Street Fighter 6 at EVO Preview – Top Players in Biggest EVO Tournament Ever

EVO is always the central event for competitive fighting games, but 2023’s tournament is going to be bigger than ever. A large part of the extra hype this year is Street Fighter 6 at EVO. It’s the first outing for this new game which has already got a huge player base, ensuring more eyes than ever are on the game. With the Capcom Cup’s massively boosted prize pool too, it’s a recipe for one of the most anticipated tournaments in EVO history.

The Street Fighter 6 event at EVO 2023 might have the same prize pool as the other main games, but it has had a record-breaking number of registrations. More players than ever are going to be showing up, and we now know a bit more about how it’s going to work. We know which new Street Fighter 6 characters are going to be playable and a lot of the major names you can expect to see make it through to the Final bracket.

Street Fighter 6 at EVO 2023

Street Fighter 6 at EVO is definitely the highest-profile tournament this year. The prize pool is sat at $95,600, but the big draw here is the wider circuit the event is a part of.

Street Fighter 6 at EVO is part of the Capcom Pro Tour. This year it has a record-breaking prize pool of $2 million. It’s enough to get every fighting game player trying their hand at the game. We’ve already seen some early tournaments take place but EVO will be the major test. Winning this gives nearly as much in bragging rights as the Capcom Pro Tour itself!

Top Players at Street Fighter 6 EVO

There are more players than ever signed up for Street Fighter 6, over 7,000 in total. It’s tricky to really pick out everyone worth watching given the sheer scale. Looking at earlier Street Fighter 6 tournaments though, there’s a clear handful of players who look the strongest for the tournament. These are the highlights so far.

MenaRD

MenaRD is a two-time Capcom Pro Tour winner and a clear stand-out as one of the best Street Fighter 6 players. He’s had great success in early tournaments, winning CEO 2023 and the Intel Plays SF 6 Invitational. Most recently he had a slightly worse result, coming in 2nd at Defend the North. It says something about his skill in the early meta that a 2nd place finish is his worst result.

With only 1st and 2nd place finishes to him so far though, MenaRD definitely looks like the player to beat here.

Caba

The winner of Defend the North has put himself on the map for Street Fighter 6 at EVO. He might not have had quite as many big results so far as MenaRD, but taking a major off the best active player right now shows he’s ready for big things in Street Fighter 6.

Punk

Punk is a cross-fighting game pro who’s been competing at the highest level of Street Fighter, but also some of the best anime fighting games. In the past, he’s taken 2nd place at EVO playing Street Fighter V and just missing out on a Capcom Cup trophy! Most recently he’s won events at Street Fighter 6 like Impact Protocol.

iDom

One of the main Street Fighter 6 at EVO players to keep an eye on is iDom. He’s a former Street Fighter 6 winner who has continued to dominate since then. He’s won tons of majors in 2022. While quieter in 6 so far, EVO is the biggest early event to look at for the title.

SonicFox

Along with those top players in Street Fighter, SonicFox is never one to write off. He’s basically the king of competitive fighting games. Street Fighter 6 could be a street too far for the player, but so far he’s proven surprisingly skilled at jumping into new games and dominating.

Those are some of the top players to watch out for at Street Fighter 6 at EVO, how can you watch along though? This is by far the most hype part of EVO 2023 and the stream won’t be one to miss. You can catch it on the official EVO Twitch.

Rashid Playable for Street Fighter 6 at EVO

One of the biggest surprises for players in the lead-up to EVO 2023 has been that Rashid will be playable. The character is the first post-launch addition to make it to the game and will release just 12 days before the tournament itself. This doesn’t give very long for players to lab out the character, get the hang of match-ups, and generally settle in with him as a part of the SF 6 roster.

Rashid being payable could end up introducing some unknown random variables into the tournament. Players could end up getting cheesed by Rashid moves that simply haven’t been figured out yet. The lack of preparation time has been noticed by plenty of top players, who aren’t exactly happy about the new wild card.

Others have highlighted just how early we are for the game in general. The full cast of characters is yet to be labbed out. There are unknowns all throughout the cast. A new random variable like Rashid isn’t ideal, but EVO 2023 is going to be an early tournament for the game that overall might now resemble where the meta of the game ends up.

Street Fighter 6 at EVO Gets Record Sign Ups

In the lead-up to EVO 2023, we’ve seen a record number of players sign up for Street Fighter 6. The promise of a way into the Capcom Cup’s giant finals, along with the popularity of the new game, has led to just about everyone signing up to the tournament.

These record sign-ups show interest in the Street Fighter series competitively and might be at an all-time high here. Some of the best active players in the game are going to attend, and another few thousand others who hope to get their name out there for the game with this tournament.

At the moment, Street Fighter 6 at EVO has had more than 6,000 sign-ups. The whole tournament appears to be at least past 9,000, according to a meme they tweeted.

pic.twitter.com/zAUxmKMbUE

— EVO (@EVO) June 30, 2023

It’s a huge number. Among those are some of the best payers active in the early part of the game like MenaRD. We’ll have to see which of the staggering number of players makes it all the way to the final bracket for the tournament.