Street Fighter 6 pro Big Bird reveals game’s most dominant regions & his biggest rival

We had the chance to catch up with Street Fighter 6 Pro Big Bird shortly after his win at Red Bull Kumite, where he revealed his biggest rival and the game’s most dominant region so far.

Last weekend saw the conclusion of the Red Bull Kumite, and with it, its first-ever Street Fighter 6 champion. This heated tournament saw several of the fighting game’s top players duke it out in Pretoria, South Africa, in a single-elimination, first-to-five bracket that left only one winner – the UAE’s Adel ‘Big Bird’ Anouche.

In a heartbreaking twist at the beginning of the tournament, Big Bird faced off with training partner Angry Bird in one of the highest-level Street Fighter 6 sets we’ve seen yet.

After coming down to the wire, with both players a touch away from being defeated, Big Bird clutched the win by performing his level 3 super as Angry Bird eagerly rushed in to finish his teammate off. The rest is history. Big Bird went on to fight his way through top players, including LCQ winner Kakeru. After this major victory, Big Bird was then up against Akainu, who Big Bird toppled in a 5-1 set versus the Frenchman’s intimidating Guile.

Marisa “Will crush you,” claims Big Bird

Speaking about his character pick, Marisa (who is not a top-tier like Luke or Ken), Anouche commented: “If you don’t know how to fight her, she will maul you. She will crush you. I feel as though that is a part of my win today.”

While a character like Marisa will not have access to essential tools like a speedy anti-air, allowing her to close the distance with her punishing combos is a quick way to melt someone’s health bar.

Red Bull Kumite winner reveals most dominant Street Fighter 6 region

Red Bull

But, with Street Fighter 6 now being a month old, Anouche claims that the game’s competitive future looks bright. “The game’s looking high-level, and it’s going to look even better six months from now,” the Kumite champion commented.

However, there are concentrated pockets of high-level players all around the world, and with Red Bull Kumite being the first international Street Fighter 6 offline tournament, Big Bird claims that one region is looking like a deadly threat. According to Big Bird, “the Dominican Republic” is the region to watch out for.

The pro referenced MenaRD’s dominant run at CEO 2023 as proof of this point. “Him [MenaRD] and Caba, both of them are from the DR. They have either been winning the tournaments – MenaRD wins the tournament, and Caba places top three, top eight, or something like that.”

The winner also claims that “Japan is still catching up, but one month from now, we’ll see how they are going to be. Kakeru especially impressed everyone here.” Tokido also commented on Kakeru ahead of Red Bull Kumite, claiming that he is one of the strongest players in the world.

“He’s got a bright future, and if he keeps traveling more, he’s going to do a lot of damage,” Anouche said.

Big Bird’s biggest rival

Throughout Red Bull Kumite, Big Bird seemed almost impossible to stop, with his aggressive playstyle clearly paying off in dividends. However, only one player came close to knocking him out: Teammate and close friend Amjad ‘AngryBird’ Alshalabi.

“AngryBird is one of the best players in the world right now. Even him in the Red Bull Kumite this year, all the players he played against, I think no one managed to beat him,” Anouche confessed, referencing the several days of casual matches the players had to fight against each other in preparation for the tournament.

He also stated that another threat is the previously-mentioned CEO winner MenaRD: “He’s won almost every single tournament he enters.”

But, given that Street Fighter 6 is still in its early days, he also qualified that “a lot of players are going to catch up, and it’s going to look a lot different one month from now.”

This is one of the most dominant showings from a Street Fighter 6 player yet. But Big Bird’s mettle will be tested intensely in one of the biggest fighting game brackets in history at EVO 2023 in early August.