Kun "Xian" Ho basically grew up in the arcades of Singapore. From as young as six years old, his parents would drop him off at the arcade for the afternoon with $2 in his pocket. That $2 had to last him the whole rest of the day. As such, getting good wasn't just about the joy of victory.
"With $2, I’m supposed to think of how to survive in the arcade," Xian told Yahoo Esports in 2016. "So, it’s like a survival game. If I spend the $2 straight away in 30 minutes, I would just have to sit there and watch people play. So I always needed to have a strategy."
When Street Fighter III: Third Strike released in 1999, the nine-year-old Xian already had a few years of experience figuring out games and how to make a quarter last as long as possible. He was instantly enthralled. "That was the first fighting game that I actually played in the arcade," Xian said in a 2024 interview with Gaimin Gladiators. It felt amazing when I tried it, because it was really complicated and difficult. I was really surprised by how people actually enjoyed playing it."
Xian's love of fighting games continued through his teenage years, with Guilty Gear and King of Fighters joining Street Fighter as his games of choice. But as adulthood approached, Xian figured his love of fighting games would have to take a backseat to this thing called "real life." He prepared for his government mandated National Service and assumed he would follow the typical progression into a 9-5 lifestyle. But there was one problem, one many of us are familiar with: he absolutely hated it.
“I don’t like waking up at 8 AM, doing something I don’t like, and always waiting for lunchtime, waiting for the work to finish," Xian told Channel News Asia in 2017. "I wanted to do what I liked as a living.”
Conveniently, Xian's mandated service ended not long after the 2008 release of Street Fighter IV. "It was so popular that my friends asked me to go back to the arcade to play," he told Channel News Asia. It turned out that Xian still had it on the sticks. Within a year, he was ready to test his mettle against international talent. In 2009, he attended his first international tournament at DreamHack Winter in Sweden. Not only was this his first international fighting game event, it was his first time out of his home country at all. “I never thought that I’d ever get to fly to Sweden," Xian said. "I never thought I’d see a country outside of Singapore or, you know, maybe Malaysia.”
Xian didn't even have a hotel room at the event, instead sharing a "sleeping hall" at the venue with a few thousand others. But nonetheless, he locked in, making a run all the way to second place with his Dhalsim and only falling to British fighting game legend Ryan Hart in a set that only lives on through Handycam footage.
For those who have followed Xian's fighting game career, it might be a surprise to hear that he was originally a Dhalsim player. Most western fighting game fans probably know him better for his SFIV Gen, his SFV Ibuki, or his SF6 Dee Jay. But Xian has always thrived through his understanding of how to wield unorthodox characters, and Dhalsim certainly fits that mold.
The $2,148 prize Xian won for second at DreamHack Winter 2019 wasn't enough to turn his fighting game hobby into a career, but it attracted the attention of a couple of major figures within the Singaporean FGC. Specifically, there was Lenn Yang, a casual but passionate gamer who worked in information technology and was very curious about this fellow Singaporean who was going blow for blow with some of the best international Street Fighter players. “I wanted to find out, if he was so good, then why he wasn’t traveling that much to try and achieve more," Yang told Channel News Asia. "I wanted to see if somebody from Singapore could really be the best in the world."
To that end, Yang began sponsoring further international expeditions for Xian. Some years, Yang was spending as much as 20% to 30% of his salary to get Xian to international majors. But he truly believed Xian could be one of the best, and he didn't want money to be the reason why Xian never reached the top.
In 2011, Xian traveled to North America for the first time, finishing a solid 17th place at his first Evo Vegas. Soon, he would show that Yang's lofty expectations weren't misplaced. The next year, Xian earned his first victory at an international tournament, winning Canada Cup 2012 over Street Fighter legends like Bonchan, Fuudo and Mago.
The next year, Xian would fully establish himself as one of the Street Fighter IV greats. He won a Dutch major, Red Fight District II, over French star Luffy. He then went to the United States and finished second at Texas Showdown and Norcal Regionals. And he was just getting started.
Xian made another trip to the United States for the two biggest summer fighting game majors, CEO and Evo. He won his first US major by taking down PR Balrog and Momochi at CEO. Not only was he reaching the summit, he was doing so with a character that few had believed in prior to his rise. But could Gen really do it on the biggest stage in fighting games? With all of the best international talent present and with a huge prize pool and a trip to Capcom Cup on the line?
Xian rolled through the bracket on his way to top 8. There, he was pushed to the limit by Japanese legend Sako barely staving off an Evil Ryu counterpick to win in five games and advance to Winners Finals. It looked like Tokido had the answer to Xian at first, spacing Gen out with Akuma's devastating and safe air fireball and milking the clock to its fullest. Tokido knew the threat that Gen, and specifically Xian's Gen, presented. With a full super meter, Gen needed just one hit to melt over half of Akuma's lifebar, and Tokido was determined never to give him the chance.
It worked for one game. But Xian was slippery, and made the most of the very few opportunities Tokido gave him. His ability to consistently turn openings into massive damage allowed him to outlast Tokido's Akuma, even as the fireballs rained down from the heavens. Xian would win the next three games, dropping just a single round. Tokido earned his shot at the runback in Grand Finals, but it was more of the same, as Xian swept the set 3-0 to earn his first Evolution Championship Series title.
With the win, Xian also became the first to win both CEO and Evo's main Street Fighter tournament in the same year. This accomplishment may not have been that significant at the time, as CEO had only been around since 2010 and only reached major status in 2011, but it has proven to be one of the most difficult achievements in fighting games, as evidenced by some of the greats who have come so close: iDom won CEO's Street Fighter V tournament in 2022 before taking 2nd after a massive losers run at Evo, and MenaRD won CEO 2023 before falling to AngryBird in Grand Finals at Evo.
The CEO-Evo double has only been accomplished twice since Xian: by Bonchan in 2019 and Punk in 2024. It's something that can only be accomplished by an incredibly skilled player at the peak of their abilities, and with that achievement, Xian had fully lived up to the promise Yang had seen in him a half-decade prior.
Xian's CEO win meant you had to treat him as a major threat at Evo, but even Xian himself was surprised by his victory. "It not only surprised me, but I think it also shocked the whole world," he told Channel News Asia. "I would say it's as shocking as Greece winning the World Cup. I was, of course, very happy about it." So were his parents. "I was so happy, and I hugged him, and I said, 'Eh, you really did it, ah?'" his mother Lee Siew Lian said. "So we went to celebrate at night — whole family."
It sounds like a perfect situation for Xian, a win that should leave him on top of the world. But it also left him unmoored as a competitor. Where does one go from the top of the mountain? "The moment I won Evo in 2013, I was actually disappointed," he told Asia One in a 2023 interview. "Even though it was a great win for me, I didn't know my path forward, so I felt a little lost at that time."
He would get a wakeup call soon enough. Later that summer, he accepted a challenge from Daigo to play in a First-to-10 exhibition. Xian had been taking a break from Street Fighter. Daigo clearly hadn't. Xian was completely washed, and took a 10-0 beatdown from the beast. It didn't bother him too much in the moment, but in a Reddit AMA he said that loss would soon hit him like a ton of bricks. "It didn't bother me to lose to Daigo that night at all until a few weeks later," Xian said. "I had a mountain of salt and was literally swimming in a red sea full of tears."
Xian wasn't going to wallow in them, though. He picked himself up and closed 2013 with more strong results, including a win at Thaiger Uppercut 2013 and a second place finish at Capcom Cup. He would remain one of the strongest Street Fighter IV competitors in the world, earning qualification to Capcom Cup yet again in 2014 through his win at the hometown Singapore qualifier and earning another 2nd place finish. He qualified again for Capcom Cup through the Shanghai qualifier in 2015 and would earn yet another strong finish, taking the bronze.
Throughout this phase of his career, Xian was struggling to make it as a pro player without a sponsorship. "People would mock me for working so hard at a game that has no prize money in it," he wrote in an article for One Esports in 2023. "Honestly, there were days where I wondered if they were right. How can anyone find the passion to pursue something that won't let you support yourself and your family?" But in 2014, Xian earned a sponsorship with Razr, allowing him to travel and compete full-time. It was a partnership that lasted for nearly a decade, and it allowed Xian to find fun in competition once again.
Gen was gone in Street Fighter V, and although he had some impressive runs with F.A.N.G., Xian was struggling to reach the peaks he had in the Street Fighter IV days. But in season 2, he made the switch to Ibuki and once again became an international threat. In 2017, Xian won five major tournaments according to Liquipedia. The final one, LAN Story Cup, forced him to win a pair of first-to-5s over Tokido. But after a 5-4 win in Grand Finals, Xian had done it, taking home the $30,000 grand prize. That would be his best season of Street Fighter V, but he would remain a force throughout the game's lifespan, qualifying for Capcom Cup every year from 2016 through 2019 and finishing as high as 4th place in 2018.
Xian continues to thrive in Street Fighter 6, a threat to win any event in Southeast Asia with his Dee Jay. Thanks to his win at the 2024 World Warrior: Asia Southeast Regional Final, Xian made his triumphant return to Capcom Cup for the first time in Street Fighter 6. He ran it all the way to ninth with wins over Big Bird and MenaRD, proving that he can still hang with the world's best players.
It turned out those lessons he learned from stretching those $2 at the arcades as a kid paid off, in more ways than he could have ever imagined. Now 34 years old, Xian still has years of Street Fighter ahead of him, and he doesn't see himself leaving fighting games behind any time soon. "I'll be playing games very competitively because this is what I've been doing," Xian told Channel News Asia. "I'll be a pro gamer for the rest of my life. Until the day I can't play any more."
See more of Xian's story in Evo Legends Powered by Qiddiya Legends on EvoFGC.
