When it comes to the stories of most fighting game legends, their careers as international competitors start pretty young, as teenagers or in their early 20s. Despite playing fighting games for most of his life, Taiwan's Lin "ET" Chia-hung didn't start competing internationally until 2013, when he was 29 years old. Even with that relatively late start, though, ET's legacy is undeniable: he will go down as one of the greatest King of Fighters players of all time.
He's been playing King of Fighters games since SNK's crossover series launched in arcades in 1994, when he was just 10 years old. Despite his parents' objections, the arcade became a constant hangout spot for the young man, the place where Lin truly became ET.
"After I’d been going to the arcade for a while, I started meeting friends," ET said on Lightning949's podcast in 2021. "Once you have a group of friends, everyone starts getting familiar with each other and, at the same time, they start giving you a nickname. One of the reasons for my nickname was my playstyle. The way I approached the game was weird and kind of unique. Because it’s so weird, they started calling me an alien. That’s where the name E.T. came from."
The team nature of King of Fighters naturally allows players to force their opponents to deal with multiple different playstyles. From the beginning, ET was particularly adept at taking advantage of this unique aspect of the game. "The whole playstyle is having the opponent guess and pretty much force them into a guessing game," Lightning said on the podcast. "When picking three characters, he’ll usually pick one grappler to mix people up." For ET, that usually meant you could expect a Clark or Daimon on his roster at all times, and he would go on to become the best in the world at piloting SNK's grapplers.
But the world wouldn't get to see that for a long time. With his family continuing to object to his gaming hobby, ET had to prioritize making money over traveling for fighting games. He bounced between jobs like property agent and convenience store clerk, and was able to finally put himself in a position where he could afford to travel. In 2013, he attended Southeast Asia Major in Singapore, where he finished 4th in a stacked King of Fighters XIII bracket, piloting his trusty Clark on a team with more popular meta picks Benimaru and EX Iori. Of the three players to finish ahead of ET, two were Evo champions: Tokido and Xian.
He would also reach Top 16 at his first Evo that same year, but it was 2014 where ET would really put himself on the map. He finished 2nd at Id Global Tournament, and followed that up with his first Evo finals, making it all the way to 3rd place before finally falling to Tokido, the man who eliminated him at both Id and Evo 2013 as well.
As frustrating as it must have been to lose to the same player so many times, ET's performances in the closing days of King of Fighters XIII's heyday were enough to convince him that it was worth it to commit to a serious grind when King of Fighters XIV dropped in 2016. That grind immediately started paying dividends. He finished 4th at the first World Championships for King of Fighters XIV in February 2017, and followed that up with another 4th place finish at KVO x TSB in Japan. As the first Evo for King of Fighters XIV approached, ET had plenty of momentum as he gunned for his second Evo medal.
The King of Fighters XIV at Evo 2017 was truly a global affair. Six different countries were represented on the finals stage as the world's best King of Fighters players chased one of the biggest prize pools the game had ever seen, with over $10,000 going to the winner. ET was 32 years old at this point, but he was still looking for a tournament win that would prove that he had made the right choice to pursue fighting games as more than just a hobby.
After taking down Japan's SCORE, Mexico's Huevo and Pakistan's WhiteAshX, ET found himself in the same exact position he was in three years prior, sitting in Winners Finals at Evo, before he fell to Xiao Hai and Tokido. This time, he wasn't going to let his run end there. He took out Mexico's Luis Cha 3-1 in Winners Finals. He had to stave off a valiant attempt at a reverse 3-0 from Xiao Hai in Grand Finals, and in Game 5, he found himself at low health on his final character, with Xiao Hai still with his EX Iori at full health.
But ET's last character was one of those grapplers he had become so famous for, his Daimon. It took just two openings: after one extremely brave reversal super, followed almost immediately by one of Daimon's big damage combos, ET became the Evo 2017 champion. At 33 years old, he had finally reached the pinnacle, and he had done it over one of the players who had denied him the last time he had reached the Evo finals stage.
"I’m finally no longer the runner-up,” ET said in an interview with CNA News. “Since 2017, I haven't won many championships on the big stage, and I've been the runner-up several times, so I'm quite moved.”
With the Evo 2017 win under his belt, his family changed their tune and began supporting him in his endeavors as a pro fighting game player. He would remain one of the most dominant forces throughout the KoFXIV era, continuing to put up big results year after year, including wins at Stunfest in 2019 and AnimEVO in both 2018 and 2019.
Despite reaching such heights in King of Fighters XIV, ET managed to push even further in the next iteration. He kept up with the online tournament scene throughout the pandemic, and when offline tournaments returned, he was in peak form. Unfortunately, he found himself back in a familiar spot, as a regular runner up. He took second at both Evo 2022 and Evo 2023, with a 5th place finish at Evo Japan 2023 in between. But at Evo Japan 2024, he returned to the peak. Once again, he faced stiff resistance from Xiao Hai, who reset the bracket in Grand Finals, but ET was able to bounce back, claiming his second Evo title with a 3-1 win in the reset.
Xiao Hai would get him back at Evo 2024's grand finals, where ET would finish second for the third time in the King of Fighters XV era. But he would join the small group of players with three Evo championships at the next opportunity, Evo Japan, where he took out Lacid and mok en route to another win. He also won Evo 2025's Extended Lineup bracket for KOFXV, showing that he remains a force in the game even as the primary focus of the SNK community has shifted to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
Surprising absolutely nobody, ET has also been a top contender in City of the Wolves, with a tremendous showing at the biggest tournaments in the game's first summer. He placed fourth at CEO, reached Top 8 at the Esports World Cup, and finally capped it off with a second place finish at Evo 2025. Despite the fact that he turned 40 about 6 months prior to the release of City of the Wolves, ET is looking like he'll be one of the game's top competitors for years to come.
ET continued to express his pessimism about the state of Taiwan's fighting game scene after he took home the gold at Evo 2017. "I think even winning a championship will not change things much," he told Taiwan's Overseas Community Affairs Council. But he has taken matters into his own hands. On top of his continued success is SNK's fighting games, ET is the owner of an esports arena and arcade called DBJ. With 25 years of arcade experience now under his belt, ET is making sure that the next generations of Taiwanese fighting game players have somewhere to grind like he did in the 1990s and 2000s. Between his decade-plus of top-level King of Fighters play and his dedication to keeping his scene alive at home, Taiwan couldn't ask for a better champion to represent them.
See more of ET's journey in Evo Legends Powered by Qiddiya Gaming on EvoFGC
