While another exciting year in the world of e-sports comes to an end, 2019 was truly one of a kind with a one of a kind e-athlete seeing a monumental rise to the top of the mountain.
The 24-year-old Tekken prodigy from Lahore, Arslan ‘Ash’ Siddique did the unthinkable and won EVO Japan and EVO USA in the same year. His massive wins resulted in global stardom in the world of e-sports and now the first Red Bull athlete based out of Pakistan has unsurprisingly, rightfully earned the title of ESPN e-sports Player of the Year 2019.
The official ESPN website hypes up Ash, stating, “Arslan Ash’s dominance in Tekken didn’t just make him a superstar though. It put Pakistan on the map for e-sports,” and that “Ash’s story of overcoming the odds and becoming Tekken’s top dog for most of 2019 resonates beyond e-sports.”
The young Tekken maestro couldn’t contain his excitement either. He said, “Since I started my international career last year, I was a fan of the 2018 ESPN Player of the year ‘SonicFox’. So it’s unbelievable that I followed up and became the 2019 ESPN e-sports Player of the Year.”
Besides winning over ESPN’s jury, Ash also won the Twitter poll with 60% votes to become the unanimous, undisputed ‘Best Player’ of 2019. “Other more popular e-athletes like Bugha have Twitter followers in six digits and I am only at 25 thousand,” said the 2019 Tekken king. “Yet my fans fully supported me and I am so thankful to all of them.”
With his mother continuing to inspire and mentally train him for big games, the local legend continues to rise and rise. Icarus be damned, Ash has already touched and moved beyond the sun.
In an earlier interview with Red Bull, he said, “I always move forward with a dream to achieve. 10 years ago, my dream was to collect one hundred thousand (Pakistani) rupees. My next dream was to become the number one player in Pakistan. Then it was to become number one player in the whole world and to win two consecutive EVOs for Pakistan. I have fulfilled that.”
Now while Ash has achieved another dream of being named the ESPN 2019 Player of the Year, the world will be closely watching what the Pakistani lone wolf does next. For now, he has definitely got the whole world in his hands.
