35-year-old Street Fighter player Xiaohai is waking up considerably richer this morning after his stunning success in the Street Fighter 6 tournament at the eSports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Against some top-drawer competition, Xiaohai grabbed the lion’s share of the million-dollar prize pot after smashing rival Kawano in the final with his seemingly unbeatable knowledge of M. Bison and Ken as his go-to fighters. The first prize for the win was a life-changing $300,000.
Despite his advancing years – he was a decade older than his final rival, Xiaohai is now rapidly laying down a marker as one of the greatest eSports professionals of all time.
The King of Fighters and Street Fighter veteran Xiaohai (Zeng Zhoujun to the suddenly interested tax man) snatched the final 5-2 and the win never really looked in doubt.
Xiao Hai is already widely regarded as the best King of Fighters player of all time and now as he begins to take over the Street Fighter scene his multi-discipline brilliance is starting to reap the financial rewards that pro eSports players can now enjoy.
Having said that he didn’t have it all his own way in his Qualifying group – he qualified easily but finished second to Ryukichi overall before powering his way through the Playoffs with 5-3 and 5-4 wins over Hikaru and gachikun respectively.
The best was saved for last as his then pulled out his best performance to power past Kawano and take the shield much to the joy of his wife who was there to support him.
The eSports World Cup in Saudi Arabia has been a huge success and with the vast sums of prize money on offer across many different eSports has guaranteed its spot as a tournament that the very best will consistently want to appear in. The Kingdom’s determination to become the global center for eSports is being backed heavily and a recent deal to see the eSports Olympics held there only further underlines its position.
The post eSports Street Fighter champ bags more than a cool quarter of a million dollars at Riyadh World Cup Final appeared first on ReadWrite.
