Street Fighter 6 pro has a longstanding and well-documented disdain for grappler characters, especially Zangief, so imagine his reaction when one of his greatest rivals in DFM|Itabashi Zangief earned a spot at Capcom Cup with said signature fighter.
Well, you don’t have to because Nemo recently discussed the East Coast Throwdown results along with Gief’s strength, and luckily, we have the translations now to know what he was talking about.
“That was amazing. I don’t feel like playing SF6 today,” starts Nemo in the clip translated by Sho Yamamoto.
He goes on to talk about how Zangief’s recent nerfs in the balance update were not enough, and he knew that while other players were saying the the grappler was probably fine now.
“Seriously, everyone apologize. Overseas players too,” said Nemo. “If you think Zangief is weak, you should be winning. Zangief is truly strong. I seriously think he’s broken.
Although Capcom added more damage scaling to Gief’s headbutt and made his leaping knee a bit worse, that clearly wasn’t enough to slow him down in Nemo’s eyes.
“Who are the people saying Zangief is done for or whatever. It’s certain now. Even with the nerf, he’s not nerfed. If he was nerfed, there wouldn’t be results like this.”
He also brings up that some other players that apparently agree with him, including FLY|Punk, and Nemo even does a funny impression of the Evo 2024 champion speaking in English.
“Oh, Nemo this is the best character, Zangief”
This is also now the second time a Zangief was won a Capcom Pro Tour Premier event this season.
People in his chat were saying the grappler’s strength was known since Falcons|MenaRD already qualified for Capcom Cup with Zangief at Cream City Convergeance 2024, but Nemo retorts that’s not what solidified it.
“No, the answer was known when Itazan said he was going to America,” said Nemo. “It’s not about Mena winning. The fact that Itazan would go all the way to America shows the answer.”
He also jokes about what other character could still win after dropping combos like Itazan did and how Zangief can take sets without ever really needing his command grabs much.
But when he does bust them out, they can end the game or swing them back in Gief’s favor.
“You guys are fine. You guys laugh at people getting beat up by Zangiefs.
“This CPT season is filled with reasons why you can’t give good strikes to throw-oriented characters.”
Nemo also laments that he and other top players are going to have to lab the Gief matchup even more now, but at least he’s not all that popular of a character still?
“Even if the character is strong, Zangief is a character with no beauty. That’s why it’s okay for him to be weak. No one is going to play him anyway. Right? It’s sad. We’re sad… We’re the ones that have to fight Zangief. We need to lab out Zangief now.”
While much of his statements seem to be tongue-in-cheek, he does have a point to be very concerned about Zangief given the character’s performance in the hands of multiple competitors in Season 2.
It’s not just Itazan and MenaRD who’ve won big SF6 events with Gief this year either with AMG|Kobayan taking the Topanga Championship finals after never losing a single set.
We are very interested now to see what the community does in response to Itazan’s Premier victory.
Are we going to see more people trying to pick up Zangief? Or are players working to come up with more strategies to counter the wrestler?
At least for now we can watch Nemo rant for a bit about his most hated character and feeling justified for it before Gief probably gets nerfed again in the future.