing through the tournament even after having to overcome some unexpected obstacles.