A 14-year-old fighting game player from Japan, Hinao, won Street Fighter 6’s FightClub Championship VI Chendu on Nov. 2, 2025, and qualified for Capcom Cup 12. He eliminated some of the game’s best, including Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi and Victor “Punk” Woodley.

Hinao is the latest young prodigy to appear on the Street Fighter 6 scene, who’s been mowing down legacy players and ushering in a new generation of champions. Hinao’s win at FightClub Championship VI Chengdu adds him to the roster of teenagers who have qualified for Capcom Cup 12 through premier in-person tournaments, which now numbers three.

Hinao’s run in this tournament was impressive, losing his very first set in the winner’s finals against his eventual grand finals opponent, Jojotaro. After losing a hard-fought set 3-2 to Jojotaro, Hinao was sent to the loser’s finals, where he eventually fought Evo champion Punk.

He then proceeded to beat Punk 3-0, not letting him adjust to his playstyle and setting up a second bout against Jojotaro in the grand final. In it, he beat him in the first set 3-1, resetting the bracket. Then, he dealt the final blow to Jojotaro’s tournament run, beating him 3-2.

FightClub Championship VI Chendu is the final premier tournament in the Capcom Pro Tour. People who still want to qualify for the Capcom Cup 12 will have to earn points in the World Warrior Circuit.

Capcom Cup and Evo champion Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzalez has put himself back on the map of Street Fighter as he took down another Chilean prodigy, Jaime “Craime” Bustos, at First Attack 2025, becoming the tournament’s Street Fighter 6 champion.

In the absence of multiple top players from the US, as most of them are in Japan training for the Street Fighter League, NYChrisG showed a dominant performance, only losing once throughout the whole tournament. Starting round one, his matches were all 3-0 in his favor, and he only lost one game in the grand final against Craime.

He used Chun-Li paired with a modern control scheme, which eliminated motion inputs and access to some character moves — a rarity, especially at top-level play. Most professional players use the classic control scheme because it’s the standard and offers more options, but NYChrisG opted for one-button specials, allowing him to react much quicker.

First Attack 2025 is a fighting game tournament that happened in San Juan, Puerto Rico, featuring a host of games such as Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive and 2XKO. The tournament is not part of the Capcom Pro Tour 2025, which might explain the lower-than-usual attendance for a Street Fighter 6 tournament.

On Oct. 23, 2025, Capcom released a statement revealing that Kakeru “Kakeru” Watanabe has withdrawn from Capcom Cup 12, Street Fighter 6’s highest prize money tournament. In a post on X, he explained that the withdrawal was due to a pre-existing neural dysfunction, which has also forced him to retire from playing the game professionally.

With Kakeru’s withdrawal being finalized, Amjad “AngryBird” Al-Shalabi will be replacing him at Capcom Cup 12.

Kakeru’s retirement blindsided the Street Fighter 6 community, but it was something that had been speculated on for quite some time now.

His statement, translated via Google Translate, addressed this, saying that it has been two months since he suspended his activities, which include streaming and competing in tournaments. He also said that since he is retiring from professional play, he will also be leaving Zeta Division by the end of the year and “will focus on recovering my health going forward.”

Regarding Street Fighter League, he will be replaced by Eisuke “Yamaguchi” Yamaguchi, also from Zeta Division.

Kakeru won Capcom Cup 11, where he took home $1 million over Chilean prodigy Derek “Blaz” Blaz. Since then, he has shown inconsistency in his performance, presumably due to his health condition.

On Oct. 12, 2025, Shin “Leshar” Moon-sup earned his very first Street Fighter 6 Evo title at the inaugural Evo France 2025. He faced off against Derek “Blaz” Blaz in the grand finals of the tournament, which saw Leshar getting pushed to the limit and even trying out Elena.

Leshar’s top 8 path to the grand finals started with a match against his kryptonite and training partner, Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi. The match went down to the wire, with Leshar’s Ed securing the victory in game 4 by a pixel in a timeout.

Next was Zangief expert Kobayan. While his results were middling in most major tournaments, his highest placing was actually at Evo Japan 2025, where he placed third. However, Leshar quickly ended their match 3-0 and sat comfortably on the winner’s side of the grand final.

Blaz’s path, on the other hand, lay through a gauntlet of veterans, including Ryo “Dogura” Nozaki, Tokido, Nathan “Mister Crimson” Massol and, finally, Kobayan before being able to challenge Leshar in the grand final.

Evo France’s grand final was as intense as it could have been. As mentioned above, it had Leshar looking for answers, shocking the crowd by switching to Elena, but it did not prevent Blaz from winning the first set 3-2 and resetting the bracket. In the grand final reset, Leshar stuck with his trusty Ed and defeated Blaz 3-1 to win his first Evo title.

Despite finishing in second, Blaz earned a qualification for Capcom Cup 12 since Leshar had already qualified.

On Oct. 6, 2025, Evo France released a schedule of what will be on the tournament’s main stage starting on Oct. 10, Friday. The tournament currently has over 3,000 attendees, making it one of the biggest fighting game tournaments in Europe.

Here’s the schedule according to a graphic that Evo France posted on its X account (every time slot is GMT+2):

Friday (Oct. 10):

• Domitys Cup (11:00 am-12:00 pm)
• Cosplay Exhibition (01:00 pm-02:00 pm)
• Street Fighter 6 Pools (02:00 pm-06:00 pm)
• Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact Top 8 (06:00 pm-09:15 pm)

Saturday (Oct. 11):

• Dragon Ball FighterZ Top 8 (11:00 am-03:00 pm)
• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Top 8 (03:15 pm-06:30 pm)
• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Top 8 (06:45 pm-10:15 pm)

Sunday (Oct. 12):

• Guilty Gear Strive Top 8 (10:00 am-01:30 pm)
• Tekken 8 Top 8 (01:45 pm-05:45 pm)
• Street Fighter 6 Top 8 (06:00 pm-10:00 pm)

Evo France, even before the actual tournament, has already broken some records regarding attendees. On different dates, the organizers announced that it had become the biggest Street Fighter, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and Tekken tournament in all of Europe. Additionally, the organizers said that 93 nationalities will be represented for the inaugural Evo France.

Evo France will start on Oct. 10, 2025, and run until Oct. 12, 2025.

The organizers have already announced that Evo France will be back next year.

On Oct. 2, 2025, Takayuki Nakayama, director of Street Fighter 6, revealed that following the announcement that Capcom Cup 12 is going to be pay-per-view, there are now internal discussions at Capcom regarding reactions online.

In an X post, Nakayama said, “It may sound strange, but it’s true. Revenue targets and assigned tasks differ fundamentally by department. Even the development team was surprised by this announcement（At least Matsumoto and I were shocked at the venue）That said, since this matter occurred within the same company, we are currently discussing it. We apologize for any concern this may have caused.”

His statement was in response to a question former pro player and streamer Brian “Brian_F” Foster presented in an X post that Nakayama published. He also said he would delete the post above if he gets scolded at work.

Capcom Cup’s pay-per-view announcement was not met kindly by international players of Street Fighter 6. Many view Capcom Cup as the pinnacle of professional Street Fighter gameplay, as this is the culmination of a circuit that ran for a year.

Capcom Cup 12 will start on March 11, 2026, and end on March 13, 2026. While the top 8 and finals are going to be locked behind a paywall, the VODs will be uploaded online a week later.

On Sept. 28, 2025, Capcom announced that the upcoming Capcom Cup 12 will adopt a pay-per-view model.

The decision has baffled some members of the fighting game community, as the previous Capcom Cups have been available on Twitch for free. Stephen “Sajam” Lyon commented, “It’s hard to justify a PPV experience for people in general, but particularly because in many places in the world the price will be a tough ask to spend.”

In Japanese and translated via Google Translate, Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II said that he found the model unacceptable. While he understands that it is the norm in Japan, other regions in the world will have trouble being able to watch the game due to the prices.

The main reason prominent figures of the fighting game community have brought attention to the cost is due to the pay-per-view not having regional pricing. This can make the event more expensive in certain regions of the world compared to others.

Capcom clarified in its X post that the Capcom Cup 12 Group Stage and SFL: World Championship 2025 Qualifier will be streamed for free on YouTube and Twitch; only the finals will be pay-per-view.

Capcom Cup 12 is Street Fighter 6’s biggest prize pool tournament. The winner takes home $1 million. The event starts on March 11, 2026, and will end on March 13, 2026.

The VODs for the finals will be uploaded online after a week.

Sahara won his first tier-1 Street Fighter 6 tournament, Ultimate Fighting Arena 2025, over fellow Japanese player Kingsvega on Sept. 14, 2025. Since this event is part of the Capcom Pro Tour 2025, the winner is automatically invited to Capcom Cup 12.

It’s worth mentioning that Ultimate Fighting Arena 2025 was attended by well-decorated Street Fighter players, such as Daigo Umehara and Victor “Punk” Woodley, yet the grand final of the tournament featured two players who had never won a tier 1.

Sahara’s path to the grand final made it seem like he was fighting unknown players, but that is simply not true. In his path were David “Jak” Edwards, Noah “NoahTheProdigy” Solis and Alan “Nephew” Sun, with the latter being the only one giving him problems.

Kingsvega, on the other hand, had to fight Kevin “Dual Kevin” Barrios, Joel “Juicyjoe” Sundell and Michael “Riddles” Kim, among many others. Just like Sahara, Kingsvega had very convincing games against his opponents, but it just wasn’t enough, as he lost against the former without even taking a game.

With Ultimate Fighting Arena 2025 over, the next Street Fighter 6 premier tournament is going to be the inaugural Evo France 2025 in October. This is the first Evo outside of the US and Japan, which also marks the second expansion of the tournament series.

Zeng “Xiaohai” Zhuojun defended his title as the Street Fighter 6 champion at Esports World Cup 2025 by defeating Derek “Blaz” Blaz in the grand final of the tournament. Xiaohai also placed second in the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament in the same event.

All Street Fighter 6 sets in the third phase of the tournament were played first-to-five, which means that the first player to reach five games wins the set and advances. Unlike traditional fighting game tournaments, EWC 2025’s Phase 4 playoff ruleset was single elimination instead of the normal double-elimination brackets.

Xiaohai’s path to the grand final was filled with top-level players such as Goichi “GO1” Kishida, who won the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament, beating him in the grand final. However, this time, Xiaohai got his revenge as he dominated the set with a 5-2 game count.

His next opponent was Amjad “AngryBird” Al-Shalabi in the semifinal, but he showed few signs of fighting back, ending the set with a 5-1 score in favor of Xiaohai. In the grand final, he met the young prodigy Blaz, who also had to fight Evo champions such as Hiromiki “Itabashi Zangief” Kumada, whom he promptly dispatched with a 5-0 game count set.

In the grand final, Blaz had the early advantage with three straight games taken using his signature Ryu against Xiaohai’s M. Bison. This led to Xiaohai changing characters to his other main, Mai Shiranui, in hopes of stopping the bleeding.

And that it did; Xiaohai took three straight games, tying the game count between the two. On Xiaohai’s third win, Blaz switched over to Ken, which saw a win in the very next game. The set between the two went the distance, with Xiaohai clutching the very last game to be crowned as the EWC champion once again.

Xiaohai’s aforementioned second-place finish in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and win in Street Fighter 6 singlehandedly gave his esports organization, KuaiShou Gaming, 1,750 points. This resulted in it ranking ninth overall in the club championship leaderboards and taking home $700,000.

Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II has proven himself as one of the best Street Fighter 6 players, becoming the first person to win two back-to-back Evo tournaments. This puts his Evo trophy count at three, after winning both Evo Japan 2024 and 2025.

MenaRD faced Kakeru in the grand final, a very familiar opponent who also faced him at Evo Japan 2025 earlier this year. Both of them entered the top eight of the tournament from the winner’s side, which meant they had to fight each other should the stars align.

It did, and their first encounter was in the winners’ final, where MenaRD decidedly took the match 3-0. This sent Kakeru down to the losers’ final, where he fought a relatively unknown player outside his region, a Cammy player by the name of Micky.

He was sent to the loser’s side of the bracket very early into the tournament and had to defeat champions and high-profile players such as Luo “Vxbao” Yanxin, Samuel “EndingWalker” Arm and Torimeshi just to be able to get to the top eight.

But his run ended in the losers’ finals as Kakeru beat him 3-1 for a chance to face MenaRD once more in the grand final. Unfortunately, the story remained the same for their second time meeting in the bracket. Kakeru looked visibly lost as he fought against MenaRD, and he lost once more, 0-3.

Capcom, before the tournament, released a trailer for the next upcoming character after Sagat, C. Viper. Since the trailer was a cinematic one, not much is known about the character’s moves and how she will function in Street Fighter 6. C. Viper is known to be one of the hardest characters to play in Street Fighter due to the execution needed just to pilot her optimally.