GO1 is the EWC Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves champion after intense Grand Finals

The biggest Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament of the year has wrapped up at the Esports World Cup, with Goichi ‘GO1’ Kishida emerging as the champion.

As the winner of the EWC’s Fatal Fury tournament, GO1 took home $300,000 of the impressive $1m prize pool and won DetonatioN FocusMe 1,000 Club Points.

“It really feels like a dream,” GO1 said after winning. “To all the Japanese players who practiced with me, everyone who cheered me on until the early morning, and my family who supported me, thank you so much! I did it!”

While the Fatal Fury esports scene is relatively new, a lot of long-time fighting game champions decided to head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to see if they could become some of the founding fighters and early champions. This includes long-time Street Fighter competitor Naoki ‘Nemo’ Nemot, The King of the Fighters Evo champ Reynald Tacsuan and top Marvel vs. Capcom pro Christopher ‘NYChrisG’ Gonzalez.

GO1 himself is a fighting game pro with a long history of domination in the scene. He is considered to be one of the best Melty Blood players of all time, but he’s also earned respect in Guilty Gear, Street Fighter and Dragon Ball FighterZ, where he has won CEO 2019, Evo 2019 and the 2019-20 World Finals.

While GO1 has also dabbled in more niche scenes, he started grinding Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves ahead of Esports World Cup. He took second at Brussels Challenge Major Edition 2025 and then first at Combo Breaker 2025, showing a scary consistency that took him to the top at EWC.

The Grand Final was against The King of the Fighters and Street Fighter 6 pro Zeng ‘Xiao Hai’ Zhuojun. Xiao Hai won Evo four times while competing in different iterations of The King of the Fighters and also won Esports World Cup’s Street Fighter 6 tourney last year. He is currently 36 years old, which is considered quite ‘ancient’ for the fighting game scene. This shows his long-time dominance in multiple titles, making him a formidable opponent.

Ahead of the fight, GO1 tweeted: “I’m really looking forward to finally facing off against Xiao Hai. What will happen to the stuff I’ve brought after grinding so hard… I know it’s early in the morning, and I deeply appreciate your support, but I hope you’ll cheer me on!! I’ll win as the representative of Japan!”

GO1 used Kain and Marco against Xia Hai’s Billy and Hotaru. It was a great showcase of the game’s competitive battles and dynamic, intense gameplay elements. While Xia Hai was the fan-favorite due to his domination in SNK titles, GO1’s defensive playstyle and willingness to take risks to adapt made him the better competitor that match.

The SNK World Championship later this year will be another chance for Xia Hai and other Fatal Fury champ hopefuls to take the crown from GO1. However, GO1 will be grinding the rest of the year to ensure he wins the $1.5m (~£1.1m).