E-sports

Who The Pros Think the Strongest Characters in Street Fighter 6 Are

By Ramon Domingo - February 12, 2024
Almost a year in and we have a clear view of who’s sitting at the top.

With Capcom Cup right around the corner, it’s time to bring up that Street Fighter 6 tier list one last time. We’re heading into the biggest SF6 tournament of the year and it helps to know where the balance of power stands among its characters.

Based on the popular fighting game resource website DashFight, we have a clear top four with premier Zoners JP and Guile accompanied by Shoto masters Ken and Luke. Right in the middle is where a majority of the roster sits with only Lily and Zangief taking the bottom.

Here Are Who The Pros Think Are the Strongest Street Fighter 6 Characters
The DashFight tier list. (Made using tiermaker.com)

It’s interesting to note that the Rushdown trifecta of Dee Jay, Juri, and Cammy tumbled out of the top tier. Earlier lists had all three as top-tier staples but that opinion has shifted as months went on. Granted, they still occupy the “high-mid tier” spot and character specialists can still run opponents over with them. It just seems that no amount of tricks or speed can overwhelm the top four.

The pro perspective

For something a little spicier, we have Japanese pro player Naoki “Nemo” Nemoto’s Street Fighter 6 tier list heading into Capcom Cup. He mentions in his video that his tier list is more for professional and tournament-level players but there are still quite a few divergences that people can raise their eyebrows on.

Here Are Who The Pros Think Are the Strongest Street Fighter 6 Characters
Naoki “Nemo” Nemoto’s tier list. (Made using tiermaker.com)

For one, there’s Cammy getting shoved much further down into mid-tier. A rather controversial opinion as the tools she has can still easily smother most of her opposition. Then there’s Lily and Zangief somehow rocketing from bottom tier to within touching distance of Cammy.

This all feels rather hyper-contextual as Nemo is playing in a region with the specialists for certain characters. For example, there’s former Capcom Cup champion Tsunehiro “gachikun” Kanamori representing Rashid and Hiromiki “Itabashi Zangief” Kumada representing both Marisa and Zangief. All of them are heading to Capcom Cup and their skill can definitely color people’s opinions of a character’s strength. Even more reason to get excited when these pros clash later this February.

Banner image by Stephanie Lindgren.


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