MenaRD Revealed As Topanga Championship 7's Mystery Player

MenaRD's deepening ties to the Japanese FGC continue with the surprising reveal that he will be partaking in the Topanga Championship 7 as the mystery player teased when the tournament was first announced.

Topanga Championship is a tournament organised by CELLORB that pits the best players against one another in long-set formats. It is one of the most prestigious invitational competitions in the Street Fighter calendar, known for its high level of play and the calibre of players it attracts. Winning it has long been considered a mark of true excellence in the Japanese scene.

MenaRD has been drafted into the Beginning stage, which is made up of 25 invited players and two players, Akira and Wabiichi, who earned their spots through the open qualifiers.

The Beginning stage will have three groups of nine players each, with the top three players from each group advancing to the Advanced stage. Each match follows a best-of-five format and runs on a round-robin system. In the Advanced stage, the nine players who qualified from the Beginning stage will be joined by nine invited players based on their performances at Topanga 6.

The Advanced stage invited players, based on their positioning at Topanga 6, are expected to be:

• Fuudo
• Torimeshi
• Hibiki
• Yamaguchi
• Bonchan
• Akutagawa
• Moke
• Cosa
• Momochi

The Advanced stage will see all 18 players placed into two groups of nine, with the top three from each group qualifying for the final stage. A tiebreaker match between the fourth-place finishers in each group will produce one final entrant to the finals.

One notable absence from the open qualifier story is Kakeru, who took fifth place at Topanga 6 but lost his automatic invite following his retirement. He entered the open qualifiers in an attempt to earn his way back but was unable to win through, bringing his Topanga journey for this year to a close.

Who Is MenaRD Up Against?

Mena has been drafted into the Blue group for the Beginning stage and will face Hikaru, Higuchi, Kincho, Adelie, Jr., Akira, Yanai, and Ryukichi for one of the three slots to advance.

In the promotional video for the event, Mena said that competing on this stage is a dream come true and that he is looking forward to making the finals and facing the likes of Fuudo, who holds a strong head-to-head record against him, having defeated Mena in several tournaments, including a Capcom Cup top 16 match a few years ago.

The Beginning stage for Topanga 7 runs from the 10th to the 22nd of June 2026, with the Advanced stage starting from the 1st of July. Both stages will be aired for free online, but the finals will be behind a paywall, as has been the case with Capcom Cup and Street Fighter League Japan Grand Finals.

Mena has always said that his dream is to become the greatest Street Fighter player of all time, and his recent moves suggest he is serious about pursuing every avenue to achieve it. If he were to conquer Topanga, it would be a true feat. He will be the first foreigner ever to do so.