Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and do not reflect Shoryuken as a whole.
[Feature image: Xiaohai, second from the left]
Today–with us inching closer and closer to Capcom Cup–I feel like it’s a proper time to start analyzing the players that are going to be taking part and trying to fight their way toward a six-figure grand prize and the inherent bragging rights. In the inaugural session, I intend to talk about someone that has forced his name to the forefront, Team Qanba Douyu’s Zhuojun “Xiaohai” Zeng.
Xiaohai has been a player whose name, throughout the course of his career, has been on the tip of people’s tongues but not the first name to blurt out. That is starting to change this year, but he has not quite reached that pinnacle where his name is a knee-jerk reaction to the question, “Who is the absolute best?”
The Xiaohai that was on display at SoCal Regionals was seeking to change that. Having won the Wednesday Night Fights King of Fighters XIV and Street Fighter V events just prior to SCR, only to show up and replicate the same feat when it counted even more, shows that he has the skill and the understanding of the game to do it. Will that be enough for this Chinese player to become the man to beat next year?
Early Success
Most people didn’t know who Xiaohai was for the longest time because, simply put, he didn’t play games that mattered in the grand scheme in the West. Coming from Mainland China, the predominant game was King of Fighters ’98, which was only taken the most seriously in China, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico. Given that, it’s obvious that no one in North America would know or really care about him. Matter of fact, the first time I personally heard his name was when he was playing exhibitions to showcase the Chinese free-to-play fighter Xuandou Zhiwang in 2011. I only discovered this tidbit by actually residing in China at the time.
Basing his success off of a game that was slept on in the West is a fatal error, however. In 2007, Xiaohai emerged as champion of KOF98 at Super Battle Opera in Japan. Despite SBO being part luck, one does not simply walk into Japan for a prestigious tournament and win the championship without a fight. If that’s not enough, he also was the final champion of The King of Fighters XIII at Evolution in 2014. Xiaohai has proven that he can handle high pressure situations with grace, and should he do so in Anaheim, he will be hard to root against.
Streakiness Strikes
I state that he has to do so, because simply put, he has the capability to beat himself with questionable and risky play. When he is hot, he is hot, and when he is not, well… you get the picture. Xiaohai began to exhibit this trait from his very emergence into the international scene. Outside of China, his play in Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition was unknown and untested. Making his debut at Evolution 2012 and subsequently making Top 8 put to bed any doubts regarding his ability to play against the best in the world.
But then top 8 reared its ugly head. Xiaohai narrowly found himself outside top 3 based off insanely terrible play–a meterless heavy spiral arrow right into Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang. Had he tried any other approach, we may be talking about different results in the event. As it were, for performing an unsafe move in a game where risk/reward was so easily mitigated, he exited in 4th place.
If this were the lone evidence of streaky play, people would be much more willing to turn a blind eye to that performance. Sadly, not a lot has changed, as in a round table featuring UltraDavid, Sajam, Michael Martin, Tasty Steve, and James Chen, the general consensus on Xiaohai was that he is, in fact, streaky. This was heading in to SoCal Regionals, so obviously the gap in 4 years hasn’t been bridged quite enough.
During Street Fighter V Crash in Korea, his team–GZ Dojo–found him struggling more than his compatriots, Haojun “Dakou” Su, and Abao. While he was struggling to find wins, the latter two were the proverbial glue to hold their team together and clean up. His struggles could ultimately have contributed to GZ Dojo’s finish outside of Top 4–the only sponsored team to miss the final day.
The Travel Factor
Perhaps one of the biggest factors that could be attributed to his inconsistent play could be his practice habits, which could not be helped in some ways. Being a citizen of the People’s Republic of China has often hindered his ability to make events outside of East Asia. Even his attendance of Evolution 2012 was an unknown, due to the difficulty of Chinese obtaining visas from the United States outside of student visas.
Given those limitations, he has been mostly been relegated to practicing against players in arcades in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Online play, in China, is shaky at best, and is only good in close proximity–if you are even lucky to have found players that own consoles in the midst of what was a ban on sales of home consoles in the communist country until 2015. Given all these compounded issues, Xiaohai didn’t have much luck in finding quality practice–usually relying on his and training partner Dakou’s abilities to play multiple characters well to learn various match-ups he would face in tournaments.
This year has changed his travel issues obviously, as he’s been seen globetrotting the world as much–if not more–than perennial travelers such as Seon-woo “Infiltration” Lee and Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi. His consistent results of making typically no worse than top 16 can easily be attributed to more practice against a smorgasbord of play styles and characters. Just like the aforementioned Infiltration–who struggled in his overall performance until being sponsored by Western Wolves and gaining the subsequent ability to travel more–the factor of attending more events as certainly helped Xiaohai elevate his game beyond middling status, which has found him qualified early for Capcom Cup and currently sitting in 2nd place in the world rankings. He also is one of only a few players to have won multiple majors this year–joining the likes of Infiltration, Tokido, Daigo Umehara, GamerBee, and Justin Wong.
Who He Played to Get to the Top
Here’s Xiaohai, sitting at the top of the heap; here’s who Xiaohai had to topple to get to the top of his respective heaps. His win in G-League was obviously–being in China–going to be comprised of a weaker field. Having to face down Xian–who admittedly held a disadvantage in the Cammy match-up by using F.A.N.G and Ibuki–makes the Grand Finals a cake walk for Zeng, despite Xian’s incredible skill on winning with low tier characters. He also had to dispatch Fuudo–one of the best R. Mikas in the world–and GO1–one of the best Chun-Lis in the world as of G-League. Not only did he dispatch them, but he did so decisively with none of those matches having less than a two-win gap between himself and his opponents.
SoCal Regionals saw him play shakier opponents. Grand Finals saw him play Tatsuya Haitani, whom he defeated in Winner’s Finals. The results saw Haitani reset the bracket on Xiaohai in a 3-0 victory. If Xiaohai is a player viewed as inconsistent, the round table at SCR commented that Haitani himself doesn’t seem comfortable within the game yet. For Xiaohai to struggle against the Japanese Necalli when it mattered most is very telling about his aforementioned inconsistency.
Recovery
If there existed questions about his consistency, he was certainly trying to answer them on Sunday. In KOFXIV, Xiaohai answered back to ArcadeShock’s Reynald–who put him into loser’s bracket–decisively. By the end of the set, Xiaohai had broken down Reynald’s problematic Mian in such a way that Reynald looked visibly frustrated and forlorn. The runner up resorted to grasping at straws to attempt to find an answer to Xiaohai, by subtituting Mature for Chin, then Mature for Mian, then reversed that decision and ran Mian/Nakoruru/Chin to his doom. By the end, it was clear that Xiaohai had entered Reynald’s head and found Reynald sitting in the corner when he arrived.
Despite the reset in Street Fighter V, Xiaohai recovered brilliantly, and shut down Haitani’s Necalli in similar fashion to what he did in KOF. Whereas most flowers wilt under this pressure, Xiaohai bloomed. His reaction to adversity was telling, and will be his greatest asset going into the throes of a stacked bracket in Anaheim.
Final Thoughts
Betting on Xiaohai–much with his play style–comes with inherent risks. He can falter, he can make bad decisions, and he can get inside his head to much. But have you seen him when he’s in someone else’s head?
Come Capcom Cup, I expect Xiaohai to place top 3 at least. Yes, he is a shark in a pool of sharks, and can be eaten in the midst of the greatest test of his career. But–after Canada Cup–if he maintains the fire that he displayed at SoCal Regionals, this very well could be his time to be king of the hill.
