Street Fighter 6 couldn’t have asked for a better Evo debut

07.08.2023 - 16:43 / destructoid.com

Last night in Las Vegas, many eyes were on Street Fighter 6. The newly launched entry in Capcom’s fighting game series held the final slot of Grand Finals day at Evo 2023. With record entrants and an already warm reception, it’s easy to say expectations were high. Still, I don’t think we could have expected the stellar grand finals Street Fighter 6 got.

Let’s set the stage a bit, first. The Evolution Championship Series, or Evo, is one of the most storied and respected fighting game tournaments around. Alongside its massive attendance, Evo is also an open tournament, so anyone can put up the entrance money and fight. To win Evo is to, by extrapolation, beat everyone at Evo. And with Street Fighter 6 garnering an all-time record in entrants, there was no shortage of talent on display.

Going into Sunday’s Top 6, many giants had already fallen along the roadside. Former Evo and Capcom Cup champions littered the path to Sunday’s stage in Mandalay Bay, with names like SonicFox, Dogura, Daigo, NuckleDu, GO1, Fuudo, and many more all eliminated.

The storylines for Sunday were all beautifully laid out. At the top stood Punk, an established competitor from Street Fighter V who was reportedly on a perfect streak through the bracket. Haitani bore the standard for Modern controls, utilizing the simplified control scheme to execute some brutal reactions with Chun-Li. AngryBird and Kakeru were also imposing threats, and even more heat lay down below in the loser’s side of the double-elimination bracket. On one side, there was the legendary Tokido; the other, MenaRD, who took the top spot at CEO 2023 in Street Fighter 6. Essentially, by this point, there were no easy rounds.

The tone was set early with a nail-biter finish between AngryBird and Kakeru, as the former’s Ken pressed to get in against the ‘shmup-like projectiles of newcomer JP. This close battle led to a dominating first fight for Punk, taking a Winners Final berth 3-0 over Haitani. The Modern controls would soon fall to incredible play from MenaRD on Luke, and Tokido delivered a second Ken win over JP to advance forward.

At this point, the finals were already solid. But something shifted in the air, the moment MenaRD and Tokido took the stage. The pair decided to face off, seemingly recreating the Street Fighter Alpha 2 art, ahead of their Losers Semifinal bout.

A clash of the titans.

Top 4 of Street Fighter 6 is underway starting with @_MenaRD__ vs @tokidoki77 in Losers Semi-finals!https://t.co/pRm0CRum2y | #Evo2023 pic.twitter.com/Yc5AEJ1mqf

— EVO (@EVO) August 7, 2023

The atmosphere was electric from here on out. MenaRD unleashed Blanka, a sometimes-oddball pick he’d found success with, while Tokido fought back with an aggressive and impressive Ken.