Ho Kun Xian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[12]

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

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

• Twitter account