History was made at Esports World Cup | Extra Trashy - Trash Talk

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The E Sports World Cup has concluded and we're here to to
break it down. Pretty good tournament, not too
bad if I say so myself. It is August 24th, 2025 at the
time of this recording. We are fresh off the making of
history I would say. Adam, how are you feeling after
watching all the E Sports World Cup action over the past week?
You know, I have to say that wassome gourmet Street Fighter, as

(00:22):
you know, the people across the pond say.
And I, I gotta say, you know, itwas a really hype tournament.
And I think there are a lot of touching points.
There are a lot of hype moments during that entire bracket as
well. Right, I think there really was
like a really interesting through line of like the actual
story here because of course nowwe can spoil the results.
Like, you know, if you're not looking for spoilers, you're on

(00:43):
the wrong podcast. Right now.
Xiao Hai has become the back-to-back esports World Cup
champion, doing it in a fashion where I don't think anyone
called this. We actually even put outcall for
predictions on the Brian F TrashTalk Patreon.
And I was going to give a shout out to anyone who could call who
won after the top 16 was decided.
Not a single person, not even myself put Xiao Hai in there

(01:04):
despite how strong he was looking in the group phases.
And you know, he was fresh off his, I believe, 5th place Shad
evo. You know, he's been on a decent
streak leading up until this event, but no one called the the
two time champion occurring. People are looking for MENA Rd.
People were looking for Lashar like myself, but no one called
it. And with blahs making another
legendary 2nd place run, there'sa ton of moments that lead up to

(01:28):
like this narrative building forSha high throughout this event
and throughout this season. So we'll go ahead and break that
down in this discussion, but we'll we'll go chronologically
here through the build up to this finish with Xiaohai making
history. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Did you notice Xiaohai's controller right there?
If you want an all golden controller like that, win Evo.

(01:49):
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(02:11):
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(02:33):
the Test Direct website and the description or in the pin
comment. And now back to the esports
World Cup breakdown. First off, we had the LCQ
leading into the group stages where I think one of my favorite
matches of this whole event was Riddles versus Moshi.
Riddles actually got in through the LCQ and he was one of the
few, the only Canadian player, one of the few NA players period

(02:53):
in there and got my mochi down to final game, final round
before which you got a perfect Perry to turn the momentum in
his favor. Riddles was absolutely cooking.
That spelt the end of riddles run and the group stages because
the groups are a little bit weird actually.
I don't know how you feel about the format item.
The group stages in this event aren't round Robin.
There are many double elimination brackets which

(03:15):
almost ensures that you're goingto have double jeopardy for
players of the fight. This the same player that put
them into losers in order to make it out.
It's pretty much guaranteed thatsomeone's going to have a double
jeopardy moment. But if you win out of winners in
your group stages, you win 2 sets essentially and a small
four man bracket, you go all theway to top 16.
If you get out on loser side, you go to a mini in between

(03:38):
round Robin group to determine if you also make it into top 16.
So basically you skip a phase ofthe bracket.
If you get out in winners, that's your reward because the
top 16 is single LM first to five.
So it's a little strange. It's it's a very different
format. But I don't know if I like the
first to two Double LM first phase because I do feel like it

(03:59):
it gives a lot of double Jeopardy moments where if you
can't beat one player, you immediately get cut off in your
bracket path. But maybe you could beat
everybody else in the tournament, right?
I don't know how you feel item. I kind of like it.
It's something different. I feel like we've been kind of
doing the AA limb thing kind of for so long.
It's something different. So I wouldn't if I was running

(04:22):
my own toilet, if I had like infinite amount of money and I
could run my own bracket. Me personally, I wouldn't do it
like that, but I thought it was something cool and unique to
see. I would have preferred, you
know, a normal round Robin everyone plays everyone kind of
set up but not not my bracket. But it'll still produce some
good matches. I mean, it definitely did.

(04:43):
There were some hype moments we'll get into.
I know what you all are thinkingabout the the first phase.
We'll get into that match soon, but I think there's some other
interesting notes to go through about the results there.
Like you mentioned before we start recording that both doll
Sims made it out of their groupsand winners to get top 16, where
a lot of people have written up this character for a long time,

(05:03):
but Tory Meshi and Waishi Mochi have been slowly creeping up in
the results, especially in Japan.
And then I believe Waishi Mochi was the dolson.
I I feel it's terrible. I mixed them up constantly.
No, it wasn't Wauchi Mochi. Tori Meshi was the dolson who
got in 9th place at EVO and he actually earned his
qualification via that 9th place, right?

(05:24):
Which is nuts because EVO, the top 2 at EVO got 2 qualification
spots. But because everybody from the
four players who tied to 9th to 1st place, out of all those 12
players, 10 of them were qualified.
The only two not qualified players were Mickey who got
third and Toremeshi who who tiedfor ninth along with several

(05:46):
other players. Everybody else there was already
qualified to Esports World Cup. So by the skin of his teeth, he
got the top 2 qualification spotin 9th place at EVO, gets into
the Esports World Cup, and then manages to get out of his groups
and winners. So that was pretty surprising.
I, I do agree that I wasn't really expecting it, but does
this mean Dawson's underrated? Like what's?
What's going on here? I like seeing like the weirdo

(06:09):
characters kind of cooking in Street Fighter six, like the
dolphins, the menons, the OK, maybe not Lily, but Max.
But yeah, I like seeing the weirdo character.
I guess it was a lot of inexperience versus dolphin,
maybe because, you know, I thinkJapan kind of has, you know, the
two dolphins in this bracket here.
So it it was cool seeing like Mochi and Tora Meshi kind of

(06:33):
catch a lot of people off guard.There were a few people that
played against them that I was like, this is their first.
This looks like their first timeever seeing this character on
screen. So Dolphin being, you know, just
in the game are just like existing where people still have
to know the matchup or you can'tjust steamroll Dolson if you

(06:54):
don't know what's going on. It was kind of funny and I guess
refreshing to see. By people do mean nephew.
Nephew look lost. Yeah, nephew, look.
I'm going back to the the bracket here to see who they
play. Tori Meshi beat junior three O
and the Dolphin Zengief matchup,you know, and some things never
change, right. He then he beat Gashikun 3 two

(07:17):
to make it out of that group in winners and then mochi beat
nephew 3O and Tokido 31. So he had a really dominant path
through his group. But the only three O there was
unfortunately, our guy nephew America not ready for the high
level dolson, because there really aren't many at all.
We don't really see this character.

(07:38):
I think the, the only region with the top level Dalsem
experience consistently is Japanright now.
Really. I, I, our, it's France as well,
right? You have Mr. Crimson.
Of course, if you're an EU, you probably get more that
competitive experience versus Dalsem at that level.
But yeah, I do feel like it makes sense that Year 3, we're

(07:59):
starting to see a lot more character special specialists
have some success both because, yes, balance patches have like
toned down egregious blind spotsin the balance, and also like
some system mechanics have been toned down a little bit.
So there has been some like, assistance from the devs to mold
this experience. But also on top of that, like
people just get better with defense over time.

(08:20):
They learn how to counter the the meta characters and also how
to counter the mechanics better,right?
So I there's a dual effect there.
I think that will lead to like more of these kind of results
where you have the oddball characters having deeper runs
and brackets not dominating the meta or anything.
But like every once in a while you'll see a dolphin, you'll see

(08:41):
a Honda, you know what I mean? Like it can happen more
frequently and in this state of the game.
And I think it's pretty consistent with most like Street
Fighter lifespan, the early, early on in the meta, it's just
like the immediately powerful, easy to implement characters are
going to dominate just because that's what you can accomplish
in that short amount of time. So yeah, it's cool to see them

(09:01):
going. Another one you brought up was
Puguera on Sagat. Man, we got Sagat in the esports
World Cup. Not actually just flunking out
either, doing a little bit of work.
I I don't. I've said this plenty of time.
I don't think Sigat's that bad. Like I know a lot of people
online are saying, you know, I can't shoot low tiger shot.
You know, his character is done.I don't think he's that bad.

(09:22):
But Pugera, I was enjoying the Pugera Sigat.
I know he had to go against Bonshan Akuma in the group stage
as well. So that kind of threw me for a
whack because all the times I'm looking at Bonshan, I was like,
Oh yeah, Bonshan is a got right.And I was like, wait a minute,
Bonshan is playing Akuma, OK. Like, I, I feel like a

(09:42):
disappointed dad kind of just watching Bachchan play play
Akuba. But I I get it.
You know, Akuba's, Akuba's bad good.
So there's that. But, you know, Piguero put in
work. He beat.
I mean, he got had a close set with Bachchan and also still got
out of his group as well, beating Wasim and Mickey as

(10:03):
well. Right.
Yeah. So.
In that Banshan sat said I was also having whiplash because
like my brain would default to thinking that that's a God on
screen was Banshan. But we called that right.
I think that was one of the examples we brought up that
Banshan would not place a God atesports World Cup.
And from the my understanding from his streams and the buzz
around Banshan and Cagat, I think he was struggling to like

(10:24):
adapt to the modern Cagat in a short period of time.
And you can kind of see why whenFugera played because the the
other high level Sagat Iowa had been watching was punk right?
But you know how punk his take on every character, like when he
starts winning TNS and all theseonline NA regionals, he just
doesn't do anything right. He just walks around.

(10:45):
He's like, I got 1 Footsie button that's crutch medium
punch. I'm going to wait for that
moment and I'm going to press itand I'm going to it's got a
connect sign. I know when to press the button
and I'm going to win right? So it was super patient, clean,
neutral. Then you would think about of a
Bonchen. You know, he comes from the era
of the fireball zoning cigar, right?
And he was struggling to adapt to the character.

(11:07):
Then you look at Pugera in esports World Cup and this
motherfucker press standing medium punch about 10 billion
times. When I watch Fuyara play, it is
only brawling the entire time. He's doing yeah, he's fishing
with the crashing medium punch. The drivers cancel in, but he's
doing stand medium, stand medium, stand medium.
Look, I dare you to press a button right now and then he

(11:28):
counter hits you and then he cashes out in massive damage.
His routing was really good. He was using a lot of the the
Tiger Nexus routing. Like I I've been living a lot of
Cigot and working on actually making a guide.
So as I'm working on that, I seePogara pop up on screen and I'm
like, dude, I didn't know that was a combo.
You know, like I hit the lab right away, figure that out.
So he has a lot of little optimizations as well to this

(11:49):
routing based on like umm, the scaling of the combo.
So I was really impressed with this guy.
But he is a brawler. When he plays him, he barely
throws A fireball. So he got out through that group
like you mentioned through loserside.
It wasn't until in the the second phase of the round Robin
where he's up against Saguchi playing guile that I really see
him throw a fireball. And that's only when they were

(12:10):
like both burnt out and he has to not get shipped.
Then I started to see him throwing fireballs to like clash
with Giles fireballs. But 99% of the time he's just
like stagger pressure, big buttons, like pressuring the
crap out of you. So it really pushed that.
The idea has got in my mind muchmore towards a brawler character

(12:31):
which. Kind of makes sense.
He kind of is and one thing alsoPeguero is really good at using
tiger knee. Like even if you needed to like
close the distance or just like get close to somebody free plus
frame tiger knee in and then back to, you know, hitting stand
medium punch. Like you said, it's it's a
little fellas that Sagat is justnot his owner.

(12:51):
I'm sorry, you know all the O Niners who knew you know 50
tiger shots a game. We don't do that anymore.
It's tiger knee and staying medium punch now, but it's cool
to see. Like I said, I was a bit
surprised because Sagat still being so new.
But you know, shout out to Beguera for playing Sagat.
I wonder if he thinks Sagat's better than his previous mains
like bison and jury as well. And I also know he played a bit

(13:15):
of Ed, but to see him switch to Sagat our go to Sagat is like
huh you? I don't I don't know about you,
but like when I switch off a main it's usually oh the reason
I did this is because the new character is better than my old
character so I'm going to switch.
So I wonder if Peguera's thinking the same thing.
Maybe he just wanted to beat Banchen really bad.

(13:37):
Maybe, you know, they could havebeen like Sigat dropped and he's
played it Sigat for like a week and he's like, oh crap, like I'm
so rusty now with my. Oh yeah.
With my other characters and I have a $250,000 tournament
coming up. Oh no, yeah, it's interesting to
know I would. I'm always intrigued by those
players who like pick up a DLC character right before a massive

(13:57):
major event because it happens. Like I'm thinking of like a
Condevu. Back in the day, Condevu was
always that guy from Japan who would like show up to a major
and get like an evo top 16, casual evo top 16 with like the
latest character out of nowhere.He's kind of that person.
And now Puguera is doing that aswell.
But also it did make me think that M Bison and Sagat have like

(14:17):
Sagat is more similar to M Bisonand Marissa than the other show
Dos. Yeah, that's that's where my
mind went after watching Pugueraplay.
I was like, yeah, actually Sagatis more aligned with them in
Street Fighter Six than Ken and Ryu.
So. So it's interesting take on the
character there. But of course, from the group
stages from day one. Yeah, it was day one, man.

(14:38):
You know what the the big storyline is from this?
We're we're talking about Group E, which featured Tachikawa,
Kakadu, Xiaohai, Punk. And history was made on day one
once again when we had Xiaohai versus Punk, the 2024 Evil
champion and the 2024 Esports World Cup champion Who last

(14:59):
year, this was the peak of theirbeef, right?
The are you nervous beef, which if you don't know the lore on
that one that started adding Street Fighter League US Season
1 for Street Fighter 6, I believe, where when they sit sat
down to play, they're on opposite teams.
Xiaohai in a kind of teasing, but I still think kind of
friendly matter. Ask Punk, are you nervous?

(15:21):
And Punk didn't take kindly to that man after that.
Like they were Punk was on Xiaohai's ass that entire time.
He was fired up. He did not like that what felt
like to be a friendly jab. And maybe something lost the
translation a little bit too, you know what I mean?
Like it felt like it was like escalated out of nowhere.
And so they had a back and forthsort of energy of like

(15:42):
exchanging blows in game right throughout that season.
And Xiaohai, I think he even ended up winning a critical
match over Punk to help the teamprogress on to Street Fighter
League worlds and they won it there as well.
But they squashed the beef officially last year at esports
World Cup, right? That was when the beef was
squashed. But you know, the Internet
doesn't forget like there's still like people like to lean

(16:04):
into that that history. And so whenever they play each
other, it's considered a large international clashing of
communities really, right, Like the Chinese edizens that they
got some crazy meme ammunition when it comes to Punkin shell
high. They play, it's down to the
final game, final round, Punk. He lands the OD hooligan to

(16:25):
randomly try to rob Xiao Xiaohaiwhen it's the final game final
round, he converts into a full combo into CA and Xiaohai's life
is in the yellow. Punk pops off with thunderous
roar, you know he's running around the screen.
And then the the Super ends and Xiaohai is still alive with a

(16:47):
pixel and Punk has to drive rushback to his chair, grab the
controller and in the scramble he tries to go for a surprise
low for drive rush with his lastbit of drive gauge burns himself
out. Xiaohai Dr. reversals it, throws
the fireball and anti airs the jump and it's over.
And Xiaohai wins and we have another classic.

(17:10):
What are you standing up for? Moment in day one of esports
World Cup. And I caught this live and I
just couldn't believe it, but I knew it was going to happen
sooner or later. I couldn't believe it's funny
because punk did that before at a dream hack.
I think it was Atlanta or it wasa dream hack versus Noah.
So he's he's done this before. You know, nobody actually knows

(17:30):
whether these level threes are going to kill.
You just assume so most of the time.
But for any of the the fighting game nerds out there, you know,
actually punk could have killed if he just went straight into CA
in that combo, because, you know, he added more scaling
doing the EX spiral arrow. And instead, if he just did what
hula get into Level 3, I think there's just like no scaling on

(17:53):
it whatsoever because you're notdoing any special.
And then he would have he would have won the game if he if he
did that. But you know, heat of the
moment, you know, everyone thinks longer combo equals more
damage. Don't blame most people for
thinking that. And you know, what are you
standing up for? Don't pop off too early.
That's kind of the the the lesson learned here.

(18:14):
Yeah, there there's so many different moments baked into
that because he had that Dream Hack Atlanta.
I think it was Dream Hack Atlanta as well.
It was against Noah and they also had B from Street Fighter
League. That was also around that time.
And then so he actually it was alevel 2 for that one.
He got a level 2 and he stood uptoo early and popped off.
It didn't kill. And then Noah got a jump in and
won that round and game. So but Punk was up 2O in that

(18:34):
set and so at the end of the tournament, Punk just won,
right. So it didn't actually affect how
the tournament worked out. Punk one, you know, no skin off
his back at the end of the day, but like a reminder to sit down.
And even later in that same set,punk, it goes to the like a
Level 3 or a level 2 and he goesoh, he does the thing like, oh,
let me not stand up too soon. Like he learned his he learned

(18:56):
his lesson and that moment there, but he forgot it come a
few years later at esports WorldCup.
And yeah, it really, it really changed the course of history
potentially. Like that was the butterfly
effect moment. Because after that Level 3 combo
that he went for, he was not in a great spot, right?

(19:16):
He had 0 supermeter, very low drive gauge and very low life,
but so did Xiao Hai. But he could have easily have
been put into a bad spot where he end up being burned out,
burned out and checkmated. So he had to play carefully for
sure. Even if he was locked in, it was
actually not a great position because of the resources he
spent, but because he had to like run back to his chair and
last second. I think he just panicked and did

(19:37):
low for a drive rush hoping it would connect and that check
made it himself, right? So if he had just been locked
in, he could have won and if he had just done the the unskilled
combo he would have won right? Like the people calculated that
he definitely would have won if he just did hooligan to Level 3.
So so many little moments there that add up.
And I just knew knew this day would come because even after

(20:00):
that Noah incident where he did get punished for it, I'm
thinking back to like Evo 2/20/24, he beats Tokido.
For the Level 3, he's standing up and walking around the EVO
stage. This is like a day 2 to get into
top eight winners, I believe. And and that Level 3 is going
on. And I was like, yeah, I think it
kills, dude, but you're still cutting this a little bit close.

(20:20):
He's like, yeah, like, walking around.
And Tokido is there like, like staring into the screen.
Locked. He's locked in because he's
like, you never know who who? I don't care, man.
You don't stand up early. There could be a glitch in the
system. You know, the photon could hit
the PS-5, and then suddenly they, the animation just cut
short and they fall out. You never know, you know what I
mean? It's one of those things where

(20:40):
it's like you never know, just stay staring at the screen.
Tokita was locked and he's like,I'm ready for that one in a
billion glitch for the Super to for some reason fail right here
and I win, right? So it finally came to to cost
punk and Xiaohai took that one and moved on.
So joining the long legacy of what are you standing up for
moments in the FGC which have gone back for for decades now,

(21:04):
right? We've been seeing this for
decades. The first one I saw was the
Guilty Gear one, but that was 2015.
So funny enough, probably a decade from now.
So we got our we got our decade version of what are you standing
up for? And that was that was still
years after the very first one was actually final round 2910

(21:26):
show versus Liston. Liston was the first one.
But was that the first one I know the Rick.
The first, the first documented one, Yeah, it was Kenzo versus
Liston. It was a team tournament final
round 2009, the the Sagat versusC Viper.
He went to punish the ultra withhis own ultra, and it went over
her and everyone popped off withstanding up.

(21:47):
And then Kenzo sees that the, the ultra had whipped and sat
back down and killed him. So Liston was one of the first
ones. And then the the phrase was
coined with Ricky Ortiz, wolf Chrome versus Ricky Ortiz back
in 2012. That's when the, the commentary,
I forgot who said it on commentary, but Ricky was saying
mouthing, what are you standing up for?

(22:08):
And the commentary read her lipslike, oh, what are you standing
up for? So that's where the IT was
actually quoted for the very first time.
So there's a long rich history of what are you standing up for
moments in the FGC. And we got one of the most
consequential ones, I think thisweekend, so.
All those all those moments weren't for 250K, right?

(22:29):
Let's just say that. Right.
And this was the butterfly. I was like, this was around the
very first match for Xiaohai, sowe we couldn't have perceived
how consequential this would be.But as we go through that group,
actually the other big stories, Xiaohai then played Kakadu,
right? This group, this group was
stupid stacked, right? This was maybe the hardest group
of the whole event. He plays Kakadu, Kakadu
champion, 2nd place at EVO and he actually beats Kakadu 31.

(22:51):
So Xiaohai's on a tear. But come day 2 when it's the
elimination day, we hear that Kakadu actually D cued from the
event. So there was a tweet I put onto
his account, I believe written by his wife, who said that
Kakadu was not feeling well. He was resting, so hopefully
Kakadu is feeling OK. You know, we're wishing him all
the best. But Pakadu was my pick to win

(23:11):
the whole thing, right? And so Punk Punk ends up not
playing Kakadu beats Tashikawa. I would have loved to have seen
Punk Kakadu. Like I was really looking
forward to that match. That was a match I kind of
wanted to see, too. I don't think they've ever
played in tournament, funny enough.
I think maybe a few times in casual.
I don't think they have a history of ever playing Street
Fighter Six versus each other, so I wanted to see that match

(23:32):
too. Yeah, yeah, That would have been
really interesting to see. But that that lets Punk move on
without having to fight him. And Xiao Hai gets out in winners
and, you know, the butterfly effect proceeds.
And the second phase, there wasn't as many upsets.
Second phase is where the the people who qualify out of losers
had to do the round Robin. I think the big story there was
Matsu, who got in through the LCQ with his Kimberly beat, both

(23:57):
Punk and Moke, and pretty convincing fashion to be the
person to make it into top 16. So Punk, the last American
player in the whole events out before the top 16, losing to
Matt Suze Kimberly. So I don't know if you used to
call him just a perfect Perry merchant item if.
You watch the monster K OK, OK, before we get started, if you

(24:19):
watch the matches, he's still just a perfect Perry merchant.
But you know, respectfully, respectfully, you got a lot of.
Perfect. Perry.
Just just, that was a lot. He's doing a lot, man.
He's cooking. Matt Suze Cooking.
No, no, he was cooking. He was cooking, he was cooking,
but I don't know what it is. I don't know if there's, you
know, something in the water. He's really good at perfect
Perry. Even watching all his matches
from the LCQ, He's just, he's sogood at perfect Perry for some

(24:42):
reason. But right if I, if I get, if I
get, I'm still a bit salty. From the Evo 20 Tour for 2020. 4
match. We we can feel the salt stuff
coming through in your commentary here.
Yeah, he is good at perfect Perry.
It's interesting. There are certain players that
you can tell are like better at that.
I'm looking at like Blas, Andy Walker, Kakadu, Matsu, right?

(25:04):
Like he's kind of entering that territory when I watch certain
players play. You watch any Walker play, he's
perfect pairing all the time. And I think Blahs is as well,
like there's certain players whoreally understand that that
timing and winter incorporated. So that's definitely a huge part
of his strategy. The other story out of Group C
or sorry, out of the second phase was Group C Taukido
getting abused by DI. There were there was some

(25:27):
discourse starting about how DI is cruel and unusual punishment
for players over the age of 40. He had a close set with Goichi
losing 3 two and then NL took him out three one.
But a big part of that was just getting the DI's going.
Like, wait a minute, this guy's not dealing with.
DI the future is now old man. I don't know what it was with
Taquito. It like I guess it's the first

(25:48):
time I've kind of seen that happen to Taquito.
We've we've seen it happen to Daigo, we've seen it happen to
Ida Zod and match it. We're like, you know, they're
just not reacting to DI but I think like that was the first
time that I've seen it happen toTaquito.
It's like oh man, Taquito flee is like as a big taquito fan,
it's like come on man, don't go out like this.
Just react to one DI. But Koichi just.

(26:10):
Smelt blood on every DI. He was doing everything in the
DI and Taquito could not stop it.
Yeah, I mean, it'd be like that on commentary.
People were dropping lore that Taquito was actually asking
around for advice, like strategic advice for how you
prepare for DI. How you what is your finger
placement on your controller? Are you hovering over the DI

(26:31):
button? What is your your mental stack
priority? Like are you focusing on DI in
these situations over other things?
Or like how do you actually approach it from a strategic
point of view? Because, you know, reactions are
partially reflexive, right? There is a little bit of an
inherent like genetic component to it.
But most of it is, as we've seenin proven time and time again,
it's, it's strategic. Like you, what do you prioritize

(26:54):
reacting to over over other things?
Some people can have more thingsthat they prioritize reacting to
than others. That's how it goes.
But a lot of it is really strategy at the end of the day.
So Taquito is doing whatever he can now to to figure out the
strategy to not let that happen to him again and to help calm
down Twitter calling DI elder abuse so that he can actually.

(27:18):
Unfair advantage. If I'm over 40 you shouldn't be
able to DI me. Thanks.
Delete the button. I think over 30 counts at this
point. So please, like I I need help as
well man, this the DI is tough. It's a tough mechanic to deal
with, but that brings us to the actual top 16.
So if you weren't following thisformat, top 16 is a single limb

(27:39):
first 25. So that often brings a lot of
close and exciting matches for the players to adapt back and
forth. But there was a lot of washes.
I think another big part of the discourse from this is that
there were so many washes, starting with probably the
hardest wash of the whole event ending.
Walker 5 O over MENA Rd. the evochampion.

(28:04):
What like I what? How did he do it?
Ending Walker played really goodand I also think one thing about
that I think makes Ryu kind of stand out a lot this season.
Ryu is very good at attacking your drive meter.
So like a lot of the time MENA didn't really have drive meter
to kind of do like, you know, the Blanca, the Blanca like EX

(28:26):
bowl into level 2 shenanigans cuz re used to heavy punch,
heavy punch, heavy punches, Hashigeki attacking you driving
me to so much. And I also think like any Walker
didn't really give MENA space tokind of walk back cuz like re
you can threaten with, you know,look for a drive rush a lot of
the time. And I mean, a lot of things also
kind of just didn't go Mena's way.

(28:46):
Like MENA had a game to win and he dropped the combo into super.
There was ADI that literal pixels off from hitting ending
Walker and then he just lost. I think like two of those games
could clearly went Venezuela butand new Walker had the the plot
armor, the magic touch, the EU, the EU protection.

(29:08):
I don't even know what to call it.
Yeah, I don't know what happenedthere, but that was that I had,
you know, some personal stuff toattend to.
So I couldn't watch the the event live from round start, but
I was like, OK, MENA Rd. any Walker coming up, I'll be able
to catch at least the second-half of the set.
I turn on the stream and it's literally the KO hits to end the

(29:29):
set 5 O and I'm like, what happened man?
This was supposed to go on for twice as long.
You know, I was like what what just happened?
So I I missed that set live, butthat was massive.
MENA Rd. bowing out of esports World Cup early and that's two
esports World Cups where he hasn't been able to pull through
with like a really deep run for himself.

(29:50):
So I know in gamers 8 he I believe he got third or fourth
place. He was he was one of the the top
players in that previous iteration of this event, but
hasn't been able to get like a big money win in Street Fighter
6 for as many titles as he's had.
You know, he keeps winning all these Evo titles really like

(30:10):
there's not much prizing for those, those placements.
So just to break it down for EvoVegas, he won $17,000 and that
is money simply from the prize pool from the pot from players
entering because there is 4000 somewhat number of entrants they
all put in $10. There's a 40 something $1000
prize pool split between the players who place in the money

(30:34):
for esports World Cup, though, if you get 20th place, which is
not even making it into the top 16, like if you if you lose in
the group stages, you get 15 K, you get equivalent to EVO first
place money by getting 20th place.
So, so it's not like he he's wonthe the major prize pools.

(30:55):
He hasn't won the Capcom Cup right?
So I'm sure MENA Rd. is like looking to get one of the big
like cash cow prize pool tournaments, like an esports
World Cup under his belt as well.
He did walk away with a cool $22,500 for that placement
though. But if he won that singular
match, that's $10,000 right there.

(31:15):
That's more than half of his EVOwinnings for for one match,
right? So there's a different scale
beyond the prestige. I think Menardi keeps winning
these prestigious events, but hehasn't got like the big cash
prizes yet. So I know he's hungry for that.
I I actually didn't know he got paid more money for getting what

(31:36):
well, night that esports World Cup compared to Eva.
That's yeah, that's that's something I actually think
about. But hard tournament, you got to
win. Yeah, you want to win the big
money. So you know, MENA give a give
evos to other people and you know you'd lock in for the E
Sports World Cup and calf calf Cup, give the evos.
To what it is yeah, that might be what it is man, because it

(31:57):
meant he has to the problem withMENA is he has to lose something
in between the next win right. Yeah, so so if he just shifts
his his peak window over a month, he's like, man, do I want
to win evo this year or do I want to win E sports World Cup?
Like really like what what do I want to win?
Because yeah, he'll he'll get titles, but it's like literally
a cyclical fashion like it's like one tournament that has to
be 6 months later, like 6 monthslater for the next big one.

(32:19):
So he has to really play in thiscarefully next time.
So yeah, we'll see where he goeswith that one.
But beyond that, the other five O's in the event we had Blas
Edibashi and Leshark Kawana withfive O's Blas Edibashi.
That was also a beat down. You know that's another that's
15 years old Blas out of Chile versus 44 year old 44 year old
Edibashi right there. I kind of.

(32:42):
I can see that happening though.I I'm not going to lie, that one
wasn't that one wasn't even surprising and that was that one
was just kind of ugly like that was kind of like ended blahs.
This is this is just elder abuseat this point, but.
Yeah, it was very one sided, butit going into that set I
definitely have heavily favored blahs.

(33:04):
I'm I'm surprised he stuck with only Marissa the whole time to
be honest. He didn't didn't even attempt
the Zangief, but I was if he wasgoing to stick to Marissa.
I was like, I just feel like Blas has this in the bag.
The one that did surprise me though was Lashar Kawano.
Yeah, I mean, I I favor Lashar. Lashar is my favorite to win.
That's my call to win this tournament.
Looking at top 16 was the winnerof that part of the bracket

(33:27):
Lashar Kawano, Fudo Banshan, andI was leaning towards Lashar
Fudo. That was like that part of the
bracket was like whoever gets out of here is who I would call
to win the tournament. Looking at the bracket there and
Kawano, you know he's he's the street for the league.
World champion, deep runs. The Capcom Cup got second place
at this event last year to Xiaohai.
I thought he would put up a fight.

(33:49):
I I will. I was a bit surprised it was 50.
I would have probably predicted it would be like 5-2 at least.
But I think there's also a problem with like not going to a
lot of events. I feel like you're kind of like
rusting yourself out, like Kawano streams a lot and like
he'll play online, but I also think going to these offline
events is very important. I I picked Gotcha Kun to win EI

(34:14):
mean yeah, I picked gotcha Kun to win EWC, but I also forgot
the fact Gotcha Kung just hasn'treally left his house.
I feel like he's just been at home because he qualified for
Capcom Cup via. Street Fighter league so not
travelling and going to events might mess up a lot of your your
mojo. I kind of agree with what you're

(34:35):
saying, but he did go to blink respawn just to get cooked by
psycho right? So and he went to Evo I'm
assuming. I don't know what happened to
him at evo off the top of my head, but so he he at least had
a ramp up right? So it's not like he's been
totally missing from action, which I think the point system
does help incentivize that a little bit.
So even if you are qualified, you're not going to be traveling

(34:56):
to a random part of the world for an auto qualifier where not
many of your your homies from back home are going with you,
right. I'm sure it's easier for like
the Japanese players to travel in groups.
They often travel to like the similar hotels and you know,
they stay together and just not to be in a foreign country where
you don't speak the language without, you know, like your
acquaintances with you, you know, So there's more incentive,

(35:16):
I think for the qualified players to travel now than
previous years. And we, but we've still seen a,
we've seen a little bit of it. But I do agree it's not to the
same extent. Like you're not hustling for CPT
points like everybody else's. But yeah, it's interesting.
Kawano, it definitely hasn't travelled as much, but Lashar,
he's looking sharp as ever. Fudo Banshan Fudo cooked right

(35:37):
there. And then that finally LED us to
like the, the first close set ofthis entire thing.
There's all 5 twos, 5 ones and five O's.
Lashar Fudo in top 16 which was a banger.
This one was going to be interesting because I think Fudo
is the best player in the planetat Ed mirrors.
He is gate kept Mamochi several times from Captain Cup and Ed
mirrors for example Blink respawn right?

(36:00):
He gate kept Mamochi right thereand the Ed mirrors forcing.
I mean he was forced to switch eventually to DJ, which is
surprising because normally Fudajust always wins the Ed mirrors
and he did it in the previous CPT season at the Japan Regional
finals, beating Mamochi as well.So I feel like he's so good at
the Ed mirror. Like he's consistently beaten
Memochi and I believe Lachar as well.

(36:21):
I'm not sure on that stat though.
But this time he does force Lachar off the AD after a 11
tied set. He goes to the Terry and he ends
up going up 4/2 and Lachar brings it back three games
straight with the Terry. And on the final game, Budo
brings out the DJDJS is always calling to him.

(36:44):
I feel like Budo is pretending to be an Ed main.
Yeah, You know, it's always likewhen it comes down to the final
clutch moment, that's when the DJ comes out, when it's time to
close out. So he goes for it again and it
was a super close set, but Lashar takes it in the end.
And finally there's a close set.To me, that might have been my
favorite set gameplay wise of the whole tournament.

(37:07):
And those were like my 2 picks to win the whole thing at the
winner of that set because they've been, they've been in
such top form, right? Lashar winning Comma Breaker and
CEO Fudo winning Topanga League and Blink Respawn, both of them
deep runs at EVO. But yeah, Lashard, Lashard took
that. So that was to me I was like let
go. Like he got it like that.

(37:27):
At that point I was like, yeah, I called another one, you know,
the char going all the way. But you know, he had a little
problem coming up next little problem that bracket the the the
Wonder Kid, some might even the Wonder Kid.
Yeah, he was making a run and before Blas and Lachar had to
play, I really enjoyed Blas Mochi.

(37:49):
That set was really, really interesting to me.
Really, I feel like I like, likewe were saying earlier, like we
don't really know. We don't across the world, we
don't really have too much dolson experience.
But the way Blahs played dolson,I don't know if there's like a
South American dolson that whosename is escaping me.
Shaka Shaka. 22 from Argentina. He played that match up

(38:12):
perfectly, like Moshi couldn't get anything started.
Every limb was getting perfect parried and I'm watching the
match and I'm like, he's playingso good and Mochi has to rush
down. But Mochi's been playing Dolson
for I don't know 20 plus years at this point.
He doesn't know how to rush downwith also.

(38:33):
So he looks so confused because from what I was looking at he
was always staying at a range where he would perfect parry a
limb or if he threw a fireball he would just parry the
fireball. But nothings happening because
he's getting he's getting meter back for parrying.
So it's kind of inviting Dawson into Ken's range.
But when Dawson's in Ken's range, you know Ken's going to

(38:56):
win and he's just going to rush down and get you to the corner.
So I was like, this is such a good kind of like exploitation
of like how Dawson works in thisgame and why, you know, all the
characters are so good. I I love that set like to like
scientific standpoint. I think that's how it was
amazing to watch. I agree, yeah.
And I was really looking forwardto that because when I was first

(39:19):
tuning into blahs in the 2024 CPT season, when he started
making a lot of runs in his regional finals or his regional
World Warrior events for the South America East region.
Out of that region, it used to be the Argentinian players who
were dominating in the tail end of Street Fighter 5, right?
We had Shaka and Dookie. They were they were the guys

(39:40):
cooking, right? And Shaka even went to Capcom
Cup as well. I think he qualified for in
Street Fighter 6 for season 1 out of that region.
So they were the guys holding itdown.
And and then the mix up started happening.
The shake UPS are happening in 2024 when it was Blas and crime,
right? But Blas was winning all of
these World Warrior events. And so Shaka used to be the one
winning those. So.
Blas was beating Shaka consistently in these events

(40:03):
even though they're very competitive sets and I think
Shaka mine had had a win or two mixed in for that season.
But Blas was winning the majority of everything and he
got first place like every single event almost.
And that used to be with Ed. It wasn't until the end of the
season where he switched to Ryu,which is what we saw him do his
Captain Cup 2024 run with was Ryu right?
So in the end, I watched in the final World Warrior Blas playing

(40:27):
in Shaka like he was a 40 year Old Street fighter veteran.
He was with punishing limbs intosuper.
He was playing full screen footsies.
The the the he outfootsies dalsam at his three 4th and full
screen screen range. He's always he's counter hitting
pokes before they come out right.
He's like pressing pre emptive buttons to stuff the the medium

(40:49):
punch and everything. Or he's outside of the range
with punishing into full combos.And so the way I saw Blahs play
against Shaka, I knew this was going to be a good set.
And I even called that before, though, at the Red Bull, Kumite
France or Paris LCQ, Blahs lost to Garnett Dahlson from Garnett
from Italy, you know, one of thebest Dahlson represent

(41:10):
representatives we have in the world right now.
He lost that match. And I was really surprised as I
said the same same spiel, right?I was like Blahs, so good at the
SIM matchup and he picked Ken aswell and it didn't work out.
But I I think that goes just to speak maybe to Garnett's
strength of the as a player, right, But it's also a shorter
set format. I think it was first to two.
This is first to five, and you could see with that breathing

(41:32):
room man in that preparation, how prepared Blase is in the
matchup. He was perfect pairing the heavy
punches on reaction as well. There's so much tech there in
that set, like a master class ofhow to fight Dulcim.
So that was one of the most interesting sets.
I I I agree at the whole tournament.
So I don't know if you saw the the interview that Blas had, but
he actually said he prefers tournaments like E sport, like E

(41:57):
Sports World Cup, the Capcom Cup, those kind of events,
because he's a he'll rather be able to prepare for who he has
to play. Like.
You could write notes down about, you know, I got to play,
you know, Taquito upon, you know, whoever and have notes to
study people that have strategy versus go rather than playing in

(42:17):
like open bracket tournaments where it's, you know, Joe Schmo
might beat Taquito. Then I got to play Joe Schmo
Kimberly and then Kimberly this Kimberly players just got to do
some random nonsense and then I get got.
So it's it's kind of interestingto hear somebody like that young
say that. Whereas like, Oh yeah, I'd
rather play in these tournamentsbecause I think there's so much
better Street Fighter going on where we're prepared for each

(42:41):
other versus, you know, the openbracket.
I don't know who I'm going to play next kind of mindset.
Yeah, I think it showed that matchup.
I think that was the set where Ifeel like it's so visible, how
prepared Blase was so visible. The other ones, even the five
OS, it looks like, you know, they're just better.
He was. Like, no, no, even though the
Edison match, like it looked like he prepared so much for

(43:03):
Edison, and Edison just had no answer.
He was just ready. And I'm gonna like, Edison
couldn't get anything started that entire set.
Yeah. Blah, definitely came prepared
and prepared for Lego. He beat Lachar after this 53
stick with Rio the whole way. Lachar tried the Terry went down
to 1 and switched over to the head, but it was too it was too
good closer than last time because at Capcom Cup, Lashar

(43:27):
was one of blah's many victims with you know, he was a three O
merchant that Capcom cup run allthe way up until Kakuto.
He was beating the crap out of the world's greatest players
three over Lashar's add at that Capcom Cup and Lashar like
crumbled. He fell apart and that said it
looked bad. It was bad and so competitive
said this time, but Blah is still taking that win over
Lashar, which got him to the grand finals.

(43:49):
But on the other side of the bracket, there's a lot of lore
going on in the other side of the bracket.
So after Xiaohai beats Torimeshi5/2 with the M Bison and the
Dalton matchup, he goes up against Go Ichi.
And you know, we already had thepunk Xiaohai set the what are
you standing up for a moment andthe history of the beef between
them This set, I think means a lot because Xiaohai has for

(44:12):
years, for his whole career, he's been the KOF guy, right?
He's the most winningest player in the KOF series, numerous EVO
championships, numerous titles around the world, winning
tournament since he was 10 yearsold in China and taking stance
internationally. He's always been the the GOAT of
KOF that there's like no debate there.

(44:33):
He is the guy when it comes to KOF and S&K fighting games in
general is kind of the the association with Xiaohai in the
world, a Street Fighter. He's also always been a champion
level player. He's been one of the best since
Street Fighter four and he's wonmany tournaments as well.
I don't think it was until Street Fighter six with with
esports World Cup though that hewas like, hey, like I'm really,

(44:55):
really that guy. Like he's always been a
contender and winning major tournaments.
But I I feel like the esports World Cup wins set him to a
different level. Like, hey, I am amongst the
Angry Birds, the punks, the menas, like put me up there as
well and Street Fighter. And this year was an interesting
situation because we have Fatal Fury, right?
City of the Wolves, Fatal, FatalFury.

(45:16):
There's a big push with Fatal Fury and esports World Cup
promoting that game. And so it came time for Xiaohai
to really flex his multi game talents because we've always
seen multi game champions exist across other titles.
However, there's always a difference between in the

(45:37):
perception of the FCC between being a multi game champion and
being a multi game champion withStreet Fighter as well.
And I would throw Tekken in there also like if you can do,
if you can win the other major game titles and win in Tekken or
Street Fighter, that is just perceived differently in the
fighting in community. And there's, there's a lot of

(45:59):
reasons for that, including the fact that there's more money in
those games. Therefore there's a lot more
active competition, there's moreplayers.
Just the sheer number of it, thevolume of, of competitors, it's
just perceived differently. And so for Xiaohai, for a while,
he was almost primarily a StreetFighter player.
Like he kind of took AK Wolf took a back seat for him while
he focused on Street Fighter Six.

(46:20):
But with Fatal Fury and E SportsWorld Cup, the money's there,
right? The pricing is there.
They're throwing funny money allover the place for for City, the
Wolves, I don't know what's it'sridiculous.
There's $1,000,000 tour for thatgame.
It's just it doesn't make sense the how much money they're
throwing around for that game that it is not that popular.
It's just not. It does not warrant that amount
of prizing. So Xiao Hai definitely wants

(46:41):
that money and he's looking to do something that hasn't been
done in this era and actively win these major money
championships for Street Fighterand another title at the same
time come esports World Cup for Fatal Fury a month ago.
Who's in grand finals? Go Ichi and Xiaohai and Goichi,
the king of poverty, the king ofevery other game as well.

(47:04):
He is the other multi game champion, right?
He was known as the king of melty blood.
He was blast blue champion. Then he goes on I think DBF ZS
where he broke out to like the mainstream and to like a more
that that that that wasn't a poverty game, right?
That was considered completely mainstream, massive multi multi
community spanning competitive game, right?

(47:27):
People from all different genresand different subgenres of the
Finingham community came together for that title and he
was the best at it. One evo right?
And then with City of the Wolves.
Now he's here as well to claim another multi game championship.
Goichi Xiaohai grand finals. Goichi wins esports World Cup
from Xiaohai from the game that he's supposed to win.

(47:49):
Yeah, Xiaohai winning Street Fighter 6 is not supposed to
happen. He's supposed to win City of the
Wolves. Goichi shows up and takes that
title from him and prevents Xiaohai from winning Street
Fighter 6/20/24 E World World Cup and then 2025 Fiddle Fury.
Then come Evo he wins that as well.
Goichi is taking all of Xiaohai's title and Xiaohai gets
9th at that evil for Fatal Fury.So now come this esports World

(48:10):
Cup for Street Fighter Six. If Goichi goes on to then beat
Xiaohai in this tournament and win esports World Cup in Street
Fighter Six, he's completely stealing Xiaohai's flow bar for
bar. Like that's it.
Like Xiaohai was supposed to be the guy to do S&K Plus Street
Fighter. But if go is, she shows up and
does it, like he's completely replacing that, that unique

(48:33):
special accolade from Xiaohai. So I've been going into the set.
There's so much on the line in terms of legacy for both players
here, so much to be gained for both players, more to lose for
Xiaohai, I would argue, but so much to gain for Goichi as well.
So I don't know if you felt likethat that aura from this set,
but I'll say, dude, there's thisset is so important for Xiaohai

(48:56):
right here and Goichi as well. I was surprised to see the.
I do think it was like super. It was a super important set
obviously, but the the kind of prestige like I Goichi to me is
like Gucci is really good at Street Fighter sex, don't get me
wrong. But I was a bit surprised to see
Goichi even get that far. And then I think it was so cool

(49:17):
to even see Goichi and Xiaohai have to play this late in the
bracket. So I think that even being the
Fatal Fury grand finals a few weeks ago or a few months ago or
however long ago it was being what a semi a quarterfinal match
in Street Fighter 6 is, you know, just shows how you know

(49:38):
good people are at fighting games.
You know, fighting game skills transfer.
If you're good at fatal Fury, you could play Street Fighter
six vice versa. And I I just thought it there
was a storyline unfolding even outside of just Street Fighter.
That was a storyline unfolding just in sheer like power of just

(49:58):
fighting games in general. Yeah, yeah.
And and Goichi, like he's so hungry and you can even see the
build up to this of Goichi trying to snatch this multi game
title from Shaohai because Goichi got in through the LCQ
and he had many close calls in the LCQ.
I remember in the pools he almost lost to a modern Aki.

(50:19):
He had to clutch up like I remember day one of LCQ for
this, a week before the main bracket event for esports World
Cup. Yeah, he was on the verge of
losing like round one to this really strong modern Rocky.
I apologize. I can't remember their tag right
now. They were very strong.
Hope. There you go.
Right. And that was a close, close set,
you know what I mean? So go into was like clawing his

(50:39):
way through the LCQ through thisthis whole group phases to find
Xiaohai in this moment. And I think this was one of the
most important sense of the whole events.
However, gameplay wise man Xiaohai was he was cooking some
Goichi. Goichi did go up to one on the

(51:00):
set. Xiaohai won the first game,
Goichi wins the next two. This was first A2 bracket over,
but this is first to five, baby.Xiaohai goes on to win four
games straight after that moment, and Goichi was looking
stressed. He was getting rounds in a lot
of the games, but Xiaohai is just one step ahead of him the
entire time and dominant fashionin my opinion, from there on

(51:22):
out, closed out that set versus Goichi to move on.
And this was a moment where I was like, wait a minute, like
there's really a run here because I think going into this
top 16, I didn't call it. I wasn't looking at Shaohai.
To repeat, even though he just had his great performance at Evo
I, there's still a part of me that I guess is not putting
enough respect on the man's name.
You know, like it is still subconsciously he he is like

(51:45):
Street Fighter 6 is kind of, youknow, like I'm not.
I'm looking at an Angry Bird, for example, Angry Birds, that
guy. I'm looking at Menardi.
He's that guy. Lashar.
He's that guy. After Goichi, Angry Bird fought
Shaohai. Shaohai beats him even freer
5/1. I, I don't know if, I mean, it's

(52:07):
hard to say, you know, you don'thave my matchup experience, but
I don't know, I feel like Angry Bird look kind of lost a bit
versus mine or I, I don't know what it was, but that's, that
was just kind of kind of rough. Or maybe I mean, mine's just
broken, who knows? But it's kind of it's kind of
funny to. So it was, it wasn't funny to
see, but I was like, man, because even for me, I was like,

(52:28):
oh, I think Angry Bird kind of wins this very convincingly
versus not convincingly. But I was expecting, going into
that said I was expecting 52 Angry Birds.
I was like, yeah, Angry Bird probably was because, you know,
Angry Birds won a lot of, you know, huge tournaments for
Street Fighter Six. But I mean, also Sha Hai as well
now. Yeah, Yeah.
I thought it would be closer as well and I do agree he looked
lost but at this point I mine isbusted for sure.

(52:53):
Like her fan mechanic is extremely strong.
OD fan is ridiculous, but at this point it's like it's part
of the game for these top level players.
They got to know they have to beso prepared for this character
and not many players are using my at this level like Xiaohai
is. So Xiaohai is going to be a
consistent thorn in these top Street Fighter players side if

(53:16):
they don't come quick with a solution because he's going to
be consistently coming back withthis character.
But he Xiaohai ends up taking out Angry Bird and because it's
single a limb, you wouldn't think they would offer this.
But there is a third place matchand there's a tiebreaker match.
And so that would be Angry Bird versus Lashar.

(53:36):
And this is kind of a weird match because this takes place
after Blase takes out Lashar here.
So Lashar has to sit down again right away to play a third place
match and nobody really cares. I'm not sure how I feel about
this format. I think even the audience is
like the stakes are so deflated in that moment.
They're just waiting for the grand finals.

(53:56):
But the weird thing about this is it's a tiebreaker match.
And so normally I think for any other event it wouldn't matter,
but this is a first to five, $30,000 money match.
But I feel like the audience andeven maybe the players
themselves don't notice that I'm, I'm watching Lashard's face
and I like he's playing, but I feel like he's just going

(54:18):
through the motions at first because he just got eliminated
essentially from the tournament,right?
I think he's still that, that the fact that, oh, I'm not going
to win the tournament is the, my, the major thing on his mind,
not just like, oh, if I win this, I get $30,000.
I think as a competitor, that's the first.
Your first emotional instinct isnot, it's not money, it's the

(54:38):
title, right? It's not.
But I think as a set went on, you can maybe see the gears
turning a little bit for Lashar.But I feel like it's hard to get
over that initial hump right away that soon after being
eliminated. The 3rd place match was, I don't
know, I felt like it was awkward.
I feel like they could have I mean, I guess why, why do it all
stream? But I feel like they kind of
just done it off stream kind of thing, like yo man, kind of like

(54:59):
let's the let the players play like give them a breathing room
because it was kind of like likeit was a left turn off of like
the the momentum that was going into grand finals.
Like I was like, oh man, can't wait to see Xiao Hai Blas.
And then it was like, oh, wait aminute, you got to Lashar versus
Angry bird play. I don't like they don't look

(55:19):
into it. I'm not really that invested
into it. You know can can we get my skip
match function? Yeah, yeah, I mean, but they had
a stall so they could set up thewhole drumming band and the
whole production. I mean, E Sports World Cup, It's
it's not, you know, it's not a Street Fighter tournament first
and foremost. It's a whole show for the Saudi
production team. And the, the whole point of the
event is a show of, hey, Saudi Arabia is cool and all right,

(55:42):
you guys like Saudi Arabia. That's the whole point of the
whole event. And so they use that time for
sure to stall for production as well 'cause they they they do a
whole show before grand finals. Rob was like, this is FGC.
And then like, I was like, dude,this is the least FGC thing I've
ever seen. The amount of production, the
scale. So this is not FGC at all.
And the only parts that were FGCto me is like when when they

(56:03):
brought in grand finals where the mics cut out and they were,
they were talking for a good like 30 seconds straight with no
audio. I was like, this is FGC.
You know, I'm like, they're now we're taking me back scuff
production. That's FGC.
And the other FGC part, which was I thought it was the
funniest part of the whole event, was before Bloz played
mochi. You know, they do all these

(56:23):
pregame interviews and all that,which is also not very FGC.
But then Rob is like, yeah, Blas, I see you smiling.
You're ready to you're ready to play some Street Fighter.
And he holds the mic to Blas. And Blas is like I don't know
English speak. English.
I don't know English like Rob. Rob is asking him some questions
and and Blas has the the biggest, goofiest grin on his

(56:45):
face. And I'm like, dude, that's the
international sign that he has no idea what the hell you're
saying. As soon as I saw that smile, I
was like, Yep, Yep, this kid hasno idea what's going on.
And I thought Rob, at first I got mixed.
I thought Rob picked up on that because he saw that smile and
said, he's like, yeah, you're smiling.
I thought he knew that Blobs waslost.
And then he holds the mic to him, I don't know, Eagles.

(57:05):
And Rob was like, I'm so sorry. And I was like, dude, you
couldn't tell. Like that big goofy grin.
That's that's the clearest day. That means you have no idea
what's going on. That's FGC to me.
But yeah, they did. The third place match was a
little weird, but as far as the gameplay, you know, I don't
think Lashar was into it. He's playing Terry versus Angry
Birds Akuma and he goes down 4 to 1, Angry Bird is destroying

(57:30):
him, and then this man wins fourgames straight after that with
Terry against Angry Birds Akuma for $30,000.
I think he woke up after losing 4th.
Like, wait a minute, let me at least try to.
It is $30,000, you know, let me at least try a little bit here.
So that was sick gameplay. I really enjoyed watching that.
Lashar was the only person consistently putting up close

(57:51):
sets this whole top 16. But I got to feel a little bit
bad for Angry Bird. You got to, you got to imagine
he's a little tight about that one game for $30,000 and you
can't get it. That kind of that kind of sucks,
but it was sick come back from Lashar and like you said, Lashar
was kind of the only one puttingout close sets.
I feel like I was investing in alot of Lashar sets, the entire

(58:11):
bracket then like everyone else's, because like I said, all
the other sets kind of weren't that close.
But yeah, Lashar kind of put puta lot of the sets on his back to
kind of keep the the gameplay kind of more interesting and
more more compelled, like, oh, what's going to happen here?
Right, yeah, I agree. I I think this also just speaks
to Lashar's level. Even though he ended up in 3rd

(58:32):
place this this event, I think that's a deserved placing.
Like he was definitely the guy putting up the strongest event
matches. He did not have an easy path
whatsoever. I think his path was the hardest
to get into grand finals in my opinion.
I mean Fudo blahs and then it would have been shell high after
that. I, I, I really rank those
players really high. I think Fudo could have won this

(58:53):
event. Like I said, I called the Shard
the winner of Lashard. Fudo is my favorite to win but I
guess I got to stop doubting Blaz man, he's too good.
He's too good. Interesting play style as well.
Before we get into the grand finals, I really enjoy watching
Blas play because one of the things he does that is so
interesting and I think it's it's it makes sense for Ryu as
well is he does so many resets on block.

(59:16):
He stops his combo short all of the time.
Like especially imagine like a alow damage scaled conversion.
He gets a perfect parry or something on like a jab.
He'll do like jab to heavy punchor or something like that on a
punished counter and then he'll stop the combo.
Instead of going for a more slightly more damage, a
knockdown for Okie, he just goesimmediately into another heavy

(59:39):
punch into a hash of gecky pressure string immediately.
So he resets the combo right there because getting the almost
guaranteed Dr. gauge damage is so much more valuable in that
moment than a tiny bit more actual health damage and an Okie
situation. So he's constantly attacking the
drive gauge in that sense. And I think in previous street

(59:59):
Fighters it was really bad to dostuff like that.
Like you the the, the rule of thumb and especially in Street
Fighter five and, and Street Fighter 4 as well, because the
knockdown was so powerful. In Street Fighter 4 for the
Vortex you go for the guaranteeddamage and knockdown unless
you're like messing around and and and toying with your
opponent. Usually resets, especially to
block strings. It gives you nothing like why

(01:00:20):
you dropped your combo, you lostdamage.
Why are you making them block? But in this game with a dry
system and especially a character like Ryu who
liquidates your drive gauge withHashogeki pressure, it's
actually a such a good strategy.He puts the pressure on players
so fast in so many situations. So that's that's that's a
different perspective that I never considered.

(01:00:41):
I've never looked for reset to block string opportunities in my
routing ever. I've never thought about it that
way, you know what I mean? Like is this extra bit of damage
and okie worth it? Or what if I find a a moment
where I can stop my combo and gofor a heavy punch into plus
frames or something in that in that instance instead?
I guess one other way you could look at it too is if you do like

(01:01:03):
say you get a perfect parry or something, if you do the full
combo, you're giving your opponent dry meter while you're
doing the combo versus, I guess blahs, resetting the pressure
and then just attacking your drive gauge anyway.
And then like, you know, gettingpunished for blocking versus re
you or whoever can as well. It's just kind of really bad.
And then it kind of puts you in more awkward scenarios where

(01:01:23):
it's like, oh, now I got to makea decision here.
I think the blahs, the blahs. Lashar match was so funny
because Lashar was reversaling everything.
Drivers exdp he was matching level ones with Ed.
They were a burnout in like 10 seconds all the time.
Like both they were like attacking the drive page crazy
and Lashar was like screw it I got a Dr. reversal here or DP

(01:01:46):
because I'm going to burnout no matter what.
Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, it was, it was a lot of
like just not like they were. They were slugging.
They were. That was probably the best way
to put They were slugging on each other.
Yeah, yeah, it was intense. So both of them had a similar
way to attract attack, the drivegauge.
Yeah, Lachar wasn't burnout so fast, so many rounds for exactly

(01:02:07):
that reason. So it's really interesting to
see that that shift in the focus.
And I I think Ree was really geared towards that.
So it might not be as applicablewith other characters.
It might be more worthwhile to go for Okie, but it's just
something that it it opened my eyes and when I watch Blahs
play, when I watch Cry May play,I feel like my perspective of
the game changes. When I watch a lot of other
players, I learn new things as well, but it's not like that

(01:02:29):
radically different, right? It's still faultless.
A few core principles about Street Fighter.
But when I watch blossom and Crimea play, I'm like, Oh, this
is a different game. Like like they're they're
approaching this different. Their priority here is not
damage and Okie, it's pressure on block.
Hold this pressure string because you're going to you're
going to be forced to make a decision or going to burnout and
I'm going to kill you for it, right.

(01:02:50):
So really interesting approach to the game from these players.
But as we get into the grand finals, Blas was for Xiaohai
Blas back again, making another fairy tale run from the wonder
kid from Chile, obviously at a Captain Cup when he got that
second place run to most of the world, he came from nowhere,
right? Like, who is this kid?

(01:03:10):
What's going on? If you weren't tuned in to the
South America World Warrior Eastregion, you wouldn't have known
what's what's happening, right? If you were a part of the
Chilean scene. He didn't have much of an
international presence back then.
His first event was blink respawn where he had like a a
top 8 finish, but didn't like really pop off beat like a MENA
Rd. or anything. You know, he didn't have any
like major notable showings thatwould have generated that much

(01:03:33):
buzz around his name until that Kaplan Cup where he really
proved that of that world class caliber.
Yeah. He hadn't had a big performance
since then to that same degree. And in fact, Crimea had a bit
more buzz with his his top eightrun at CEO and beating Daigo,
right. But Blas back here, dominant
performance so far up against Xiaohai and Xiaohai looking to

(01:03:55):
make history to win Esports World Cup back-to-back, joining
the likes of Olson, who just didthat with Tekken, who won
esports World Cup back-to-back, and to do it again in Street
Fighter 6. And at the start, it was a wash.
It was bad. Ryu and Bison Blahs beat the
brakes off of Xiaohai's and Bison three O before the switch

(01:04:19):
to my Yeah, he he got nothing going.
Bison is, you know, as problem says #unstable.
But, you know, it's Bison is. Bison's such an interesting
character. Like I think he could steamroll
anyone, but at the same time, I guess not to even play instead
of Bison, you know, downplay propaganda.
That character is not good. You know, he gets knocked down

(01:04:42):
or I guess in the blahs re UK, you're getting punished for
blocking a lot and like you can't reversal and you can't.
There's nothing you can really do.
You have it what 10 frame wake up super.
You're just kind of in a lot of shitty situations because you
want to block his Bison, but youblock and you don't have media
to kind of do your your drive rush, your low forward Dr.

(01:05:02):
rushes or your you drive rush scissor kicks.
And then you just got out of options as Bison.
You're back to playing, You know, footsies are, you know,
walking back and forth and bisondoesn't really have the best
anti fireball moves. Psycho crush is obviously
amazing, but if you have no meter to do psycho.
Crusher, what are you doing? Yeah, it's it's too costly with

(01:05:24):
the OD versus Ryu and blahs playstyle with Ryu attacking your
drive gauge. So yeah, that was that was a
watch. I mean, it was free.
I was almost like a little bit like, man, it's going to be a
blow up for grand finals, but I should I shouldn't be doubting
show high, right? He's been in these positions
before and a call back to his last esports World Cup win, he
was down like 4-1 or four, two versus Hikaru and the top 16 of

(01:05:49):
that events and he looked out like it was over.
Hikaru with his Aki, another young player, right, was going
to beat the crap out of Xiaohai to move on to the bracket.
And Xiaohai just clutched up, adapted and brought it all the
way back from multiple set points from Hikaru.
He just couldn't. Hikaru just couldn't close up
the set. So Xiaohai, I just think is more

(01:06:11):
than anything one of, if not thebest competitor in the FTC.
Like, what he's established overthe years is not just his
technical ability in game, it's his ability to adapt to the
opponent and to be composed and the face of, you know,
insurmountable odds. He has ice in his veins and he's

(01:06:32):
been doing this for a long time,right?
He's looking at Blas here. Xiaohai is.
How old now? Is he, like 36?
What is he? He's 36 years old, 30.
Yeah, 3637. Yeah, he's he's 36 years old,
turning 37 and he's looking at Blas 15 years old.
But Xiaohai was once the kid, right?
His name, he even said in his esports World Cup post match,

(01:06:55):
post grand finals interview in 2024 when he won and you know,
an amazing emotional speech. He said that his name means
little kid and he proved to himself that he's not too old.
He can still do it. He used to be that kid.
He was winning tournaments at 10years old in China against much
older competition. So he's he's he relates to Blas

(01:07:16):
in that sense. He could probably see himself in
Blas in some way of like of of like, hey, I've been that young
champion taking down establishedveterans in these games.
But you know, he's not too old yet, is what he thought, right?
So he switches to the my and immediately things are
different. He wins two games over Blase's
Ryu, and Blase is not looking. He's not looking good, right?

(01:07:41):
So after that, he goes down those two games, he switches to
the Ken, still loses a game, andthen suddenly it's a tied 33
set. So I'm thinking like, oh crap,
that's that's the weakness like that, that's it.
Like it's over. Bloch just cannot beat my I
don't know if you saw anything in the actual gameplay but it
seemed like every single mix with the the fan bounce he got

(01:08:01):
hit low like every single time with the with the light kick I
think over and over. I think he was trying to walk
back out of it since the nerf to, you know, no more proximity
guard. But like that was kind of one
thing I said with that change. It's it's a nerve for sure.
But it is kind of opening you upjust to get hit low Like it's
it's a fake change. Like you're going to be Oh yeah,
this got nerve. Let me walk back.

(01:08:22):
Wait a minute. I got hit low.
But a Capcom set me up kind of kind of spiel.
But yeah, to me, I was a lot of EX fans.
I mean, it's just to me, it's mybeing a really good character.
Also kind of to go back. I know Lashar beat applause at
CEO with my that's why even going back to that match, I was

(01:08:45):
like, I'm surprised he didn't pick my he kept going what Ed
and Terry and you know, I don't know what it is Lashar.
I know Lashar even said, you know, he dropped Chun because he
thought Chun was boring. So maybe he feels the same with
my but to me, you know, play my she's she's very good.
She's a very good character. That's, I think that's

(01:09:05):
underselling it. Yeah.
He hasn't really busted out the my since comma breaker, which is
what he closed out that tournament with or he closed it
out with Ed, but he used mostly my I think in that run.
And then with CEO instead of being like more of a, a my Ed
mix. So it's more of a Terry, Ed mix,
Ed Terry mix, right. I think he used a little bit of
my here and there, but she was already being kind of cut from

(01:09:28):
the squash. He's getting more time on the
bench already. And he she he didn't play.
He played primarily the Ed this entire time until he busted out
the Terry, right? So he was going almost all Ed in
this event. So feels like Ed is calling him
home and then he's also using Terry when the Ed isn't working
out. So he might just be bored of
mine, right? It might not be the best move
strategically, but that could bejust how it is.

(01:09:51):
He might watch the podcast and see you complain about him
picking my all the time. You're like, oh, go back to Ed.
You're setting him. You're telling him maybe instead
of mine. I'm not trying to set up Lego
for failure, man. If you got to get the W, you got
to pick some my man, get the jobdone Lego.
Come on, man. But yeah, I I would love to see
I'm I'm not a my fan personally in terms of gameplay.

(01:10:12):
I love all the players. I love.
I respect the talent and skill, just the character of my
herself. I think it's a little not not my
favorite gameplay wise, but yeah, it's interesting.
So it's does seem like blahs might have a history of having
trouble with the my matchup and it showed here, right.
So he loses 3 games straight to his the my switches to the Ken

(01:10:33):
as well to attempt to have better options in the matchup.
Finally gets a game with Ken to bring it to a four three set
lead. Then Xiaohai closeout the next
game. It's close.
The there's a round exchange in every one of these games and
then we get to the final game and four four between these two

(01:10:57):
players. Blas he got so close to winning
Kaplan cup before Kakuti shut him down at 15 years old.
This is still his rookie season.It's it's only been what like 6
months, four months since Kaplancup hasn't even been that long
right? Imagine getting so close to
winning the million. Now you're so close to winning
your your second or your third super premier, right, went to

(01:11:17):
EVO as well. But this is like he's having so
much success so early in his career but hasn't got that title
to get second again. I mean, you have to imagine it's
weighing on him to some degree. But Even so, like, you know,
Blase is always like smiling. He's kind of like he's very
expressive young player, right? He he he's always doing the
thinker in between moves. He was like, oh, how am I going

(01:11:38):
to obliterate hit their drive gauge after this combo sequence.
You know, he's always been one of these.
He's laughing, he he's showing his emotions.
You got to imagine there's some level of stress at this point.
I, I, I don't know. I, I don't think so.
I don't think he, he's like 15. I think he's just having fun.
That's what I see. I think he's just out here
having fun. I I if I were to arm sure

(01:12:00):
psychologist. I think he is mostly having fun,
but I do think he gets a little irritated.
I mean. Like everyone, everyone's going
to get mad at losing, but I definitely think he's just
having fun. It's kind of like, you know, I,
I'm not even supposed to be herekind of mentality.
I think that's what he's kind ofhaving.
I wonder when that will flip. I do agree.
I think overall he's he's his spirits are so positive and I

(01:12:22):
think that's his superpower as well is that he's just playing
the game like he's actually justplaying the game and enjoying
it. And he does get AI think he's a
little flustered like with my shenanigans.
Like you can see sometimes it's like there's some reactions,
minor reactions here and there, but I think overall one of his
strengths is for sure he's having fun, which is hard to
say. I think most other players are

(01:12:43):
not having fun. It's a different kind of
feeling, right? It's stress, adrenaline, but
it's not like ha ha he he, I'm having fun.
Let let him hit 21 then. Then let's see if he's having
fun. Better hit 21.
When the weight of the world comes crashing down upon him,
then we'll see how he deals withthese DI's.
You know what I'm saying? It's a little unfair right now.
Yeah, of course, of course. But I do think he's having fun

(01:13:05):
and it shows because his composure does hold up.
Meanwhile, you know Xiaohai is making this comeback.
Greece is A4 four. It's the final game, Xiaohai
goes up around and then at set point, tournament point, he gets
the shimmy with Blas in the corner.
Needs to do a basic drive rush B&B combo, which he's done a

(01:13:28):
million times. He drops the combo.
I'm not sure if he went for a strange routing and got a Little
Mix but he went for like a jab to heavy punch link which does
work on dry rush but he missed time.
The heavy punch drops into the reinboot that would have been
the combo into the Super to killand Blas is alert locked in,

(01:13:53):
immediately punishes into a sideswap combo into the Super and
then sets up the media OD fireball to put him.
I guess he put himself under burnout.
Did Xiao hi media OD fireball into the sneaky DI sequence and
then full combo conversion just so locked in and prepared for

(01:14:14):
the next sequence like Oh yeah, this is the comeback.
This is what I need to do to make the comeback in the moment
where the previous and about to be two time reigning esports
World Cup champion is going to drop this tournament winning
combo and allow me an opening tosteal the title from him.
You know what I mean? Like he was so prepared.
My heart dropped watching that. But in that moment blahs was

(01:14:34):
like, Oh yeah, this is just whatyou do here.
Immediately capitalize. I thought that was crazy.
I don't know if you saw that. Like what the hell?
Like he was so prepared for. That moment I was more shocked
that Shaohai dropped the Kaaba. I'm not used to seeing Kaaba
drop like I'm not used to seeingKaaba drops in Street Fighter
5R6, you know Street Fighter four it happened but in Street
Fighter like in the newer ones Iwas like wow I can't believe

(01:14:56):
Shaohai missed such a basic B&B.Like you'll see a missed hate
confirm or something, but nothing like to those kind of
lines like he could have did like, you know, the medium heavy
dry rush, medium heavy dry rush,medium heavy special Level 3 and
then he just wins. But seeing a drop like that to
that magnitude, I thought, you know, Xiaohai was getting

(01:15:17):
nervous basically because he waslike, oh shit, I'm about to win.
I'm about to win twice. Or even after that, like how do
you keep your composure? Because he drops that combo.
And I do feel like he went for aslightly more complicated
optimized route. I, I, I don't remember the
routing, but he didn't do mediumheavy, medium heavy, which is
like universal, you know, he didsome other weird like medium
heavy, heavy light, you know what I mean?

(01:15:37):
He's doing some like, some like,oh, with, with one drivers
cancel this, this routing is optimal with three drivers,
which two drivers cancels, you do this routing.
You know, he did some kind of weird route.
And I feel like, as I saw it, I was like, this is a funky route.
What are you doing? And then the drop happened and I
was like, oh, no. But Blas capitalized amazingly,
goes to the final round and he just had momentum like crazy.

(01:15:59):
And he's he's securing a lot of hits.
And then and the lead up to the final sequence, he perfect
Perry's one of Xiaohai's fans and does the perfect Perry
drivers OS to get in for a punish run Tatsu all the way to
the corner. And then Xiaohai has to guess
now for tournament life. He eats one throw.
He eats a second throw and Blas goes for the third throw and

(01:16:23):
with $120,000 on the line, Xiaohai wakes up with Oddp to
breakthrough that throw loop sequence.
If that was blocked, it was over$120,000 on the line.
After that, His next opening, the dry rush medium into medium.
Blas presses the button in the trade combo all the way through

(01:16:46):
to the CA and then Xiaohai wins,locked into the seat.
By the way, I don't know if you noticed didn't get.
Out. It did not get out.
I was worried that wasn't going to kill.
That was going to kill that whatI knew like that.
One that was kind of close. Because the way it works is like
if you have CA on average healthcharacters, it's like 250
damage. The yellow starts at like 2500

(01:17:08):
and CAS are guaranteed to do 2250 I think is the math.
So you need a little bit, you need to chip off a little bit of
the yellow to guarantee ACA killed at Max scaling, right?
So that went enough. There was like 3 or four hits in
the yellow. I was like, OK, that's going to
kill, but I understand it. It was still a little close, but
like it was pretty guaranteed ifyou're paying attention.
But I was like, he pulled himself down.

(01:17:28):
It's like my seat belt is fastened here.
I saw the the karma that happened to Punk at the
beginning of the tournament. I'm not going to have that
moment happen to be at the end of the tournament, You know what
I mean? So you saw him locked in and
then when that KO hit, he had the pop off and Xiaohai ends up
taking it with the $120,000 wakeup DP item.
Are you waking up with uppercut for $120,000?

(01:17:50):
You got to put your cards on thetable.
One thing I would say that is actually kind of interesting
about this game. So he didn't wake up DP, but I
guess getting Okie on DPS in this game because like history
Fighter five, I think it was only like Ken and Ed who got
Okie on the reversal. But in this game he did a

(01:18:10):
reversal DP to drive rush. That was, you know, my DP knocks
you kind of far. He got so much damage.
I think that was like a 5060% combo basically off of doing a
drive rush medium trade and got so much reward off of doing
that. But like I said, the trade
combo, I think Blas wasn't expecting the trade combo

(01:18:35):
because in a lot of scenarios there if Ken does A4 frame and
you know, mine does drive rush crotch medium, it's a trade.
But usually she's not close enough to do another medium.
But I think he like micro walk for the like crotch medium
again, our crotch medium kick. So he got the full combo and

(01:18:57):
then you know my damage. I think the breakdown from from
high fight was that he hit meatyas well to give him that trade.
Like it wasn't a normal situation where I I think if you
do driver crutching meat, you'reonly plus one normally with my
so you don't get the trade. So it was like a meaty manual
meaty timing that gave Xiaohai that whole sequence, right?

(01:19:21):
Like he if he did it too soon, it would if he did it too late
wouldn't be plus enough. So beyond just the the the
ballsy wake up DP with it all onthe line, there was also like a
precision in the timing there togive the trade, which I wouldn't
be surprised if Xiaohai is aiming for that.
But it also could have been coincidence, right?
There could have been a world where that trade didn't give him
enough frame advantage to combine the crash into the the

(01:19:42):
crash medium kick, right? Like that could have happened as
well. So just a very like thread the
needle situation for Xiaohai where he had one path to
victory. And that is, it's like the
difference between like a Blaze and a Xiaohai, right?
Blaze, I think is one of the best Street Fighter six players
I've ever seen. And I'm always learning new

(01:20:03):
things when I watch them. But Xiaohai just has the
composure ice in his veins. And he found the one opening the
only path to victory, the one ina billion, the one in a trillion
ways to to get that win 'cause he was down and out in that set.
Even after landing that wake of DP, he was not in a good
position to win, but he found it.

(01:20:25):
Went for the OGI option that would give him the most reward.
It landed, he converted full trade combo, no drop like the
previous round, convert into theCA to get the West and he became
the two time esports World Cup champion.
So get me emotional, get my noserunning.
Xiaohai making history there as the two time.
So we have to put some more respect on his name.

(01:20:47):
I don't know about you item, butyou know I don't look at Xiaohai
every Street Fighter event he's in and and think he's a favorite
to win, but is that changing now?
It's it, it is. I mean, he, he's obviously one
of the best. I do think like, I guess the
format kind of helps out a lot in this kind of things like

(01:21:08):
first the fives versus first thetwo first the three tournaments
are entirely different because Ithink like Guishi would have
beat Xiaohai if this were Evo tosay, or even Torameshi.
I think Torameshi beat Shaw highat EVO actually.
So you know, this time since it was first to five, you know,
more games to play with. And I, I as a player, even then

(01:21:31):
you play differently when you'redown 01 or it's 11 and it's a
first to two versus, you know, it's 11 and it's a first to
five. Ah, who cares, man?
I got like four other games to play with.
So I, I do think format obviously plays a factor.
We never know who's going to do well.
I would say to a lot of people, Meno was kind of the favorite

(01:21:52):
going into this, but didn't workout that way.
Who's going to win the next tournament?
Nobody knows. My, my pic Gotcha got smoked.
My, my, you know, Gotcha got smoked.
I'm sorry. I, you know, Gotcha, one of my
favorite players. Still, that was not not his
tournament. Who's to know?
He could win the next. One he could, but I guess what
I'm saying is I, I just feel like in the Street Fighter
community, people still aren't picking Xiaohai as often as

(01:22:15):
those favourites like throwing out a men Rd. throwing out a
Gashiki and throwing out a Lashar, an angry bird, right?
Xiaohai's name does not come up anywhere near as much as those
guys, right? And it kind of makes sense.
I mean, he doesn't travel as much as well.
I mean, he's he's in China, He'sit's large international travel.
He doesn't go to as many events,but his percentage of hitting

(01:22:37):
has been very high, very high, great results at every event he
goes to. And so I I do feel like, you
know, the Street Fighter community, myself included, has
to put a little bit more respect.
As much as we have respected hisname, I think you got to just,
you know, raise the bar a littlebit for Xiaohai, especially in
these long set formats, because you're right.

(01:22:59):
And many of in both these runs, there's been so many moments
where he has been behind both inthe first of two he would have
lost and the first of three eventhe grand finals he lost three O
right. So it could be strategy like he
knows how to play around that. He spent three whole games on
Bison after getting washed in the first two.
He lost the first two games O2 like no rounds and he still

(01:23:21):
picked Bison for the third game.So it goes to show that he just
understands how to adapt and howto spend his resource in games
wisely where he can still come back from the brink of defeat or
from being down in a set and getthe job done.
So the first to five format seems very, it seems like it's
like really favoring his talentsas a an OG, a legend of

(01:23:45):
competition in general, period. Not just Street Fighter, not
just anyone game, just being a competitor in the fighting game
space. And Xiaohai becomes the two time
esports World Cup champion. We any qualified captain cup via
that that was very. Interesting.
Oh Zen is oh Zen's in a great spot for his world warrior cuz
like I think Xiaohai was like light years ahead of everyone

(01:24:08):
cuz like Xiaohai was winning alltheir world warrior.
Now I think Zen moves up for thenow he's in the qualifying spot
for their region, so. Right.
This is one of the first, this is one of the first times in a
while where the the actual qualifying spot went to the
first place player because like,yeah, you know, Evo is is took
it from EVO. It was.

(01:24:29):
It was Mickey got it. Mickey's in Calco.
Yeah, Mickey, correct. Sorry.
It was Mickey in 3rd place, right, Mickey and Tori Meshi,
Yeah, in 9th, right. So that that's the most
ridiculous 1 So but yeah, it's going to help out in the the
Chinese region for their qualifications.
And I know Crimea was heartbroken because that's the
big complaint about the World warriors.

(01:24:51):
Think about the Chilean community.
It's obviously the two favoritesare Crimea and Blahs.
Now they're both still fighting for that Captain Cup
qualification qualification spot.
So I know Crimea is like, no man, like you need one more
game. Get out of here.
Like let me let me get this World Warrior.
But they still have a chance at other events coming up.

(01:25:12):
What's? Remaining actually in the the
actual Torah, I know Evo France is coming up, UFA is in three
weeks, Evo France is like a month after and then the Chinese
super premier I think is in November and then that's it.
Major international events, yeah, yeah, we're, we're past

(01:25:33):
the, the halfway point, so not many more chances remaining.
I'm, I'm hoping to see Blas and and crime as well.
And a lot of these players who got close to qualifying show up
to those events. I really want to see Blas and
Crime and Captain Cup, man. I'm super big fans of how they
play. One of them's getting in through
World Warrior, I'm pretty prettycertain.
But it'd be awesome to have bothof them in there, especially

(01:25:54):
since they both had a play in Group stages, by the way.
So that was an unfortunate drawing.
They did do seating to try to separate them, separate the
players based on how they qualified.
But even with the seating and the randomness, they ended up in
the same group. So shout outs to the Chilean
FGC, shout outs to Blahs for amazing performance, and shout
out to Sha Hai for making history as a two time esports

(01:26:14):
World Cup champion item. You got any final words for the
the people? Any final closing thoughts about
how this tournament went down and the rest of the season?
I'm, I'm kind of, I'm a bit excited to watch how the rest of
the, the big tournaments play out.
I I like seeing tournaments withlike different formats.
I'm a huge fan of like the Red Bull kumite, I guess the E

(01:26:36):
sports World Cup because, you know, double limp gets kind of
old. So I like seeing kind of a
little bit more kind of fun fun.Well, no, I don't want to say
fun. Fun makes it sound like it's
random a little more kind of different formats.
So I I really enjoyed E sports World Cup.

(01:26:57):
I think I was doing, funny enough, I was doing.
I was keeping track of how many times first at 3 mattered for
the group stages, and I think itactually only came up four or
five times the entire bracket. So maybe Street Fighter should
be first at 3. Who's no But yeah, cool little

(01:27:18):
tournament. I enjoyed a lot of esports.
World Cup. Good time.
Yeah, first to three mattering four or five times.
I think it matters. I don't know.
There was some discourse of people trying to say, oh, look,
so many five OS. Why do we do first to two or
first to three? We need some more first to three
and some more longer set action.I agree.
I think it makes the game a lot more enjoyable to watch, but
that's going to be it for us here at Extra Trashy.
Thanks for tuning in on YouTube or Spotify and listening.

(01:27:41):
We appreciate you guys and your support.
Hit you in the next one. Peace.
Yeah, you forgot to bring up go ichi multi game champion DNF
duel. Why you everyone forget I?
Didn't drop that in there.

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