Parrying fireballs in Street Fighter 6 when playing neutral is great. Perfect parrying fireballs in neutral is even better. But what about just holding parry in the footsies game, letting your Drive Gauge continuously deplete, and waiting for your opponent to make the next move? Not a great idea, right?
Well, contrary to what we all might believe, apparently doing exactly that is stronger than it seems — at least, it was in this instance from one of Capcom’s recent World Warrior online tournaments. Street Fighter 6 Ken player Sayff used this very unorthodox tech against NuckleDu’s Guile in an official tournament match, and as if by some divine miracle… it worked.
Du and Sayff locked horns in the losers semifinals of the recent World Warrior 2024 US/CAN East 1 online tournament that took place last week. Both Sayff and NuckleDu had a strong showing as they trekked through the losers side of the bracket until their Ken and Guile, respectively, met up and fought to decide who would end up taking 4th place at the event and who would move on.
The clip we’re taking a look at today came about in the fourth game of their set where Sayff sat with two points on the board to NuckleDu’s one. Capcom Fighter’s official Twitter account shared the moment on their profile with a caption that perfectly represents what happened.
“THAT WORKED?!” wrote the Capcom Fighters Twitter. Indeed, this very strange and unexpected play worked out in Sayff’s favor.
Towards the end of this round, both players sat with about 30% health left essentially meaning that the next opening would be the decider. NuckleDu threw a couple of Sonic Booms at Sayff, to which the Ken player parried, but after the second parry they held the parry buttons and just let it keep going despite no other projectiles being on screen.
After that second fireball was parried, Sayff held the parry for three in-game seconds all while Ken’s Drive Meter was quickly depleting. Dangerously, the Ken player actually let the meter drop below one bar left and get really close to burn out.
Seeing that Sayff wasn’t moving and feeling the need to push offense, NuckleDu dashed forward before trying a raw Drive Rush, but it didn’t quite work out as intended. Sayff saw the Drive Rush coming, and miraculously before burning out transitioned the parry into a raw Drive Rush jab that actually connected with NuckleDu and stopped him in his tracks.
It just goes to show that sometimes the unexpected is the most effective tactic in battle.
THAT WORKED?! pic.twitter.com/110Bjtrp06
— Capcom Fighters (@CapcomFighters) June 24, 2024