Xiaohai Wins Back-to-Back Street Fighter 6 Titles at EWC 2025 After Defeating Blaz
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Key points
- Xiaohai was once again crowned as the EWC champion of Street Fighter 6.
- He faced the young prodigy Blaz in the grand final of the event.
- Xiaohai singlehandedly earned his esports team $700,000.
Zeng “Xiaohai” Zhuojun defended his title as the Street Fighter 6 champion at Esports World Cup 2025 by defeating Derek “Blaz” Blaz in the grand final of the tournament. Xiaohai also placed second in the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament in the same event.
All Street Fighter 6 sets in the third phase of the tournament were played first-to-five, which means that the first player to reach five games wins the set and advances. Unlike traditional fighting game tournaments, EWC 2025’s Phase 4 playoff ruleset was single elimination instead of the normal double-elimination brackets.
Xiaohai’s path to the grand final was filled with top-level players such as Goichi “GO1” Kishida, who won the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament, beating him in the grand final. However, this time, Xiaohai got his revenge as he dominated the set with a 5-2 game count.
His next opponent was Amjad “AngryBird” Al-Shalabi in the semifinal, but he showed few signs of fighting back, ending the set with a 5-1 score in favor of Xiaohai. In the grand final, he met the young prodigy Blaz, who also had to fight Evo champions such as Hiromiki “Itabashi Zangief” Kumada, whom he promptly dispatched with a 5-0 game count set.
In the grand final, Blaz had the early advantage with three straight games taken using his signature Ryu against Xiaohai’s M. Bison. This led to Xiaohai changing characters to his other main, Mai Shiranui, in hopes of stopping the bleeding.
And that it did; Xiaohai took three straight games, tying the game count between the two. On Xiaohai’s third win, Blaz switched over to Ken, which saw a win in the very next game. The set between the two went the distance, with Xiaohai clutching the very last game to be crowned as the EWC champion once again.
Xiaohai’s aforementioned second-place finish in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and win in Street Fighter 6 singlehandedly gave his esports organization, KuaiShou Gaming, 1,750 points. This resulted in it ranking ninth overall in the club championship leaderboards and taking home $700,000.
