Confidence and adjustment on a per-player basis. Xian will adapt to the player, not the character. I know that sounds dumb, but it’s the only logical reason as to why one player can outperform almost everyone with such a poorly received character. I’m also gonna say that this is incredibly hard to do consistently online, you’re better just abusing player weaknesses and safe set-ups/pressure waiting for mistakes when online.
Small instance -
F.A.N.G presses cr.mk, opponent presses X frame normal
Xian sees this the first time and makes mental note, prepares Y normal for next cr.mk, Y normal is maximum damage that can beat X normal from the opponent.
Xian isn’t just thinking “hit cr.mk, then press this button because it’s the best option to frame trap” he’s probably making consistent mental adjustments through a match to exploit the opponent. Outside of that when he’s playing fair levelled competition it’s just the fact of “who can outplay the other” and as we’ve seen F.A.N.G is kinda holding him back atm.
Delayed normals, delayed throws, huge gaps in blockstrings to abuse delayed techs from the opponent. Lots of small adjustments that will make Xian come out on top against most competition.
Seriously I do it because after going through half the cast, the only character I enjoy using nearly as much is Gief, maybe Alex.
I also don’t believe Bison is that far away from being a really strong character in the current meta. A few small buffs will go along way into making him really good, so I’m praying to Woshige the God to do him justice.
Or he can really go crazy, give df+hp overhead properties while keeping the frame data … But I’ll be good with small buffs.