A recent video upload from BST|Daigo Umehara sees The Beast offer some thoughts on the character the Street Fighter 6 community has been most intensely focused on as of late: Ken Masters.
Daigo doesn’t get into Ken’s overall tier placement (though he did recently) but instead explores how differently the character can be played. He specifically looks at NASR|AngryBird’s Ken, since he’s had the best results of anyone thus far.
While Ken doesn’t necessarily have the best version of any one tool (he might) it’s his plethora of strong options that seems to be what makes him shine so brightly. Whether it’s in neutral, during pressure, or even on defense, Ken always has a few good tools to pull out at any given point.
This wealth of options means players can express themselves in a various ways, and one of the first things Daigo notes about AngryBird’s choices is his propensity to let OD Shoryukens fly.
“Man, he’s throwing Shroyus a lot more than I expected…” starts Daigo, “… what matters is his Shoryus actually hit.”
Indeed the recent replays against BST|Fuudo reveal an AngryBird unafraid to let DPs rip and unafraid of going into the dreaded Burnout state. Daigo feels like most all of Japan tends to be a good bit more conservative by contrast.
“In Japan, we tend to overthink the risks and what’ll happen if it doesn’t work out,” he continues. “That might be why we’re good at using raw Drive Rush. ‘Stability Mindset.'”
The Beast goes on to say whether or not he agrees with some of AngryBird’s tactics and choices, and proceeds to discuss his potential for changing characters in the coming months. The storied pro has his eyes set on the final DLC newcomer of Season 1, Akuma, and shares a few thoughts on him as well.
Ken banner artwork credit: Yare-Yare-Dong.