How cuddle_core Evolved Through Tekken 8's Tumultuous Season 2

Welcome back!

In Friday's issue, we covered what Tekken 8 pros wanted to see from Season 3, which launches March 17.

Red Bull athlete and professional player Jeannail "cuddle_core" Carter was one of those players. But our conversation went well beyond balance patches, and that's what made it worth sharing in full.

Cuddle_core and I first connected at EVO last year, and every conversation since has revealed more about how she approaches competition. This time was no different. Fresh off a top-16 finish at the Tekken World Tour Last Chance Qualifier in Malmö, Sweden, she reflected on Season 2 with a perspective that goes beyond wins and losses.

"It was challenging, but I'm just so proud of myself for how I evolved through all of it," cuddle_core said.

Here's how she did it.

Paul

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Players at every level had complaints about Tekken 8 Season 2. The balance changes were jarring, the new mechanics divisive, and the community's frustration was loud and sustained. For cuddle_core, though, the ever-changing state of the game kept her on her toes. She wouldn't have had it any other way.

"Something that one of my best friends always says is we're constantly students of the game, and he's so right because I always am," she said. "I'm always excited and willing to learn through those things, even in those more confusing moments where I'm like, how do I figure this out? How do I solve this problem? It kept me invested the entire time."

That holistic outlook is both a gameplay strategy and a mindset that has carried her across multiple generations of the franchise — Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 7, and now Tekken 8. Where others saw Season 2's turbulence as a source of frustration, cuddle_core treated it as a puzzle to solve.

"I've experienced so many seasons of a game, specifically Tekken, that I'm like, 'Yeah, this is just another thing for me,'" she said. "I just have to find the gaps and frames where I can interrupt or where I can't."

That work paid off. On January 20, cuddle_core won TNS #100 (a weekly online Tekken tournament regularly attended by top players) out of 312 entrants. Two days later, she finished second in Paragon, another elite online event. She capped the season with a 13th-place finish at the Tekken World Tour Last Chance Qualifier in Malmö.

But competition, for cuddle_core, has never been purely about beating the person on the other side of the screen.

"If it's me competing against myself, being the best version of myself for that thing, I will stick with it to no end," she said. "I really enjoyed learning through Season 2. It was challenging, but I'm just so proud of myself for how I evolved through all of it."

She didn't get there alone.

Cuddle_core's end-of-season momentum wasn't built in isolation. Her training partner network, a group of friends and players who bring different perspectives to the lab, was central to how she navigated Season 2's shifting landscape.

"I have so many different types of peers and friends and training partners that have these different perspectives," she said. "It really helped me stay committed to getting better in Season 2."

Azurebokeh was the one she highlighted most. Over the course of the season, he took time to pick up cuddle_core's main character, Alisa, along with other characters in her matchup pool, specifically to help her understand the situations she was struggling with. The two would then review her tournament sets together, using replay mode to find the openings she was missing.

"He's very good at breaking that down for me. He would see me compete and I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'm not sure what to do there,'" she said. "So then we would go into it together, watch my matches and then go do the takeover replays. I really feel like the fact that I did that with a best friend, it really helped me stay so involved and invested because it presented a new way of thinking for me."

That collaborative approach gets at something often underappreciated in competitive gaming: adaptation isn't just about grinding harder, it's about expanding how you think. Having someone who can see your blind spots, engage with the game's mechanics independently, and bring that knowledge back to you changes the quality of the work.

The Malmö trip itself added one more layer. Carter made the journey to Sweden with her boyfriend and sister, a rarity for a player who usually travels solo to events.

"I don't get to travel with my loved ones all the time," she said. "So it was one of my favorite experiences to date in terms of traveling."

She plans to keep training through the offseason, not letting her edge dull before Season 3 arrives. Until then, like the rest of the community, she's counting down to March 17.

When Bandai Namco previewed Season 3 with the phrase "Back to Basics," the community heard what it wanted to hear. Cuddle_core's wishlist aligned with much of the consensus: shorter combos, no regenerating heat gauges, toned-down plus-frames after block, and a rollback on the move bloat that made Season 2 so exhausting to learn.

"I'm hoping for those changes because it's a Tekken game with back and forth," she said. "I should not have to hold 8,000 things fighting against this particular sequence. I've figured out my spots and my holes and my gaps and my frames, but still. I've watched matches where it looks like a one-sided game. I hope it goes in a very positive direction."

Three characters were also announced during the Malmö weekend, all returning from Tekken 7 and giving players who lost their mains a long-awaited reunion. For Carter, it's not a feeling she's ever experienced. Alisa has been in the base roster of every Tekken she's competed in. But she understood the weight of it for the players around her.

"I couldn't imagine what that's like," she said. "I've had my characters every single game. They were never announced. They were just base roster. And I'm like, 'Oh, thank God.' So I'm happy for everybody who got their characters."

Kunimitsu, azurebokeh's main, headlines the announcements with a late-Spring release. Bob follows in Summer, and Roger Jr. rounds out the trio in Autumn, in a reveal that genuinely surprised most of the community. A fourth character will be announced later in the year alongside a new stage.

"I always thought that Kuni, the way she played in Tekken 7, was made for Tekken 8," cuddle_core said. "They introduced us to some new tech and stuff early. I don't hate that concept. The way she plays, I was like, 'You know what? That's really cool.' Her design is really awesome."

The biggest structural shift heading into Season 3, however, is off-screen. Longtime series director Katsuhiro Harada, who shaped Tekken for three decades, has stepped away from the franchise. It's a change Carter is still processing.

"I personally think it's kind of going to be odd because that's his baby," she said. "So him not being at the head of that is going to be very interesting. I hope that the folks that are in charge do it justice because you have a lot to live up to. The game is very special and should be treated as such. I have a lot of hope that they will."

Cuddle_core enters her fifth year as a Red Bull athlete in 2026, and when she shows up to tournaments this season, she'll be wearing something she helped design from scratch.

Early in 2025, she pitched an idea to her sponsor: a custom-made jersey, built around her aesthetic, not a generic team uniform. Red Bull said yes — and connected her with New York-based chain stitch artist Shakira Javonni. What followed was a full collaborative process involving Carter, her manager, Javonni, and members of the Red Bull gaming team.

An art school graduate, Carter created the mood board herself. She sourced floral patterns, mapped where she wanted them placed, and locked in the color palette she'd been associated with for years. When the finished jersey finally arrived, the reaction wasn't immediate excitement. It was something closer to shock.

"It took me a little bit to get used to it. It was rather new. I wore it for the first time and it felt odd," she said. "But I remember posting recently—it's like armor and it's so me. It's very me. I'm grateful to Red Bull that they care about not just me as the player, but the person and what represents me."

Feeling genuinely heard by a sponsor, not just managed, has defined her five years with the brand.

"I just feel like when I say something or if I ask something, if I bring something to them, they really care about hearing me out," she said. "They respect me and they care about me. So that relationship we have is very special."

Off the tournament circuit, cuddle_core is keeping busy. She has Red Bull projects on the horizon, a speaking engagement at a college gaming club's girls' night in Houston, and a larger project she's not ready to announce yet. She's also relocating to Austin in May.

"A lot of things: competing, training, and enjoying the downtime, but trying to still have a little bit of busyness," she said. "All very good things. Just making sure that I'm constantly moving forward."

Her first TWT event of the Season 3 cycle is scheduled to start at Combo Breaker, with LVL Up Expo in Las Vegas also on her radar. The season doesn't officially start until March 17 — but cuddle_core is already in motion.

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I'd like to thank cuddle_core for taking time to sit down with me. Reply and tell me, what's your approach to learning and improvement, especially when it comes to esports?

In Friday's issue, I attended my first ever event at Riot Games Arena. I'll share my experience and give you a small preview heading into the LCS's penultimate weekend.

Until next time, keep grinding.

Paul

Credit to Chona Kasinger from the Red Bull Content Pool for the thumbnail photo.