Falcons|MenaRD recently expressed concern regarding Luke in Street Fighter 6 at the highest level of play. Overall, MenaRD was painting the picture that Luke was no longer viable after the long list of nerfs he’s received since his prime in Street Fighter 6 Season 1.
Needless to say, MenaRD’s opinion certainly carries a lot of weight considering that he’s the only player in the world that’s won two Capcom Cups. Of course, it’s consistently been believed that MenaRD is one of the best players in the world at Street Fighter 6, which was really cemented with his victory at Evo Japan 2024 earlier this year.
Notably, it really did seem that MenaRD felt this way considering that he used Akuma and Blanka at the Esports World Cup, leaving Luke benched for the event. Considering that there was a $1,000,000 prize pool on the line, we have to believe that MenaRD went with the characters he was most confident in.
However, the Dominican fighting game pro recently shared his thoughts on Twitter that he was beginning to have some second thoughts about Luke’s viability. More specifically, it would seem that MenaRD was inspired by TM|NoahTheProdigy, likely due to his ninth place finish at the Esports World Cup 2024.
For better or worse, it does seem like many players are beginning to give up on Luke considering that NoahTheProdigy and FNATIC|Chris Wong were the only players at EWC 2024 using Luke. Of course, it also has to be mentioned that Chris Wong was using Akuma as a secondary, meaning that NoahTheProdigy was the only one exclusively using Luke at the event.
As stated on Twitter, MenaRD believes that he was approaching Luke with a closed minded perspective. NoahTheProdigy has since given him hope about Luke’s viability as he is now apparently trying some new things with the character.
Noah gave me hope on Luke, ill try some new things with him, i think i was approaching him very close minded.
— Falcons MenaRD (@_MenaRD__) August 12, 2024
It’s interesting to note that the nerf that apparently annoyed MenaRD the most was the adjustment to Luke’s super art 1. This made the super a little more susceptible to fireballs.
This change was actually implemented along with the patch that bundled Ed’s release as a DLC character, which preceded the Season 2 patch. According to the note, Luke’s super art 1 had its hurtbox expanded more forward during the first five frames of the sequence.
The nerf that annoyed me the most was the lvl 1 nerf vs projectiles out of all of them actually.
— Falcons MenaRD (@_MenaRD__) August 12, 2024
Of course, level 1 super arts in Street Fighter 6 tend to have hit and throw invincibility, but lack projectile invincibility. Due to how fast and far-reaching Luke’s level 1 super is, it tends to be one of the better supers to punish fireballs with, especially before the nerf that affected his hurtbox.
MenaRD would go on to state that Luke’s level 1 super art went from being the best level 1 to being around mid tier. Needless to say, MenaRD’s opinion about this super doesn’t seem to have changed even with the renewed outlook on the character.
Went from best lvl 1 in the game for sure, to mid.
— Falcons MenaRD (@_MenaRD__) August 12, 2024
We’ll just have to see how things play out from here once MenaRD feels confident enough to bring out Luke again at a future tournament.