WTF?! Fighting games are known for their emphasis on tactics and quick decision-making, but sometimes button mashing can be frustratingly effective. One Tekken 8 player has demonstrated this by programming a bot to press the same button repeatedly – with surprising results.

Twitch user “jimmashima” is currently running what is definitely the strangest Tekken 8 stream by choosing series mainstay Eddy Gordo and setting a bot to mash (thus the username) a single button. The technique doesn’t win every match, but the bot has progressed further in ranked play than most would have anticipated.

It does nothing but repeatedly press 3, corresponding to the simple left-kick attack. However, spamming the button in Tekken 8 doesn’t endlessly repeat the same kick.

When used with capoeira fighter Eddy Gordo, it produces a surprisingly varied combination of low, medium, and high strikes that can be deceptively difficult for beginners to defend against. A single opening can lead to serious amounts of damage. As a result, jimmashima’s bot has earned over 12,000 points and progressed as high as Destroyer rank as of publication – the 14th of Tekken 8’s 30 tiers.

It’s unclear whether the stream is a comment on Tekken 8, Eddy, or the players losing to the bot. In any case, the balance adjustments the character received from this week’s patch don’t appear to have diminished the effectiveness of jimmashima’s strategy.

Although Eddy has been a series regular since 1997’s Tekken 3, Tekken 8 didn’t include the character upon its late January launch. Instead, he appeared as the first of four planned DLC characters early last month for $8. Next up is Karate fighter Lidia Sobieska, arriving this summer.

Two more unnamed characters will appear in the Fall and Winter. Data mining suggests they could be Vale Tudo user Craig Marduk and Muay Thai boxer Fahkumram. Another round of characters will arrive with Season 2 next year, but information on their identities is scant. Chances are good that they might include Anna Williams and Armor King II.

For those wishing to view high-level play between human competitors, the Tekken World Tour recently finished its first major event – Evo Japan. Several more are planned throughout the year, including the US Evo tournament from July 19 to July 21.