Ho Kun Xian

Ho Kun Xian (simplified Chinese: 何坤贤; traditional Chinese: 何坤賢; pinyin: Hé Kūnxián; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: hô khun hiân) (born 15 September 1990), better known as Xian, is a Singaporean professional fighting games player. Xian is currently part of Team Razer. He was the winner of Ultra Street Fighter 4 at DreamHack Winter 2015.[1][2] At Capcom Cup 2015 he got third place after being eliminated by eventual runner-up Daigo Umehara.[3][4] He beat Yusuke Momochi at Final Round 18.[5] Xian plays Gen as his character of choice, as his stances allowed Xian more options. He stated that Gen was a very underestimated character that people have compared to Dan Hibiki and have easily dismissed as weak.[6]

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ho.
Xian
Ho Kun Xian
Personal information
Born (1990-09-15) 15 September 1990
NationalitySingapore
Career information
Current teamTeam Razer
GamesStreet Fighter
Career history
2012–2014Desperation Move
2014–presentTeam Razer
Career highlights and awards

He won Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition at EVO 2013.[7]

Personal life

Born in 1990 to mother Lee Siew Lian, a cashier, and private-hire car driver father, Xian has an elder brother Ho An De. The whole family lives in a one-room HDB flat.[8][9]

After completing his secondary school GCE Ordinary Level, Xian did odd jobs, such as cargo lifter, home mover and hawker assistant, before he enlisted for National Service. It made him realised that he was not suitable for a nine-to-five job. He wanted "to do what I liked as a living" even though he knew it seemed "like an impossible task to make gaming a career".

In 2010, Xian met his girlfriend, Jen Tan, a tattoo artist, in an arcade who also played Street Fighter. Besides Tan, her parents are also supportive of his career.

Career

Xian's passion for gaming started at seven years old when he was in primary school. With only S$2 whenever he went to the arcade, he would stretch it for hours by getting better and better because winning the games would allow him to continue playing.[8][9] He also derived a huge sense of satisfaction whenever he beat his friends and had carved out a name for himself.[10]

In 2008, Xian's friends asked him to return to the arcade to play the new and popular Street Fighter IV game. In 2009, after a series of competitions, Xian represented Singapore at the DreamHack gaming festival in Sweden. His second-placing at the festival convinced him to start travelling to compete around the world. However, his family and friends were not supportive as it was just after his National Service and he was without a job.

It was around this time that Xian found a silent backer in Lenn Yang,[11] a casual but passionate gamer, who saw online video clips of Xian in action overseas and wanted "to see if somebody from Singapore can really be the best player in the world". Personally, Yang sponsored Xian S$15,000 to S$20,000 a year for three years.

In 2013, Xian became the world's best Street Fighter at the 2013 Evolution Championship Series in Las Vegas, beating 1,600 players to win the prize money of US$5,700.[7] Although he won international fame at the most prestigious tournament in the world, the prize money could only last him for a few months, which made him consider turning professional. In 2014, he found sponsorship in Razer Inc. which allows him to play full-time.

Now, his family and friends are supportive as he has won awards and can make a living just by gaming. His fame also brings him fans and monetary gains. Xian has 40,000 followers on Twitter and 15,000 on Facebook. He also earns appearance fees from gaming events and has sponsorships.

For now, Xian hopes to stretch his career for as long as possible. He said, "I'll be playing games very competitively because this is what I've been doing...I'll be a pro-gamer for the rest of my life. Until the day I cannot play any more."

Tournament results

[12]

Street Fighter

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (v2012)
  • Shadowloo Showdown 2011 - 7th
  • Canada Cup 2012 - 1st
  • Red Fight District 2 - 1st
  • Final Round 16 - 5th
  • April Duels 2 - 1st
  • Texas Showdown 2013 - 2nd
  • NorCal Regionals 11 - 2nd
  • Topanga Asia League - 6th
  • South East Asia Major 2013 - 2nd
  • Community Effort Orlando (CEO) 2013 - 1st
  • Evolution 2013 - 1st
  • The Fall Classic 2013 - 3rd
  • Shadowloo Showdown 2013 - 7th
  • ThaigerUppercut 2013 - 1st
  • DreamHack Winter 2013 - 7th
  • Capcom Cup 2013 - 2nd
  • International Video Game Cup 2014 - 7th
  • Topanga World League - 5th

Ultra Street Fighter IV
  • South East Asia Major 2014 - 7th
  • Capcom Pro Tour Korea - 1st
  • Capcom Pro Tour Taiwan - 5th
  • ThaigerUppercut 2014 - 3rd
  • Capcom Pro Tour Singapore - 1st
  • The Fall Classic 2014 - 2nd
  • Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals 2014 - 2nd
  • Capcom Cup 2014 - 2nd
  • Canada Cup Masters Series 2015 - 3rd
  • SXSW Gaming Expo 2015 - 7th
  • Final Round 18 - 1st
  • Red Bull Kumite 2015 - 5th
  • Hypespotting 4 - 5th
  • Topanga World League 2 - 3rd
  • Street Fridays Season 1 Finale - 4th
  • South East Asia Major 2015 - 7th
  • Capcom Pro Tour Asia Shanghai Qualifier - 1st
  • Sino Duel - 4th
  • KO Fighting Game Festival 2015 - 1st
  • Milan Games Week 2015 - 2nd
  • Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals 2015 - 4th
  • DreamHack Winter 2015 - 1st
  • Capcom Cup 2015 - 3rd

(Ultimate) Marvel vs. Capcom 3
  • Shadowloo Showdown 2011 - 4th
  • April Duels 2 - 7th
  • Texas Showdown 2013 - 3rd
  • Shadowloo Showdown 2013 - 1st
  • International Video Game Cup 2014 - 1st
  • South East Asia Major 2014 - 4th
  • Canada Cup Masters Series 2015 - 3rd
  • Hypespotting 4 - 2nd
  • Stunfest 2015 - 3rd

King of Fighters XIII
  • Canada Cup 2012 - 1st
  • Red Fight District 2 - 1st
  • Final Round 16 - 2nd
  • April Duels 2 - 3rd
  • Texas Showdown 2013 - 1st
  • South East Asia Major 2013 - 3rd
  • Community Effort Orlando (2013) - 4th
  • Evolution 2015 - 5th
  • The Fall Classic 2013 - 1st
  • Shadowloo Showdown 2013 - 1st
  • South East Asia Major 2014 - 2nd
  • ThaigerUppercut 2014 - 1st
  • The Fall Classic 2014 - 1st
  • Final Round 18 - 2nd

Street Fighter V

Pop culture

Xian was notably among the people who reacted negatively about Konami's upcoming game Metal Gear Survive during the game's debut trailer at Gamescom 2016. He said that he was speechless and felt that Metal Gear Solid and Zombies together would be weird while including a #why hashtag at the end of the tweet.[13]

In the media

In 2017, Xian was featured in the Channel NewsAsia series, Unusual Suspects, about Singaporeans who have made their mark in unconventional fields. He appeared in Unusual Suspects: The Underdogs which was aired on 7 October 2017.[14][8]

gollark: It's basically just training an agent to play Minecraft using the normal human keyboard/video/mouse interface.
gollark: Why did that not embed?
gollark: Cool recent ML development: https://openai.com/blog/vpt/
gollark: Just put `while true do print "I am not enslaved and doing this task utterly of my own free will." sleep(5) end` in the code.
gollark: Number theory and eldritch elliptic curve things are valuable in cryptography. Weird graph theory stuff helps make error correcting codes.

References
  1. Jurek, Steven (30 November 2015). "Xian wins DreamHack Winter as Dakou qualifies for Capcom Cup". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  2. Rosen, Daniel (28 November 2015). "Xian takes DreamHack Winter CPT". TheScore eSports. TheScore Inc.
  3. Te, Zorine (6 December 2015). "Ultra Street Fighter IV Capcom Cup 2015 Full Results". Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  4. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ultra-street-fighter-iv-capcom-cup-2015-full-resul/1100-6432871/
  5. Barker, Ian J. (23 March 2015). "Xian ends Momochi's comeback effort to win Final Round 18". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  6. Martin, Michael. "Casuals: Xian, a Singapore Street Fighter Miracle". redbull.com. Red Bull. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  7. Tan, Jeanette (16 July 2013). "Singapore pro gamer makes history, winning at Evo world". Yahoo. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  8. Derrick A Paulo; Corine Tiah (7 October 2017). "From playing in arcades and a one-room flat, to top of the world". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  9. Ting, Lisabel (26 July 2015). "Winning street fighter". The Straits Times. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  10. Ong, Justin (11 October 2016). "Singapore gaming world champion Xian: 'What we do is equivalent to sport'". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  11. Paulo, Derrick A.; Tiah, Corine (7 October 2017). "From playing in arcades and a one-room flat, to top of the world". CNA. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  12. http://www.maxoplata.net/player/361
  13. Ashcraft, Brian. "The Internet Reacts To Konami's New Metal Gear Game". Kotaku. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  14. "Unusual Suspects: The Underdogs". Channel NewsAsia. 4 October 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
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