FES Characters and 98 - XIV Kensou?

So I've had this game for less than a week and It's been incredibly generous giving me Clone Zero Female (who I didn't know was FES, I don't even really know what FES means or why it's significant yet) and conveniently a FES of literally every color in some form (O.Shermie, Chris, Orochi for free, Mukai from Kaya summon and Clone Zero Female and Orochi Iori from pulling).

So my first question is... what is FES? Fest Fighters I know, but what does it mean? These characters are just better? Have better stats? What's the difference between them and normal *5's.

Second thing is... regardless of these FES fighters, Kensou is my favorite KOF character, bar none (with Shingo as #2) so he's 100% my choice for my first character to awaken (assuming I can get his memory). 99 Kensou is my choice as he's the only modern version in the game (98 and above).

Thing is... 99 Kensou is my least favorite modern version of him next to 2001. I love 98 and 2000 Kensou, XIII and XIV Kensou are also pretty great. Are any of these versions of him in the JP/KR versions and on the way (like I saw 98 Shingo was in JP/KR) or am I safe to go ahead and go for Awakening 99 Kensou?