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.
Drive to win
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. Blanka-chan would win out, advancing MenaRD ahead to await the loser of AngryBird vs. Punk.
Punk’s incredible run finally met two obstacles; first in AngryBird’s still-impressive Ken, and again in a narrow loss to MenaRD’s Blanka. At this point, MenaRD was on an incredible run through the losers’ side of the bracket, while AngryBird stood ready to face this challenger. Both had outlasted some of the tournament’s heaviest hitters, and the trophy was within reach.
Grand Finals played out beautifully, highlighting the strengths that bore each player there. MenaRD showed not just skill, but versatility, swapping between Blanka and Luke. AngryBird stayed nimble and adaptive while finding narrow openings in the space. The heightened drama played up all through a reset of the bracket and, ultimately, a win for AngryBird.
History was made today.@FGC_Angrybird pic.twitter.com/M0yWkN3eGH
— EVO (@EVO) August 7, 2023
Two players, whose highest Evo placements prior to Sunday were just outside the hallowed Top 8, put on an incredible competition. AngryBird seized the win in stirring fashion. And it was hard not to take notice that this was only the first year of Street Fighter 6.
On to the next challenger
In most years, Evo Grand Finals are usually a treat. But I really don’t think Street Fighter 6 could’ve asked for a better first showing on the biggest stage in fighting games.
As I was watching the event unfold last night, our watch party kept remarking how different this felt from Street Fighter V. Its troubled launch put SFV off to a bad start, and though it would see support and updates, it never felt like it truly recovered, much less reach the heights of its predecessor. While we saw many great stories told on Street Fighter V‘s canvas, I don’t feel like the game matched up to its real-life narrative highs.
Last night, if anything, showed that Capcom might finally have a vehicle on its hands that can match its driver. The calculating decisions around Drive Gauge usage, the freedom for adaptation and reaction mid-series, and even some solid character variety—Ken as the only repeat main amongst the Top 6—all show Street Fighter 6 has sincere promise.
There’s still a long road ahead. Every scene waxes and wanes, as countless other top-shelf games in the competitive space have shown. But it was really nice to close out Evo 2023 with some good-ass Street Fighter, full stop. And there looks to be many more battles ahead, on the path to Street Fighter 6‘s next top bracket at Evo.
You can catch the full VOD for Evo 2023’s Grand Finals Sunday, including some fantastic Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and more, here.
Published: Aug 7, 2023 11:34 am