There’s been much said about A.K.I.’s strength in Street Fighter 6 or apparent lack thereof since her release, but we’re seeing that her venomous bite is still far from harmless.
Veteran Street Fighter competitor Broski has been going in harder than basically anyone with the game’s new poison user, and he’s shown off some nasty combos / setups in actual matches that can checkmate opponents from as much as 80% of their life.
The Legend-ranked player starts off by landing a counter hit Drive Impact against a Juri in the corner, which he then goes for the level 1 Super to force the Burnout.
And that leads to the end of the round.
Broski uses A.K.I.’s heavy kick into another Drive Impact, which isn’t a true blockstring, but in Burnout, the gap isn’t big enough to jump out of — so Juri is forced to take the stun without a Super reversal.
From there, he’s able to set up the poison puddle, land in two explosive triggers (thanks to said puddle), get the OTG into four Drive Rush cancels, and she builds just enough meter back to land the level 3 Super to close out the game.
literal 80% checkmate from a yolo DI
pretty nutty that she can do level 1 for burnout and still build back level 3 in the next combo pic.twitter.com/NYCvBi41OF
— Broski (@broskiFGC) November 5, 2023
On top of that, our boss, Jon ‘Catalyst’ Grey, witnessed another impressive combo from Broski that is just slightly less expensive to pull off.
A Punish Counter heavy kick near the corner leads into another full sequence with her leaping strike and 3 back-to-back Drive Rushes to keep Kimberly juggled in the air to land the level 3 and take off 64% of her health in seconds.
These are situational and very expensive setups to pull off, so that doesn’t negate her issues of getting to that point — but Broski shows they are very much possible to perform in real matches against other people.
Love this A.K.I. combo I saw @broskiFGC do. Takes off over 64% health. pic.twitter.com/aH4AkqvQJI
— Jon Grey (@CatalystEH) November 6, 2023
We’re seeing that A.K.I.’s got some gas that’s worth exploring and delving into now, and at the very least, how close she is to being a true threat even in this initial “weak” state.