Recently, a 73-year-old woman (playing as the pink version of Panda no less) beat a 73-year-old man in the finals of the Tekken 8 portion of the 11th biannual Amigo Club Cup, an esports competition for elderly care home residents in Japan. YouTube livestreams and videos of this feat have drawn attention to the event, and the benefits that gaming can give players, regardless of their age.
In an interview with Japanese news site Game*Spark, the tournament’s winner, Yoshie Murabe revealed that she chose to main Panda purely for the reason that she likes the animal. Murabe picked the pink version of the character; however, opponents should not be fooled by this cute appearance. Murabe’s winning bout shows her taking good advantage of Panda’s slow yet powerful attacks, giving her the edge over her opponent Sadayuki Kato, who picked King as his fighter.
Murabe revealed that Tekken 8 is the first video game she has played in her life and that she really enjoyed her tournament debut. Asked about her feelings while playing games and whether she found anything difficult, Murabe’s answer is equally badass: “I’m happy I won. I didn’t find anything particularly difficult.” She added that she’d really like to try playing other games competitively too.
Murabe and her fellow geriatric gamers got the chance to throw punches in Tekken 8 thanks to an organization called the Care eSports Association. It was founded in 2019 to give elderly citizens in Japan a new way to engage with others during the pandemic. They started out with slow-paced video game versions of board games like Shogi and Othello, but then decided to shake things up by adding Tekken 8 into the mix, starting with the 9th edition of the tournament.
According to Game*Spark’s interview with the Care eSports Association’s PR rep Shimpei Hama, this came about due to his background as a pro Tekken 8 player (he is Rox3Gaming’s Hama-chan). He decided it would be interesting to see how the seniors got on with Tekken 8. Hama said the elderly residents, some of whom have dementia, reported that they really enjoyed it. Many became attached to their characters, showing determination to win at least once, with some staying up late to practice in the run-up to tournaments. He also thanked the carers for their hard work in introducing their residents to video games and the concept of online tournaments. “None of this would have been possible without the dependable cooperation of the staff onsite,” Hama noted.
Tekken 8 first showed up in the Amigo Club Cup as an exhibition match in the tournament’s 9th iteration back in June 2024. However the recent 11th tournament is the first time it has been played competitively by care home residents. Livestreams and videos of the matches were posted on Care eSports Association’s official YouTube channel, attracting attention online. Acknowledging the views, Hama noted, “We received way more feedback than ever before,” with voice actors and streamers among those who praised the event. Champion Yoshie Murabe is actually one of the younger participants in the tournament — there was also a fast-paced match between two 93-year-old women playing as Lili and Steve.
During the process of introducing Tekken 8 to the Amigo Club Cup, Hama realized that “care home residents are more interested in video games than I thought.” He said they plan to continue to offer Shogi and Othello, but would also like to add other fighting games, as well as “games that everyone can enjoy more casually — something like Geoguessr.” He noted that some residents were not keen on the idea of fighting in a game. Geoguessr, a non-violent Google Maps deduction game, would be a good way to engage more residents and help them to keep their brains sharp. At the moment, Care eSports Association’s activities are limited to three Japanese prefectures but they eventually aim to hold a national tournament (source: Care eSports official website).
This isn’t the first time that elderly Japanese gamers have attracted attention online. In 2020, then 90-year-old Hamako Mori ended up in the Guinness Book of World Records for becoming the oldest gaming YouTuber in the world with her Gamer Grandma channel. All of this goes to show that age is just a number when it comes to enjoying video games.
Image credit: Care eSports / YouTube.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
