Tan “Pei Hoon” Jia Chun won the right to represent Singapore at next month’s three-nation Knock Out! Street Fighter IV tournament after defeating “Alan” in the finals of the selection tournament held last Saturday.
Pei Hoon’s Sagat fought Alan’s Akuma in a final match that went right down to the wire.
Both players opted for a conservative strategy in the first round, with neither gaining a clear advantage until the 50-second mark, when Alan started to chip away at Pei Hoon and took the round.
In the second round, Pei Hoon opted for a strong offense and totally dominated an overconfident Alan in just 25 seconds without taking significant damage.
Both players opted to play conservatively in the final tie-breaker round. Alan managed to take an early lead but Pei Hoon pulled ahead with at the 35-second mark with a well-placed throw. By then it was too late for Alan to do much and Pei Hoon took the round and the match.
“It was 50 percent effort and 50 percent luck that led me to represent Singapore,” Pei Hoon said shortly after being crowned champion at the selections tournament.
Third-placed “Weijie” was notable for having trained up a very strong anti-Sagat Dhalsim but ironically lost to Alan’s Akuma in the finals of the lower bracket and did not get a chance to face Pei Hoon’s Sagat in the finals.
Pei Hoon will now represent Singapore against representatives from Korea and Japan in the K.O. tournament, held next month at The Games Xpo 2009.
For more reports on Represent!! (Yo), visit the SF4 Singapore blog. They’ve done an interview with Pei Hoon that you can view and will be posting up match videos soon.
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