To earn his second Esports World Cup trophy, Xiao Hai performed a reverse sweep over Punk, got revenge on GO1, destroyed AngryBird, and demonstrated miracles of adaptation versus Blaz. The Champion’s prize is $250,000. Xiao Hai qualified for the Capcom Cup 12.
Throughout 2025, Zeng “Xiao Hai” Zhuojun was greatly focused on the new FATAL FURY game, which brought him such achievements as the EVO Japan tournament win. It felt like his Street Fighter adventure was on slow mode this season, as he skipped big events or could not reach the top 8.
Then, Xiao Hai got back on the SF6 radar with his 5th-6th placement at EVO Las Vegas 2025. Perhaps, some intense preparations were added to his schedule — right before Xiao Hai participated in the Street Fighter 6 (SF6) Esports World Cup 2025 (EWC 2025).
As the Champion of SF6 EWC 2024, Xiao Hai did not need to play in the intense qualification series. The community wondered about his current level in this play following significant meta changes and the introduction of new characters. Well, all doubts have been evaporated! Xiao Hai won his back-to-back SF6 EWC trophy. The tournament format of high-pressure matches and long playing sessions of the final playoffs suits his style quite well.
Reverse sweep, revenge, and adaptation
The Street Fighter 6 EWC 2025 did not start easily for Xiao Hai. He was in the group with Victor “Punk” Woodley and faced the EVO 2024 Champion in the very first match. Xiao Hai lost two games, including a mind-blowing clutch from Punk to secure game 2. He had to demonstrate some resilience to stay in the battle — and eventually, Xiao Hai performed a reverse sweep!
Xiao Hai’s second Group stage match was against the Capcom Cup 11 Champion, Kakeru “Kakeru” Watanabe. This time, it was much less trouble for Mai. In the first match of the playoffs, Xiao Hai faced and defeated Torimeshi.
The semifinal turned out to be an iconic match. Xiaohai faced Goichi “GO1” Kishida once again. In this rerun of the FATAL FURY CotW EWC 2025 grand final, Xiao Hai got his revenge!
To reach the grand final, Xiao Hai destroyed Amjad “AngryBird” Al-Shalabi: the latter’s Akuma could do almost nothing.
The decisive match of this SF6 esports tournament was against the young sensation Derek “Blaz” Blaz. The guy repeated his success from the Capcom Cup 11, where Blaz reached the grand final but was stopped by Kakeru.
This time, Blaz had a great start, with three won games in a row. It was a moment when Xiao Hai switched from M. Bison to Mai — and performed his victorious comeback.
FATAL FURY in Street Fighter
It’s not a big surprise that Xiaohai played Mai during the SF6 EWC 2025. She is an original FATAL FURY character with a great presence in The King of Fighters series, and Xiao Hai is one of the greatest KOF players of all time!
Xiao Hai won the previous Street Fighter 6 Esports World Cup with M. Bison, and he picked this character against Kakeru’s JP and Torimeshi’s Dhalsim. The Shadaloo leader did no work at all against Blaz’ Ryu, perhaps because of his amnesia.
Sagat and Kimberly
In general, the SF6 EWC 2025 was a great showcase of the game’s meta after the addition of Sagat and quite a few balance adjustments of the Elena update.
- Elena wasn’t present at the main EWC event, but she was picked by Dogura in the top 16 match of the Last Chance Qualifier.
- Yu “Pugera” Tobinaga played Sagat up to the final match of the EWC Second Phase. He couldn’t win over Torimeshi’s Dhalsim to advance further. Also, Kakeru picked Sagat against Xiao Hai, and he even won one game with the Emperor of Muay Thai.
- Kimberly and Dhalsim were picked by a few players. YHC-Mochi on Dhalsim and Matsu56 on Kimberly reached the final brackets. This feels like the result of proper buffs for both characters, as they did not have such a tournament presence before.
You can find the list of all characters and picks in the final brackets in our Street Fighter 6 EWC 2025 overview article.
Blaz to beat ‘em all!
The Street Fighter 6 tournament at the Esports World Cup was another chance for the young generation to prove themselves.
- Blaz destroyed extremely strong opponents on his way to the SF6 EWC 2025 grand final: GO1, Itbashi Zangief, YHC-Mochi, and Leshar.
- Samuel “EndingWalker” Arm qualified for the playoffs from the #1 spot in his group. In the quarterfinal, he defeated the SF6 Evo 2025 Champion, Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II himself, 5:0.
Witnessing these players having such successes reassures us about the healthy future of the fighting games community (FGC).
Variety of controllers
The example of Blaz and EndingWalker is twice as motivational thanks to the controller type the guys use at SF6 esports tournaments. Both play with gamepads, and they beat opponents with leverless controllers and fighting sticks.
- A few others play Street Fighter 6 on gamepads with Classic Controls as well: Punk, Hurricane, Juicyjoe, and more.
- Many Japanese players are on leverless controllers, including Tokido, Kawano, and Kakeru.
- Fighting sticks remain popular, as GO1, AngryBird, Xiao Hai, and others play with them.
The EWC 2025 hosted a great Street Fighter 6 tournament! The only sad part is that Kakeru had to stop his run due to some health issues. Reportedly, he feels better already.
It’s the second fighting games event within the Esports World Cup 2025, where the reigning Champion wins his back-to-back trophy. ULSAN achieved this in TEKKEN 8.
The next big SF6 event is Ultimate Fighting Arena 2025, from Sept. 12 to Sept. 14, in France. It’s a Premier tier qualifier for the Capcom Cup 12.
For Street Fighter 6 coverage, news, and updates, stick around on esports.gg.