After competing in tournaments for over two decades since he was just 10 years old, Zeng “KSG|Xiao Hai” Zhuojun has certainly earned the right to call himself one of the greatest competitors across multiple fighting games after winning two world-level events within a month of each other.
Does Xiao Hai consider himself to be one of the best Street Fighter 6 players in the world, however, upon scoring his emotional Esports World Cup victory? And who does he have at the top of the mountain of the competitive scene in Season 2?
The longtime international star of the Chinese fighting game community recently appeared on a special broadcast after arriving back home where he was asked such questions.
And thanks to Weili’s translations, we can see his answers as they stand now.
The man who won the Evo 2024 championship for The King of Fighters 15 just weeks before the Esports World Cup does unsurprisingly put himself up among the top class.
“This time I’ve got the championship at EWC, so I am in the top 5,” started Xiao Hai. “And then there’s MenaRD. He was well-known as the greatest SF6 player before the last patch came out. Mena is super insane. Although Mena didn’t perform all that well at EWC, when I practiced with him, we were neck and neck. Sometimes he won more.”
Although his performances haven’t been quite as dominant as they were in Season 1, Mena is still certainly putting up numbers and taking names as the reigning Evo Japan champion in the game.
With Luke and Blanka getting nerfed in the current meta, however, the only two-time Capcom Cup winner has been doing more experimentation as of late with his character choices and gameplay.
There’s technically three players who could refer to themselves as SF6 world champions including Xiao Hai though only one other makes the list.
FLY|Punk is the last person mentioned, which isn’t all that surprising considering he did finally just get his own tear-filled Evo victory in the game too, and it probably helps the competitors have seemingly quashed their beef / rivalry on top of that.
We can’t go forgetting about the Capcom Cup X winner, UMA from Taiwan, but he’s not on the list here.
This isn’t too surprising, however, considering UMA appears to have taken a hiatus from major tournaments since CCX and Evo Japan 2024.
Last year’s Evo winner NASR|Angrybird also made Xiao Hai’s top 5 with him stating he felt at a disadvantage when training against the Ken player.
Finally, he put two Rashid mains down as being somewhat equals to each other in Evo runner-up NASR|BigBird and RB|Gachikun, who Xiao Hai defeated in the EWC semi-finals.
You may have noticed that’s technically 6 players he’s named, but that’s apparently the top 5 not including Xiao Hai himself. He doesn’t specify either who he’d cut if he did.
That of course leaves out a ton of other extremely talented players from around the world who’ve been putting in a lot of results and work in the game lately too.
There’s the likes of G8S|Kawano, who Xiao Hai defeated in the EWC finals, Rohto|Tokido, GK|Zhen, Victrix|Momochi, Mouz|EndingWalker, and AMG|Kobayan, the underdog Zangief player who impressively won the Topanga Championship last month for SF6, among many others one could argue deserves a spot.
This is of course Xiao Hai’s personal list, however, so these players are who he feels are the biggest threats in SF6 Season 2 right now personally.
Do you find this list accurate? Who would you place in your top 5 currently? Let us know in the comments.
Image via the Esports World Cup.