Laggia is the FATAL FURY world champion 2025, wins his second title

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The player won the tournament, surprisingly beating all the top contenders. The competition also highlighted that certain characters are currently much stronger than others.

The FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves tournament at the SNK World Championship 2025 Finals was both thrilling and unsettling.

The competition was incredibly fierce! It brought together top players, and we saw some truly stunning matches with surprising outcomes.

Still, the character picks in the top brackets were too repetitive for a proper battle balance.

Laggia wins the title and $1,500,000

The SNK World Championship 2025 boasts a large prize pool for fighting game esports. For the game FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, the total prize money was $2.5 million, with the winner receiving a significant $1.5 million.

Japanese player Laggia, representing REJECT and Sanwa, won the top prize! It wasn’t an easy journey, however.

Facing Xiao Hai, ZJZ, and GO1

Watching Laggia become Champion was incredible, especially considering who he had to beat! Seriously, the competition was stacked. Zeng “Xiao Hai” Zhuojun is a legend in the SNK fighting game scene – one of the best ever, and he already won Evo France 2025! Then you have Tseng “ZJZ” Chia-chen, who’s won Evo twice, back in 2018 and 2022. And let’s not forget Goichi “GO1” Kishida – he absolutely crushed it at the FATAL FURY: CotW Esports World Cup 2025 and also took home the Evo 2025 title. What a lineup!

  • Laggia defeated Xiao Hai in the semifinal with a 3:2. The players exchanged rounds, and the winner was decided in the tough final game.
  • In the winners final, Laggia won over ZJZ with a confident 3:1.
  • GO1 was sent to the losers side by Tseng “ZJZ” Chia-chen, but he switched from Kain to Marco, made it to the grand final, and reset the brackets. Laggia still managed to win the decisive battle.

Laggia, a two-time world champion

A remarkable aspect of the SNK World Championship 2025 Finals was that many players competed in every game. SNK Corporation made it simple for competitors to switch between their different titles with a well-designed system.

In 2025, Laggia became the world champion in FATAL FURY. He also previously won the King of Fighters XV circuit, a significant accomplishment. This player has the potential to win even more championships, so it will be interesting to follow his progress in future tournaments.

Hotaru and Marco are in the building

A problem with the FATAL FURY: CotW tournament at the SNK World Championship 2025 Finals was a lack of character diversity. The top players heavily favored Hotaru and Marco, and overall, very few different characters were chosen, which made the competition less interesting.

  • Four players in the top 8 were on Hotaru. Three of them finished in the top 4.
  • There were two Marcos in the final brackets. GO1 started this trend back in Combo Breaker 2025, and it’s still strong.
  • Billy, Hokutomaru, and Kain were all over the place during the tournament.

Despite the dominant trend, a few players still chose Ronaldo, including Tyler Kusich (Diaphone) and Charalampros Lamprou (H-DOPE). While Andy, Dong, and Preecha were also selected, the most popular choices clearly favored one side.

Adding Chun-Li to the game could shift the balance in FATAL FURY. Small adjustments to character strengths and weaknesses might improve the competitive scene and make the upcoming SNK World Championship 2026 even more exciting for viewers.

Competitive fighting games, especially FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, are constantly active, but there’s a temporary pause in top-level play right now.

The game continues to be played at smaller tournaments, including Battle Coliseum 2025, running from November 15th to 16th, and Frosty Faustings XVIII, taking place from January 29th to February 1st.

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2025-11-03 16:12