Xiao Hai’s now won huge Street Fighter and King of Fighters majors within one month of each other
In the realm of fighting games, walking away with a $300,000 check after a tournament is almost unheard of, but it’s certainly not all about money for those who choose to walk the path of a true world warrior.
Zeng “KSG|Xiao Hai” Zhuojin truly cemented himself as one of the absolute greatest competitors of all time by becoming a multi-game champion after winning the Esports World Cup 2024 for Street Fighter 6.
Although he’s generally more well known as a top King of Fighters player (and hard to argue about him being the best in the world at it), Xiao Hai never really stopped grinding Street Fighter as well.
He managed to take a handful of smaller victories in SF6 last year, but 2024 had the longtime pro coming up just short time and time again (except for the Street Fighter League championship) leading into the EWC.
Xiao Hai finished in the top 8 at Evo Japan 2024 as well as DreamHack Summer and Dallas while reaching the top 16 for SF6 at Evo 2024 last month — where he would walk away the King of Fighters 15 champion.
The road to making it through the Esports World Cup also proved to be a difficult one with one of the most stacked lineups we’d seen in SF6 where players would have to survive three phases before anyone could be crowned as number one.
Xiao Hai had to defeat the likes of GE|Zhen, Mouz|Problem X, FURIA|Dual Kevin, and TM|NoahTheProdigy just to make it to the final day where he’d have to get through multiple past Street Fighter champions including RB|Gachikun and G8S|Kawano.
But using his powerful M. Bison and Ken combo, he succeeded against the odds and did so in pretty convincing fashion.
It’s an amazing day. Finally I get the Sf6 world champion.EWC is the most important tournament that i have ever won. I have never cried because I won the championship, only this time, and more because I proved myself on the SF6. Thank you EWC pic.twitter.com/9GVTf7CsPF
— 曾卓君 (@Xiaohai_) August 12, 2024
It’s a victory that clearly meant a lot to the competitor who started winning tournaments around just 10 years old in China with his father.
He could immediately be seen trying to hold back tears still in his chair before popping up and pumping his fists all the while his elated wife jumped and cheered from the crowd until she was brought up to stand with him too.
And though English his first or primary language, Xiao Hai had an important message he wanted to share with the world.
I PROVED MYSELF #EsportsWorldCup @Xiaohai_ pic.twitter.com/n8eNaBiMuL
— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) August 11, 2024
“My name is Xiao Hai. And when I played the game, I was six years old. Xiao Hai means little kid, and now I’m 35. Too many people say I’m older, I can’t win anymore. But today, I proved myself!”
He then had another message thanking his wife for being there for him as his luck and some more online too.
Winning big KOF15 and SF6 events within a month of each other is a massive accomplishment with his message resonating to many in the FGC.
And on top of that it seems he’s earned some more respect and friendship from rivals.
Xiao Hai just be poking fun at Punk at this point, that’s some deep hatred https://t.co/s1S8Ai6jAB
— NASR | Adel (@Bigbird_fgc) July 9, 2024
Throughout this past year or so, there had been some apparent beef growing between Xiao Hai and FLY|Punk that came to a head when the former took the number one ranked spot from the latter in SF6 this July.
“Someone really need to tell @Xiaohai_ to stop sending his fans to say dumb **** to me you are a grown man that live in China and obsessed with me,” wrote Punk on X shortly afterwards. “If Xiao hai really thinks he so good tell him let’s play FT15 $10000 if not STFU and get off my **** weirdo.”
That beef has apparently been quashed now after the pair were together in Saudi Arabia for the EWC with Punk sharing a photo of the top players apparently hugging it out — though it still sounds like he has some issues with the fans who’ve been stoking the flames online.
Im happy for Xiaohai funny Chinese people keep messaging me when we squashed our beef this week. pic.twitter.com/KE7u5XltZN
— Punk (@PunkDaGod) August 11, 2024
Xiao Hai also followed that up with a post saying that he got a “big friend” in Punk now.
Punk of course also finally got his big win at Evo 2024 last month where he too had an emotional victory in Street Fighter 6 after alluding him for seven years.
And something is happen. I get a big friend. Punk.hahaha. I said you deserve the evo sf6 champion. And He congrats my evo kof too. I like that moment. It’s a great day
— 曾卓君 (@Xiaohai_) August 12, 2024
So now it seems we’ve got some mutual respect between champions from different corners of the globe who share the same drive and passion.
If Punk is The Alpha, then maybe Xiao Hai should now be The Omega.