I learned this from many veteran‑player stories; I was not a frequent arcade‑goer myself back then. Most arcade cabinets in China in that era were pirated units. The vast majority of players got their start with King of Fighters 97, rather than the more‑well‑regarded, better‑balanced KOF 98. KOF97 has poor character balance and very lenient move hit‑detection. Seen from today’s perspective these are flaws, yet they held a unique appeal for players in China with limited information back then. You could sometimes pull off flashy moves or cheap tricks just by mashing the joystick and buttons. I did not play much myself and cannot memorize all the move commands. Even to this day, a large group of long‑time KOF97 fans barely touch other fighting games. Inexpensive no‑brand arcade consoles are marketed toward this crowd, and they still enjoy the game a great deal. Within China’s older fighting‑game community, the moment where Xiao Hai (Zeng Zhuojun) took on ten top Japanese players is nearly as legendary as Daigo’s famous parry at the Tougeki tournament. His Street Fighter 6 championship brought fighting‑games to a wider audience, drawing in people who had never touched arcades before. He serves as a role‑model for many Chinese players. I also got into Street Fighter 6 because of this championship. Before that, fighting games felt overwhelmingly intimidating to me. I only relied on three basic moves: the shoryuken, hurricane kick and fireball, yet I got this unexpected sense of accomplishment. My skill level is still very low, but I have a lot of fun playing