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Punk’s emotional Evo victory makes history as the first American to win Street Fighter in over 20 years

Punk’s emotional Evo victory makes history as the first American to win Street Fighter in over 20 years

July 24, 2024 Entertainment & Lifestyle


A personal and community journey comes full circle after 7 years


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Punk's emotional Evo victory makes history as the first American to win Street Fighter in over 20 years


The Evolution Championship Series is meant to represent the peak of the mountain top for fighting game competition gathering players from all corners of the globe, and this year certainly delivered.






There were a lot of great stories at Evo 2024 this past weekend including SonicFox getting their seventh Evo title, TM|Arslan Ash getting his fifth, PGW|Hayao’s wild shenanigans, FLY|Nitro’s popoff with the crowd and many more, but it couldn’t have ended in a more perfect way.









After making it through a grueling bracket where over 5,200 players signed up, Victor “Fly|Punk” Woodley finally won his Evo championship title in Street Fighter 6 with an emotional and powerful victory in front of his peers and fighting game fans from 64 countries — and thousands more watching online.


Finally claiming that victory also made history as the first American to win a main entry Evo title for Street Fighter in 22 years.


It’s a position Punk found himself in during his initial breakout year in Street Fighter 5 where he looked almost unbeatable right before he had even turned 18 years old.


Woodley made it to grand finals on the winner’s side of Evo 2017 with his dominant Karin… but he lost.


The more experienced and seasoned Rohto|Tokido from Japan came through, reset the bracket and finally claimed his own main Street Fighter Evo title with an impressive 6–1 match record.




Punk's emotional Evo victory makes history as the first American to win Street Fighter in over 20 years


This was the first time we’d seen Punk shaken up by a big loss and understandably so. It’s an unimaginable weight to put on the shoulders of a young man who appeared invincible, but the reality hit on that stage he was mortal.


Although he’d bend, the emotional defeat didn’t break the young Punk.


Over the next years, Woodley would win a multitude of major tournaments and leagues, but a victory at Capcom Cup and Evo continued to elude him despite coming so close multiple times.


That includes just last year when Punk came in third place at the largest Street Fighter event ever losing to NASR|AngryBird and then RB|MenaRD in close sets.


But now at Evo 2024, it was finally time for another chance.


Punk again found himself where he was seven years ago in grand finals on the winner’s side facing off against another Evo runner-up in NASR|BigBird, who also knew the pain of coming up just short of the summit.


And it would be a bout that will go down in Evo’s history books as one of the best ever.




We’re not going to go through the whole breakdown here, however, it’s a set that must be watched in its entirety if you haven’t already.


Despite the pressure and most rounds going down to the wire, both pros were seen smiling and laughing at the absurd counters they were pulling out against one another with their comradery and friendship.


This was a competition to prove who’s best, but also a game to share with those around you and feel connected as part of something bigger — and of course having fun.


Everything came down to the last game, last round after a bracket reset, and Punk wins.



The emotions almost immediately begin to take hold, and these strong wills embrace each other as what just happened can finally start to sink in.


Punk takes off his glasses and begins crying on the Evo arena stage, mirroring what happened seven years ago, but now it’s for a very different reason.



Punk's emotional Evo victory makes history as the first American to win Street Fighter in over 20 years


As he faces the elated crowd, chants of “U.S.A.” echo through the arena and “Punk The/Da God” with IFC|YipeS also having to hold back tears for his East coast boy at the desk though that wasn’t the one that hit the hardest.




With the gleaming trophy finally in his hands, Punk holds it to the crowd while a roaring “You Deserve it!” drowns out all of the noise.


It’s an emotional moment beautifully captured by our good friend Vexanie.




At the same time, her photos also gave us all a powerful image of BigBird continuing to sit in his chair after reaching this point of coming so close again with the larger than life banner of the winner looming over him.




And while there is pain, no hard feelings are to be found between friends and competitors that both played their hearts out and put it all on the line.




The celebrations continued even outside of the stadium where the new champion was met with more cheers and happy faces, and that surely didn’t stop the rest of the night after presumably linking back up with his friends.




Punk finally got his crown, and America finally got a new Street Fighter champion.



You have to go back all the way to the first Evo (under that name) in 2002 where Jason Cole won in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo with his Dhalsim.


Now before you all say anything, yes, the likes of Alex Wolfe, John Choi, Justin Wong, Hung Nguyen and Snake Eyez did win in Street Fighter games at Evo after that time, but never in the main featured title of that era.


Everyone but Wong’s victories also came in a version of SF2 while Justin got his trophy in the Street Fighter 3: Third Strike 2v2 event with Issei, who also just got second at the game this year too.


Since 2002, we’ve seen 14 wins for Japanese players, 2 wins for South Korea, 1 for Singapore, 1 for the United Kingdom, 1 for France and 1 for the United Arab Emirates not counting Evo Japan.


Although Americans have taken Capcom Cup and almost every other major in the world for Street Fighter, Evo eluded us for this long.


Punk finally ended that historic streak and proved Americans can win in the biggest tournaments on their home turf against the best in the world.


This is a victory that should be remembered and celebrated throughout the fighting game community for a very, very long time for being so important on a personal level and also for an entire scene brought together by the genre we love.


Woodley lost as a boy and came back to win it all as a man as the next generation of young players like Mouz|EndingWalker now stand in his position feeling that fire burning inside, looking to test and prove themselves at the very top next.


As YipeS poignantly exclaimed, “Punk, you’re the best in the world bro!”





Image credits via Vexanie, Evo.









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