After spending my life with a vague fear of fightsticks and button combos, I now have more reason than ever to finally learn how to play a fighting game: so I can someday be even a tenth as cool as Hisako Sakai, the 92-year-old Japanese woman who won the title of Tekken 8 champion during November's 12th biannual Care Esports tournament (via Automaton).
Care's tournaments, which the Mie prefecture-based organization has been running since 2019, feature rosters of senior citizen competitors in an effort to promote elderly social and mental wellbeing by creating "an environment in which the elderly can casually participate in esports," according to its website. Currently, Care hosts its tournaments in Japan's Mie, Gifu, and Aichi prefectures, but the organization hopes to someday organize nationwide competitions.
