You actually may make a case for MenaRD being the finest Street Fighter 6 participant in the world proper now. His win at Sunday’s Evolution Championship Sequence in Las Vegas brings him as much as 4 whole Evo wins, with two back-to-back wins at Evo in Las Vegas (2025-2026) and two back-to-back wins at Evo Japan (2024-2025). And whereas his Blanka seemed dominant all through the event, certainly one of the extra fascinating tales that got here out of the Street Fighter 6 high eight was the incontrovertible fact that in his most important matches, Mena opted in opposition to utilizing the character that he is most well-known for.
In Winners Semis, Mena began off through the use of M. Bison, going 2-2 with Shigematsu’s Blanka. After swapping to Blanka for the mirror match in the deciding sport, Mena received a tough fought sport that ended up going to the remaining spherical, sending Shigematsu right down to the losers bracket.
Shigematsu would not be denied his runback nevertheless, as he ended up preventing his manner by Dogura, Craime, and Kilzyou to succeed in Grand Finals for what all of us assumed can be a Blanka vs Blanka mirror match, proper from the begin. However as soon as once more, Mena opted for the Bison, and performed out the complete first set with the character. Shigematsu ended up resetting the bracket in opposition to Mena’s Bison with a rating of three video games to at least one, and positive sufficient, after the reset Mena lastly determined to carry out the Blanka. It was brief work from there as Mena took subsequent set 3-0, profitable his fourth Evo Championship.
However why did he resolve to decide on Bison in the first place? After the match, Mena responded to the query by saying, “Truthfully, it was a matter of Shigematsu [being] a teammate with one other high Blanka participant from Japan known as Takagi. So I took that under consideration and I had confidence in my Bison after observe. And my Bison really produced higher outcomes in opposition to the Blanka gamers that I practiced with. However I additionally had the suspicion that his fashion was a bit of bit totally different. Slightly extra aggressive, and had a whole lot of methods.”
After the shut name in Winner’s Semi’s, Mena nonetheless felt like he may have received with Bison, and since he was on the winner’s aspect of Grand Finals, he may threat dropping a set, so he determined to attempt it once more. However after Shigematsu took the first set off him, he realized that he needed to swap to his bread and butter.
Mena credit his coaching in Japan as being very useful in his enchancment as a participant. “I am staying in Japan proper now. I am taking part in in the Street Fighter League. My teammates in the Zeta Division: Momochi, Higuchi, and Yamaguchi, they’re all wonderful gamers and I see them day by day.”
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You could find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit