And now he and Leshar are going to Capcom Cup
Although he’s been a force to be reckoned with in the fighting game community for decades now, Rohto|Tokido had only managed to score only a few wins in Street Fighter 6 thus far, but he just scored his biggest victory in the game yet.
Tokido managed to top the absolutely stacked Capcom Pro Tour 2024 Super Premier Japan event this past weekend with his Ken, and the runner up is the guy who he trains against every single day.
After only dropping a total of three total games across the entirety of top 128, Tokido was looking to be in peak form throughout the tournament.
He defeated the likes of TM|NoahTheProdigy, G8S|Pugera, Mouz|Problem X, BST|Fuudo, Victrix|Momochi, and DFM|Machabo before reaching his final opponent, DRX|Leshar.
In the grand finals, it might have looked as though Tokido had very specific countermeasures for Ed like using Tatsumaki to get through flicker jab pressure in neutral, and that’s because he did.
Tokido had some interesting things to say after his win on the big stage, and thanks to HiFight, we have the translations.
“Well, I’m practicing with my friends every day,” he said laughing while gesturing towards Leshar. “It’s really every day. Not like five times a week, but seven times per week in an office.
“But I’m happy to face him in the finals as we’ve been pushing each other through friendly rivalry. This time, the result favored me, but he hates losing, so we’ll both become even stronger in the future.”
Tokido: “We practice together at the office every day, not 5 but 7 days a week. I’m happy to face him in the finals as we’ve been pushing each other through friendly rivalry. This time, the result favored me, but he hates losing, so we’ll both become even stronger in the future.” pic.twitter.com/buiU9Py3oF
— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) November 4, 2024
Tokido and Leshar are already teammates on Yogibo REJECT for the Street Fighter League Pro-JP this season where they sit in first place in their division, but it seems their friendship extends outside of the show too.
There’s obviously the old proverb of “iron sharpens iron,” which certainly seems to apply here and other times for fighting games in the past like SonicFox and Dekillsage, especially when training partners take the top two spots in one of the most stacked SF6 events of the year.
And since this was a Super Premier, it means they both earned a spot at Capcom Cup 11.
It will be the first time since 2019 that Tokido has competed in Capcom Cup proper, as he didn’t qualify the past two times and couldn’t win the Last Chance Qualifier brackets to advance either.
Although he started out in King of Fighters and Dragon Ball FighterZ, Leshar quickly made a name for himself in Street Fighter 6 handily qualifying for Capcom Cup X out of South Korea where he’d finish with an impressive top 8 placement.
Tokido with the Ed counterplay#CPT2024JAPAN pic.twitter.com/Xbc3fwoLKY
— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) November 3, 2024
After that, Leshar apparently moved out to Japan to help level up his game further with that scene, and it seems to be working.
This also goes to show the level of dedication and competition present in SF6 now with players dedicating likely multiple hours out of every day just to have a shot at the $1 million USD prize.
BST|Daigo Umehara did recently tell us that Japan would dominate Street Fighter 6 just like the past games if they traveled more again, and his compatriots may be proving him right.
Now, the past three CPT Premier winners have been Japanese players between Tokido, CR|Shuto and DFM|Itabashi Zangief when only three total competitors from the country made it to Capcom Cup last year.
There’s currently 16 players qualified for Capcom Cup 11 where Americans are holding on to the most at 4, but with 48 making it to the finals, plenty more action is still to come.
勝った！
I made it !!ご視聴ありがとうございました！
これからも全力で走ります pic.twitter.com/ywHu3Nzczd— Tokido / ときど (@tokidoki77) November 3, 2024
We’ll have another spot up for grabs this weekend at Blink Respawn 2024 followed by King of the World in December as the last offline Premiers with the rest of the spots coming from World Warrior regions.
And those races are now more interesting with Tokido and Leshar officially out of them.
We recommend checking out what two world-level training partners look like when squaring off in a grand finals below if you haven’t already.