Want to Win on SF6 Ranked? Play Ken
After a month in the wild, Capcom released their numbers for what characters are the most popular in Street Fighter 6. The results of the poll are some of the least shocking findings ever as Ken, one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, stands atop most of the usage rates in ranked play. While other fighters like Cammy, Juri and Ryu stand out as favored as well.
In a Twitter post this week, SF6 showed which characters were in the top 5 in three different ranked categories. In all three Ken was first or third in usage rates. At the Rookie tier, he’s in third place but from Iron all the way to Master rank, he’s the top dog. Ken has the benefit of being a character that’s familiar for most Street Fighter players and also has some really strong tools.
Capcom
Many pros say that Ken is one of if not the strongest character in the game right now. His ability to press the offensive in a game that rewards attack-minded players has proven to be a boon for Ken. On top of that, he’s not at all that difficult to master. His combos are relatively easy to learn and his Crazy Kicks specials are a great way to keep your opponents off balance. Combining all of that sees Ryu’s rival become the first clear favorite of SF6’s life.
In terms of the other places, at the beginner level, it’s actually Cammy who takes the top spot followed by Juri. These are two characters that probably received the most hype in the lead-up to SF6’s release with both of them being fan favorites from Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter IV, respectively. However, they are both much harder to control than a Ken. Cammy is one of the weakest characters in terms of attack strength in the game and Juri is a more technical fighter that requires some resource management. Rounding out the beginner tier are Ryu and Luke who are both designed to be beginner friendly.
In the Intermediate tiers, we see more of the same with a slightly shifted permutation of Ken at the top followed by Cammy, Juri, and Ryu. It’s at this level that we also see the first appearance of Marisa whose lumbering, powerful attacks take some getting used to. However, she’s a menace due to her having frame advantage on many of her moves, a concept that takes some time with the game to fully understand. It should be said that Marisa has already won a top-flight international tournament with the UAE’s Big Bird using her to claim victory at Red Bull Kumite last month.
At Platinum, Diamond and Master, the top tier of the game, is where we see the most variance. Cammy and Juri drop off completely, Marisa moves up to second and Ryu to third. But we then see two characters at the complete opposite sides of the spectrum gameplay-wise. In fourth is Manon who’s gameplan centers around her medal system and growing stronger as the match progresses. Following her is JP, who’s also considered a very strong character in the meta right now. He’s totally focused on keeping folks as far away from him as possible. Which isn’t a typically “Street Fighter” thing to do.
Either way, it’s really good to see so much variance at the top flights of the game. This means that we shouldn’t see too many mirror matches at tournaments. But with Ken’s popularity, you should prepare yourself for a copious amount of wake-up OD Dragon Punches and Dragonlash kicks.
