Japanese Pros Flock To Akuma

The conversation around the strength of Akuma has gone back and forth with some saying he is an absolute monster while others assert that his low health makes him a character that isn't tournament viable. 

It seemed the conversation was moving towards Ken being the strongest again with top pros like Phenom, AngryBird, and most notably Tokido, who won Battle Arena Melbourne using Ken and even went as far as to say that he thought Ken was much more tournament stable.

However, what has actually happened is that more and more Japanese pros are opting for Akuma with players such as Kawano and Shuto making the switch to the character and playing him in overseas tournaments. 

But the real confirmation of how much Akuma has come to dominate the Japanese scene came during the first day of the Topanga Championship 5 event where Block A saw 4 out of the 9 members of the group using Akuma. The players that made the switch included Kakeru, who switched from JP, Daigo, who used Ken before, Bonchan, who has gone for Akuma over Luke, and Fujimura who also dropped Ken. 

When the latest Legend ranking character breakdown is also taken into consideration which sees 52 players in Legend using Akuma with the next being Cammy with 34 users, it further cements the place of Akuma as one of the top characters and certainly the top shoto. 

The Topanga Championship 5 is currently on and will run till the 5th of July for the regular series and then the 12-14th of July for the playoffs. You can watch on both Twitch and YouTube.