After not accomplishing much in the game’s first year, Zangief is looking much improved in Street Fighter 6’s Season 2 balance version, and some competitors are certainly looking to take advantage of that.
Longtime Japanese pro DFM|Itabashi Zangief was looking especially strong this past weekend at the Esports World Cup qualifier event at DreamHack Summer 2024 although one vital moment would drastically change his tournament trajectory.
Itazan would begin finals day on the winner side of the bracket facing former Evo champion against HB|Kawano and his new Akuma putting in work.
The match would go back and forth until it reached the final game / final round scenario with both players looking to move on to winners final.
As highlighted by HiFight, things would be fairly even there too until Itazan would attempt to punish Akuma’s demon flip with Overdrive Double Lariat, which still does not hit behind the grappler and therefore whiffed.
Left wide open, Kawano goes for a punishing combo into level 3 Super followed by two OD fireballs to catch Gief’s escape attempts out of the corner and leave him on a sliver of life.
Things would take a dramatic turn, however, with Itabashi managing to perfect parry the checkmate Drive Impact attempt and go straight into Siberian Express to get himself out of the corner and back on the advantage.
Itazan almost made the comeback of the year pic.twitter.com/b2zhtvDHmQ
— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) June 16, 2024
A Drive Rush string would force Akuma into burnout, and with no meter, ate Gief’s own Drive Impact that barely reached the wall and the stun.
This should have been the end of the set, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Itazan goes in for a jump in combo presumably looking to end in his level 2 Super though instead he dropped the string and let Akuma block the finishing blow before losing in the ensuing scramble.
We’re not quite sure what happened there exactly whether Itabashi forgot he was in burnout too or simply messed up the inputs, but that would send him to the loser’s bracket.
There he would have a strong showing against Eva:e|Hikaru’s A.K.I., but the Zangief main ended up eliminated 3-2 and out at 5th place.
THE CONVERSION!!? pic.twitter.com/NmyCQKcqog
— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) June 16, 2024
Even with this unfortunate loss, however, Itabashi still managed to qualify for the Esports World Cup later this Summer, so he’s in the running for the big money and glory with his interesting controller setup.
Gief players are evolving pic.twitter.com/cJ2wKbyDzn
— Arman Hanjani (@PhenomSF) June 15, 2024
Plus, with a showing like this too, we’re probably going to be seeing quite a bit of Itazan hitting harder in tournaments this season, so Saishunkan|Nemo may need to be worried after saying he plans to switch to M. Bison.