Xian wins the first Capcom Pro Tour event of 2017

The Street Fighter season for this year is off, and we now have our very first winner; Xian with his Ibuki.

Xian took top honors in the Street Fighter V tournament at Final Round XX in Atlanta on Sunday. The victory was Xian’s second at Final Round in the past three years, as he previously won the event’s Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament in 2015. Xian scored a pair of wins over Fuudo to take the title. Fuudo raced out to a 2-0 lead in their match in the winners’ final, but Xian and his explosive Ibuki stormed back to win the set 3-2. Xian then won their rematch in the grand final by a 3-1 margin to earn the victory.

The result felt familiar to Fuudo, who reached the grand finals of three different events last season but failed to win any of them. He finished second to Momochi Yusuke at Stunfest, second to Arman “Phenom” Hanjani at DreamHack Summer, and second to Lee “Infiltration” Seon-Woo at Evo. Although Fuudo didn’t end his own run of second-place performances, he did do something that nobody had done since October of last year: eliminate Du “NuckleDu” Dang at a Capcom Pro Tour event.

NuckleDu, last season’s Capcom Cup champion, finished in third place after a winners’ semifinal loss to Xian and a losers’ final loss to Fuudo. NuckleDu had won each of the last three Pro Tour events he entered: Canada Cup, the North American Regional Final, and the Capcom Cup.