It’s been over a month since Akuma and the Season 2 update were released for Street Fighter 6. The meta has changed quite significantly since the Season 1 era.
Over on Fighting Game Select, XSET|iDom and Kizzie Kay teamed up to discuss the biggest winners that came about due to the big Season 2 update. Throughout the 16 minute video, the two highlight six characters that have become adequately better thanks to the buffs that were provided to them.
A.K.I. was the first character mentioned as being one of the big winners of the Season 2 patch. Though she’s now seen as being very strong, iDom doesn’t think she’ll suddenly become popular as she’s still effectively a “specialist’s character,” similar to how Dhalsim requires a certain skillset to use no matter how good he is.
Zangief went from being one of the worst combatants in Street Fighter 6 to being a potential candidate for top 5. Funnily enough, Capcom actually had to revert the improvement to Zangief’s standing medium kick hitbox during the M. Bison patch as they felt it was giving the grappler too much control over the ground game.
Regardless, iDom notes that he feels that Zangief is strong now, but not in a “toxic” way. Having said that, iDom states that he would prefer it if Zangief’s hopping knee attack wasn’t -3 on block.
Though Ryu had some major difficulties in the first Season of Street Fighter 6, iDom actually thinks of him as a top 10 candidate this time around. However, Ryu still suffers the problem of being worse than Luke.
To hear the rest of what was said, check out the video discussion below: