FighterZ World Tour 2023 Finals Conclude with Dramatic Hikari Win

This weekend saw the conclusion of another of 2023’s big fighting game circuits. This week, it was the FighterZ World Tour 2023 Finals. While Arc is still gearing up for the Arc World Tour conclusion, we’ve already found a 2023 champion for FighterZ. Throughout the event, we saw some of the most exciting gameplay we’ve seen in the title. Just who claimed victory though and how have they become the top Fighter Z player?

Dragon Ball FighterZ is a fighter with a bit of a longer life than its competition right now. The game isn’t receiving new updates, and its meta is more developed. Most players have a simpler opinion on which are the best FighterZ characters. However, events like the FighterZ World Tour Finals 2023 prove that the game is still moving forward. Players are finding new ways to keep pushing the meta of the title.

Over this years’ Finals, we saw some of the top players compete. Hikari has taken the title for this year. After winning FighterZ EVO 2023, he definitely looked like a favorite. With this second biggest win he’s definitely secured his spot as one of the top players of all time in the game. How did we get here and how did the finals go?

FighterZ World Tour 2023 Finals
The FighterZ World Tour 2023 Finals took place over the weekend, a tournament between the top 12 players qualified from across fighting game esports this year. The tournament began with a group stage. Hikari didn’t have the strongest opening in this early year. Kayne beat him in the group standings, with Hikari only just pushing through to the second round in second. Zan, WADE, and Kasuga definitely all stood out here too, going ahead 2-0. It’s where we got to the bracket that things got really interesting.

Source: Bandai Namco

Hikari entered things here in the losers’ bracket, meaning a single loss would end his run at the FighterZ World Tour. Fortunately, though, he started to turn things around. He first beat Lucar 201, before going on to run through Zane and INZEM both 2-0. In the Losers Final, things got tighter though.

Kanye had entered the bracket in the semis and made it to the winners final, after a loss against WADE he was down to the losers final. Things were close here, eventually though Hikari managed to win 3-2.

The Grand Final
That’s how Hikari ran his way to the Grand Final in the FighterZ World Tour 2023. The player entered at a disadvantage. The player immediately took the lead in the match-up, winning 3-1 the first round. However, as it was the losers bracket player winning here we weren’t done A second bracket reset match stood in the way of Hikari’s title. It proved to be little resistance though, with Hikari winning the second match definitively, with a clean 3-0.

Source: Bandai Namco

Hikari’s performance across this Final bracket was a lot of fun to watch. The player has proven he’s the strongest in the game right now. Between winning FIghterZ’s biggest circuit and EVO this year, Hikari has a good claim to being the top FighterZ competitor in the world.