Taiwanese e-sports player Lin “E.T.” Chia-hung (林家弘) on Sunday unseated the defending champion in the Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan) The King of Fighters XV grand final, placing first out of more than 450 entrants.
Lin lost the first best-of-five round 2-3 against China’s Zheng “Xiaohai” Zhujun (曾卓君), a three-time EVO champion, before rallying to win the second round 3-2.
Lin advanced to the grand final after winning two rounds on Sunday, meaning he could lose one round and still win. He took home ¥1 million (US$6,419) in prize money.
Photo: screen grab from EVO Japan’s X account
“Finally, not another runner-up,” Lin said. “I have rarely won top-tier events since 2017 and have been runner-up several times, so this means a lot to me.”
Lin’s best performance at a top-tier event featuring The King of Fighters XV was when he placed second after losing to Zheng at the EVO final in August last year.
Lin, 39, was first exposed to video games at the age of seven and has been a pro gamer since 2013, according to e-sports database Liquipedia.
In an interview last month, Lin said that his family had not supported his gaming career and that he had worked several jobs, including as a property agent and convenience store staffer, to fund his craft.
It was not until he won The King of Fighters XIV event in 2017 that his family started backing his career choice, he said.
Now a full-time pro gamer, Lin streams while training for five hours per day.
Last month, Lin expressed his disappointment with the lack of investment in the industry in Taiwan.
“I think even winning a championship will not change things much,” he said.
However, after nearly three decades, he said his passion for The King of Fighters has never wavered, regardless of how challenging the circumstances have been.
On Sunday, Lin said that winning the EVO Japan title proved that he could still break through even though he is turning 40 in November.
It has given him the confidence to continue fighting, he added.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its