Jovian Chan, better known as Shen Chan, took 2nd place at the EVO 2k12 Soul Calibur 5 finals tonight.

The Cervantes player is the first Singaporean to have hit EVO – the Evolution Championship Series’ – Grand Finals. Fellow countrymen in previous years have made it to the Top 32, but never the Top 8. That Shen Chan got to the Grand Finals is a feat amazing on its own, considering that EVO is the largest, most anticipated fighting game tournament in the world. Here’s mad props to Shen Chan, and much, much love and respect from the Singapore fighting game community.

Shen Chan had originally been tipped as the crowd favourite to win the tournament, but lost to Japan’s Shining Decopon’s ruthless  Tira. Decopon surprised the world with the character’s heavy meter-charged combos, and once he broke Shen Chan’s momentum, seized the chance to beat the latter, reset the bracket, and then beat him again to become EVO 2k12′s Soul Calibur 5 champion.

Nonetheless, Shen Chan put up an incredible show in the entire Grand Finals, even putting on a first generation Pokemon hat to show that he was going to be the very best. *cue first generation theme song*

He has, without a doubt, cemented Singapore’s reputation in the fighting game world as a force to be reckoned with. Soul Calibur, once a series dominated by players from the USA and France, now has new contenders for the Soul Edge.

We’ll be talking to Shen Chan once he gets back, and to Shen Yuan as well: the other Singaporean who should have been in the Top 8, but was unluckily tossed out of the contest by a wild Mitsurugi.

In the meantime, we close with Shen Chan’s favourite quote: Keep It Classy.