Blanka Ballin’
This past weekend saw Street Fighter 6 make arguably its biggest debut on the international platform to date, as players rolled up to the Daytona Beach Ocean Center for prestigious fighting game tournament CEO 2023 — Three straight days of intense, hard-hitting, and uber-hype fighting action.
While there were plenty of excellent scrappers on deck, including Tekken 7, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive, and The King of Fighters XV, most eyes were on Capcom’s recent release, as CEO would offer one of the best opportunities yet to see how SF6 was progressing — both popularity wise and meta wise — on the big stage. When the doors opened, we got something of an answer, as just under 1,100 players showed out for the newest fighter on the block. An incredible number, to say the least.
While one would think that this huge number of players would lead to incredibly cramped timings for brackets, especially in pools, CEO 2023 also made it very clear that SF6 is one of the fastest-playing titles in series history.Many sets, including those in the Top 24, flew by at lightning pace, adding further fuel to the recent arguments that SF6 should consider going Best of Five in a tournament capacity, rather than the traditional Best of Three. I’m sure Manon is well up for that change.
As proceedings drew to an end on Sunday, MenaRD walked away as the 1 vs. 1000, with their Blanka defeating Nephew‘s Juri to become CEO 2023 Street Fighter 6 champion. The weekend gave pro-pundits and armchair quarterbacks plenty of opportunity to dissect the title in its honeymoon period, with concerns raised over the Drive Rush mechanic, and a realization that the Feet Jokes are not funny anymore and are actually really fuckin’ distracting.
But, more importantly than all of that, CEO 2023 was a sign of fine, fine health in the Fighting Game Community, with SF6 laying strong foundations for incoming fighters Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 to follow. Stalwart titles such as KoF XV, GG Strive, and DBFZ retain their popularity, while classics such as Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and even Def Jam: Fight for New York carried torches for their own passionate fanbases.
If you missed the action, then be sure to check out the stream recordings on CEOGaming Twitch.
The incredible number of SF6 entrants bodes well for the summer season and the FGC at large, and with a slew of fantastic fighters on the market right now, with promising new titles en route, 2024 is set to be an absolutely stellar year for fans of the digital punch-party.
But the feet thing… It’s time we all let it go. And yes, that includes me.
