SF6 at Evo Japan 2024: Top characters, best fights

Street Fighter 6 (SF6) is a kind of elite in fighting games esports. Official tournaments have amazing prize pools, and pro players demonstrate mind-blowing skills. Another big SF6 event happened as part of Evo 2024. Many top-level competitors participated in it, both local and international. Watching their fights and seeing the characters they choose may help with your own game.

One of the strongest Street Fighter players in the world, the winner of Capcom Cup IX, MenaRD played in the first Winners Semifinal. His opponent was Ryukichi, a Japanese player, who won the SF6 Red Bull Kumite 2024: New York Play-In Japan event.

That was a fight between an SF veteran, Ken of Ryukichi, and a relative newcomer to the series, Luke of MenaRD. Ryukichi fought so well! His clutch with a pixel of health to survive in Game 4 was intense. Still, MenaRD’s experience is not a joke. He looked so confident and dominant in Game 5 — and MenaRD proceeded to the Winners Final.

The other Winners Semifinal was between Vxbao from China, 2nd at Capcom Pro Tour (CPT) 2023 China, and Lexx from the U.S., the winner of CPT 2023 U.K. Vxbao played JP, a stylish villain, introduced in SF6. Lexx fought with another classic SF character on his side, Guile.

Lexx pretty much dominated this fight. Having some good moments and close rounds did not save Vxbao. Lexx then proceeded further to face MenaRD.

After falling to the losers bracket, Ryukichi played against moke from Japan — Ken versus Chun-Li. It was a really close fight full of back-and-forth situations. Ryukichi managed to recover from 0:2 and win this legendary matchup — Evo Moment 37 almost happened as Ken blocked and punished Chun-Li’s Super at the very last moment.

Kakeru from Japan, the winner of Blink Respawn 2023, brought one more JP to Evo Japan. Vxbao tried to avoid this mirror match and took Ken instead. But after losing Game 1, the player decided to return to his main. Still, Kakeru won this fight, 3:1. 

We could see some mirror matches at other Evo Japan tournaments. For instance, the UNI2 character Gordeau fought with his reflection in the Winners Final and the Grand Final.

MenaRD took Blanka to the Winners Final to fight Lexx's Guile. His electric beast was unstoppable, and MenaRD won 3:0.

Kakeru defeated Ryukichi in the Losers Semi. And then his JP destroyed Lexx's Guile.

Kakeru really tried to oppose the power of MenaRD and his Blanka. His resistance in Game 3 was remarkable. However, a mistake with a Level 2 Super took the last chance away from the player.

MenaRD is the SF6 Evo Japan 2024 Champion. Congratulations!

Even before Evo Japan, the Capcom esport social media account announced a few big offline tournaments in 2024. The list contains eight esports events. The next one is Cream City Convergence 2024 in August.

Let’s not forget the Esports World Cup that will continue for almost the entirety of July and April. All Top 6 SF6 players from Evo Japan qualified for it.

Akuma is the next Street Fighter 6 character. His release date is May 22, 2024. During Evo Japan, we saw the newest gameplay trailer. 

Evo Japan 2024 brought us a few exciting announcements. For example, Slayer was confirmed during the Guilty Gear Strive tournament, and Marco Rodrigues was revealed for the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.

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