Who said dads can longer play video games? 31-year-old father Joshua “Ghirlanda” Bianchi proved expectations wrong by making it on the top eight of the Tekken World Tour (TWT) Global Finals 2022—all it took was for him to put in the work.
With two full-time jobs and a family to tend to, he makes sure to allot two hours every night to practice Tekken, despite having no sponsorships nor any form of support from brands. His self-managed routine and discipline enabled him to defeat the reigning TWT champion Japan’s Yutan “Chikurin” Take and EVO champion Aslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique from Pakistan.
Ghirlanda, who was representing Amsterdam, Netherlands, got the opportunity to combat renowned players like reigning EVO champion Jae-Min “Knee” Bae from Korea. In the final bracket of the competition, he beat Arslan Ash at 2-0 in the Dragon’s Nest arena. He employed a strategic manner of maximizing the spatial structure and walls of the arena along with counter-attacks and combos.
In the second round, a wider arena revoked Ghirlanda’s scheme of utilizing the walls, but he still dominated the match until the very end.
Ghirlanda’s success story is a living proof that adhering to societal expectations do nothing but hinder us from discovering our potential and becoming our best selves. We can do anything and everything we put our hearts to with the right actions and mindset.
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