Mikk
Lyon “Lyonidas” Buhagiar may be a relatively new name in the storied Tekken scene in Malta, but his unyielding dedication and commitment to the game has quickly catapulted him to become one of the best and most well-known Tekken players in Malta.
Lyonidas’ Rise
Lyonidas’ first big mark onto the local scene came with a 2nd place finish in the WESG National Qualifiers in August 2019, and he has been one of Malta’s top performers since, attending a tournament in Greece together with his teammates from the Visionary Iron Team, streaming regularly, as well as posting Youtube content, including a series of interviews called ‘Behind the Punish‘ with top European talent.
Lyonidas hit his stride in October 2020, as he won the IESF Malta Qualifier, and went on to represent Malta in the IESF European Regional Qualifiers, where he managed to qualify to the playoffs. In March 2021, Lyonidas participated in the Red Bull Strijders PC Qualifier, and also won the event, albeit the offline part of the tournament never materialised. In the meantime, he also competed in a number of online tournaments, placing first twice in the WePlay series of Tekken tournaments, and 13th in the EVO 2021 Open Qualifier #1 – Europe East.
Recently, Lyonidas made the decision to switch from his local team, Visionary Iron Team, and move to UK-based organisation, FULLSYNC.
Interview; Lyonidas’ Thoughts
Esportsmalta reached out to Lyonidas for comments on the move:
Could you please introduce yourself, and how long have you been competing in Tekken?
I’m Lyonidas, I have been competing in Tekken for around three years now. People might also know me from a series I do called “Behind the Punish” were I interview big names in the FGC scenes.
You recently moved from a local team to an international team, what was your main drive to do this?
It wasn’t anything personal tbh but i felt like my previous team fell apart slowly since there were no local tournaments and I was still trying to compete abroad so thus I was searching for sponsors. It was regardless if the sponsor was a Maltese team or not although I do have a soft spot for Maltese teams. FullSync approached me first and I signed with them.
What are your goals with competing in Tekken and streaming? Will you attend future Tekken LAN events abroad?
I believe that anyone competing in esports has that desire to be the best in their respective scene. I’m no different. As a streamer I don’t really have goals to be honest. I just stream to share my experience while I compete and improve in the game and I find it interesting that people actually like my content. Regarding offline Tekken tournaments I’m always on the lookout, in fact in September I’m going abroad to Emilia and Dublin to compete. Most of Europe’s big names are coming so thats why I need to be on point when going there.
Online Tekken in Malta seems to be unpopular, yet offline events gathered numerous competitors in the past. Do you think the Tekken scene locally is dying, or it’s just a question that online Tekken events don’t work well?
I feel like most people in Malta don’t want to take Tekken as seriously as I do and that’s in my opinion the main reason why most of the people have stopped. They used offline competitions as an excuse to meet with each other instead of competing. If they really wanted to improve they would have competed online like the rest of Europe has done. I know the issue of lag persists but it’s not one sided both parties experience lag so one has to live with it. I’ve had my fair share of experiences which online tournaments has made me rage but it’s the competition aspect which keeps reeling me in and also the determination to be better each time I compete. I agree that offline Tekken is better but as the world is under a pandemic one has to adjust to the circumstances and compete online to stay relevant to the competition
We all look forward to what Lyonidas can deliver in his future endeavours! In the meantime, make sure to follow him on socials:
twitchPeti
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