Tekken 8’s top-ranked player called out for rage-quitting his way to the top

Joe Crush, a competitive Tekken player, is being called out for rage-quitting in the middle of a match to avoid losing to an opponent he just couldn’t beat.

Rage-quitting, a.k.a. “plugging,” is generally frowned upon in fighting games. Disconnecting from a match usually doesn’t result in a loss for the player who left, though devs have started implementing ways to disincentivize players from leaving matches. Tekken 8 has a disconnect rate that’s visible to all players, for instance.

Competitive Tekken player and streamer Joe Crush has quickly worked his way to the top of Tekken 8’s ladder, hitting rank 1 globally before anyone else. He’s been grinding the game hard and has been rewarded for his efforts. However, an on-stream clip showing him rage-quitting a match has brought that accomplishment into question.

While his achievement is still a great one, him plugging on stream has tarnished it a bit… Especially now that someone went into the replay and showed him exactly how to counter the moves that made him quit.

Tekken 8’s rank 1 player rage quits on stream

Joe Crush is a Tekken up-and-comer in the US who’s been competing since 2019, and he’s quickly managed to cement himself as one of the best new players from the region. And, though he wasn’t able to make too much of a dent at the TWT Finals for Tekken 7, the fact that he managed to escape from the Last Chance Qualifier at all was a massive achievement.

However, a recent on-stream clip showing him quitting against Dani, an Azucena player in Tekken 8, has stirred up some drama in the community.

Dani called out Joe for leaving the game the moment he found an opponent using a strategy that he couldn’t win against. He’d then go on to call out Dani’s main from Tekken 7, Lucky Chloe, and claim that she was only winning because she was spamming one move.

On top of that, although Azucena is widely regarded as a top-tier, Jack-8 is also incredibly strong and regarded by many as one of the game’s strongest fighters – a sentiment we agreed with for our tier list.

It wasn’t long before Joe got called out by prominent Tekken community members like Rip for the way he acted during the match, insulting his opponent when there were clear answers to what they were doing (even if it was frustrating to play against).

Azucena has been a difficult character to read for many, and, while her dodge and counter mechanics can be rage-inducing, there are ways to answer her moves. Players aren’t too used to these answers yet considering she’s entirely new, but they’re there.

This led to Trojan, one of Joe Crush’s friends, taking over his replay with Tekken 8’s new replay features and showing him how it’s done.

Could Joe have hit rank 1 without plugging in that particular match? Probably. However, Joe Crush’s antics and the drama surrounding them show how important it is for the community’s top players to set a good example. Him hitting rank 1 in the world would be much more impressive if he hadn’t soured that achievement by quitting a match in such dramatic fashion.