MenaRD Wins Two SF6 Evo Tournaments Back-to-Back, Bags His Third Trophy at Las Vegas

Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II has proven himself as one of the best Street Fighter 6 players, becoming the first person to win two back-to-back Evo tournaments. This puts his Evo trophy count at three, after winning both Evo Japan 2024 and 2025.

MenaRD faced Kakeru in the grand final, a very familiar opponent who also faced him at Evo Japan 2025 earlier this year. Both of them entered the top eight of the tournament from the winner’s side, which meant they had to fight each other should the stars align.

It did, and their first encounter was in the winners’ final, where MenaRD decidedly took the match 3-0. This sent Kakeru down to the losers’ final, where he fought a relatively unknown player outside his region, a Cammy player by the name of Micky.

He was sent to the loser’s side of the bracket very early into the tournament and had to defeat champions and high-profile players such as Luo “Vxbao” Yanxin, Samuel “EndingWalker” Arm and Torimeshi just to be able to get to the top eight.

But his run ended in the losers’ finals as Kakeru beat him 3-1 for a chance to face MenaRD once more in the grand final. Unfortunately, the story remained the same for their second time meeting in the bracket. Kakeru looked visibly lost as he fought against MenaRD, and he lost once more, 0-3.

Capcom, before the tournament, released a trailer for the next upcoming character after Sagat, C. Viper. Since the trailer was a cinematic one, not much is known about the character’s moves and how she will function in Street Fighter 6. C. Viper is known to be one of the hardest characters to play in Street Fighter due to the execution needed just to pilot her optimally.