The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

JOHNATHON Lucius will represent The Bahamas for the second time at the International Esports Federation’s (IESF) World Esports Championship.

The event is slated to begin today and continue until September 4 in Romania. The Bahamas continues to push the mark in traditional and nontraditional sports, proving to be a dominant small nation.

The 2022 national Tekken champion won the qualifiers and represented the country in Bali, Indonesia, last year.

Lucius said he felt excited to compete for the second consecutive year at the IESF World Esports Championship. The Tekken 7 player talked about his first introduction to the sport at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI).

“It all started when I was in college at BTVI studying IT, there was a gaming club at school which showed and taught some of us what Esports was. I first started out trying different games because I didn’t know better at first but as soon as I got in the fighting genre for Esports, something clicked,” he said.

Lucius is quite familiar with the Tekken series because it was a game he played a lot growing up. A childhood game led to him placing fourth out of five players in Group E last year.

He will compete in Group M this time around against Norway, Iraq and Greece. The competition will begin for him at 7am on Friday against Norway. On the same day, he will also play Iraq at 7:40am and last will be Vietnam at 10am.

The 2022 national Tekken champion’s expectations are to simply remain focused on his competitors in Group M.

“My expectations for right now is to focus on the group stage that I am currently in right now, and then as I pass each stage or challenge, I would lean more into that,” he said.

Although Esports is a relatively unorthodox concept to some, Lucius had words of encouragement for those passionate about gaming.

“I would say to everyone that gaming is becoming the next big thing globally in this era now. When I started it was more of a niché market but now to see it thrive today I would say to any person passionate in games such as Fortnite, Apex, to give it a chance or to attend an Esports event, it will really amaze you,” he added.

With this upcoming competition at the forefront of his mind, Lucius also has his sights set on the Evolution Championship Series 2024 in Tokoyo, Japan.