Just last night, the first-ever Street Fighter 6 Capcom Cup champion was crowned. Not only did UMA from Taiwan make history by securing this incredible achievement, but he also made the fighting game history books by winning the highest prize payout ever seen in the genre.
UMA’s impressive victory scored him a check for a cool $1,000,000, and the final play that won him the entire competition was an outstanding checkmate scenario. In a brand spankin’ new video, HiFight takes a closer analysis of the final round of Capcom Cup X and the million dollar checkmate play that won it all for UMA.
In the very last round of the tournament, UMA sat with a 2-0 game lead against Chris Wong. Both players had one round on the board in the third game of the grand finals reset set, and tensions were about as high as they get.
The two began with a few mostly safe swings to feel each other out and not over-commit too early. After just a few in-game seconds, Chris Wong whiffed a big standing heavy punch from Luke, which allowed UMA’s Juri to cleanly whiff punish it with her own forward + heavy punch.
A quick punish combo gave UMA a quick lead, but shortly after the Juri player made a crucial mistake. HiFight shows how UMA’s blockstring was actually unsafe — detailing exactly how unsafe it was — and proceeds to show how Chris Wong could have maximized his punish and potentially avoided the burnout that would ultimately lose him the set.
Wong did get a punish in this situation, but the combo used was a bit more meter heavy than it needed to be and not quite as optimal as it could have been — which is fully understandable considering the money on the line and the nerves both players were undoubtedly feeling in droves.
We won’t ruin all of the juicy details about this round as HiFight points out several other instances where things could have gone very differently. However, we do want to talk about the closing and most important play of the night.
UMA made a couple of extremely intelligent choices there in the trenches that lead him to victory. With Chris Wong’s Luke in burnout and stuck in the corner, and Juri having her level 2 active, UMA maintained pressure and looked for openings instead of going for the stun right away.
Because Luke had no super meter here, Wong was susceptible to a guaranteed Drive Impact that would stun him and lose him the fight. After finding the openings he needed, UMA whittled Luke’s health down just enough to where a stun combo would be enough to close out the set.
After a combo using Juri’s level 2 super, Chris Wong’s Luke woke up into an essentially guaranteed, checkmate scenario where Drive Impact would hit and secure the stun. HiFight goes as far as to show how Wong might have escaped this situation by taking an intentional counter hit too, though the chances of him losing from doing so were still very high in this scenario.
Check out the full video from HiFight below to see exactly how UMA’s incredibly smart play won him the $1,000,000 at Capcom Cup X.
