The series of Street Fighter is built on hundreds upon hundreds of interactions where it’s pretty much impossible to know all of them even if you’re a world-level champion.
Current Evo champion FLY|Punk recently ran into one such situation in Street Fighter 6 up against a gutsy Zangief player.
The clip in question begins with Punk’s Terry getting air SPD’d after trying to jump back by Kusko’s Zangief, who just used up the rest of his Drive Meter and put himself in Burnout.
Punk wonders how well Terry can stun the big grappler, so he decides to go for it in the quickest way possible.
In neutral, he goes for a Burn Knuckle to get in and put himself at the advantage, however, the Grand Master Gief was ready with his own perfect counter.
As soon as Terry started to fly across the screen, he was immediately scooped up by another Spinning Pile Driver that would spell the end for the round.
“What? Isn’t he airborne?” Punk exclaims.
As it turns out, Terry is not.
Although Burn Knuckle makes it look as though Terry is off the ground, the game still counts him as grounded for the move thus allowing the SPD to connect.
The comments point out a handful of other attacks in SF6 for characters like Juri and Jamie that also appear to be airborne, but that’s not how they’re flagged in the game.
You’d also expect a strike to beat a throw, though, Kusko was able to time things just right somehow to catch Terry just before the hitbox fully reached him while he flew right into the SPD.
So it seems as though Crack Shoot would have been the appropriate go-to chase down attack here since Gief didn’t have any Super meter — but with Kusko’s reactions, perhaps that would have not worked out well for Punk either.
Are there any more moves you feel are crazy that SF6 counts as grounded versus airborne? Let us know in the comments.
I don’t understand this game at all. pic.twitter.com/NndofEEEFo
— Punk (@PunkDaGod) March 20, 2025
Source: Event Hubs
