At sixteen, in her first Tier 1 tournament, Neia finished 17th out of more than 2,500 entrants.
That was EVO Nice in 2025. She showed up with almost no offline record: a French teenager with an aggressive, movement-heavy Lili and a game built almost entirely online. The Tekken community noticed right away. A year later she is back in Nice in Team Vitality colors, and what she keeps coming back to is the level of the opposition.
“I’m very happy that I managed to achieve the same result as last year while facing players who were just as strong or even stronger,” she said, naming the Korean players Crescent and Rest. “I feel like the experience I’ve gained from travelling to different tournaments really showed in my performance this time.”
That is a harder way to read a bracket than most players her age would try. Ask her what has improved and the answer comes back as one word. Consistency. “I think I’ve become more consistent against top and international players,” she said ahead of the event. “This year, I want to manage my emotions better and keep fighting until the end.” The proof came at Ultimate Fighting Arena, where she finished fifth. “UFA confirmed to me that I’d become more consistent against strong players,” she said. “I’m really proud of finishing fifth, but I still have a lot to learn. It gave me more confidence in my level.”
She found the game through her brother, who put Tekken 7 in front of her. It was the first fighting game she had ever touched, and it took on the first try. “I immediately fell in love with the game, the combos, the music, and everything else.” She gave Street Fighter V a go later on and it didn’t hold her. Nothing else has.
Lili wasn’t her first pick. She has been the main for years, and the reasons Neia gives are the ones a combo-forward player gives. “I love her personality, her fighting style, and how creative you can be with her combo routes.”The jump from online to offline is where plenty of promising online players quietly stop being promising. Neia made it with help from Kayane, [one clause on who Kayane is, for a reader who doesn’t know. Yours to write], who she met and played early on.
“Meeting Kayane and getting into offline competition really changed how I saw the game,” she said. “Playing against her gave me confidence and showed me that my online level could translate to offline play. I’m really grateful for all the support she’s given me.” It translated.
What playing offline gave her back was a crowd, and in Nice, a home one. “I absolutely love competing in France. It gives me even more motivation,” she said. “Hearing the crowd cheer for me and knowing they want to see me win is just magical. I’ll never be able to thank them enough for all their support.”
Team Vitality put her on a Tekken roster with Jeondding and KingReyJr. She describes what that’s worth in the plainest terms available: she gets to be near two players who are better than she is. “Jeondding and KingReyJr are incredible players, and I can learn a lot from them,” she said. “They’re also really supportive and kind to me, so I’m really happy to be part of the team.”
All of this fits around school. She is seventeen. The flights come out of the same calendar as her coursework, and she is blunt about the cost. “It’s not always easy to balance school with tournaments and travelling, but I try to manage my responsibilities as best I can,” she said. “Tekken is something I really love, and I’m ambitious about my career, but I know school is important too.”
One year of offline competition. Two top-24 finishes at the biggest event in the game, a fifth place at UFA, a contract with one of Europe’s best-known organizations. (She is still a year away from being able to rent a car in most of the countries she flies to.) Asked where she wants to be twelve months from now, she answered the way she answers everything. “I want to keep improving, gain more experience, and become a more consistent player. I’m proud of how far I’ve come in just one year of offline competition, but I know I still have a lot to learn.”
