Street Fighter League Playoff Recap: A Winner Emerges

The first Street Fighter League USA for Street Fighter 6 has ended and the winner were Team Bandits as  they defeated favourites, Team NASR 70-50 to take home the prize of $60,000 and a shot at winning the Street Fighter League World Championship which will take place during Capcom Cup. 

The format as explained was that the teams that placed 3rd and 4th would play each other in a 'quarter final' match with each team aiming for 50 points. This meant that there would be at least two matches between the team in the regular season format which saw the first two matches fetch 10 points each and the anchor match, 20 points. The next match will follow the same format until one team reaches 50 points. Then the winning team would face a the 2nd placed team, and then the winner of that match would finally play the 1st placed team. 

It was an action-packed day filled with games starting with Versus Vortex taking on Bananaken-led  Red Rooster. Red Rooster had qualified in 4th place with just 5 points between them and UYU in 5th place which meant that Versus Vortex had the advantage of playing at home first. This advantage meant that Red Rooster had to reveal their lineup, allowing for a counter pick scenario with Versus Vortex. 

Versus Vortex were victorious, thanks in no small part to the form of Xian who played out of his skin taking down Bananaken in a  piovtal 20-point match and leading his team to victory. 

Against Bandits, however, it was a different case. Xian was again instrumental, but any hopes that DCQ could make a repeat of last year's huge win over MenaRD evaporated quickly as Mena showed incredible control and dominance to leave DCQ with no options. Using Blanka, Mena timed his Blanka air balls immaculately causing DCQ to whiff his anti-air regularly and capitalizing on the situation. DCQ was lost and Mena took the initiative to win twice against DCQ and secure the 50 points for his team. 

This left Bandits against NASR who have been dominant all through the season. It was also a match up brimming with lore and easter eggs. For one, MenaRD has held a grudge against NASR and captain, AngryBird for their failure to team up again as one Super Team after their failure last year. Meanwhile, Punk and Xiaohai also had their flare up earlier in the season when the latter seemed to taunt Punk who did not take kindly to that and made it a point to troll Xiaohai after every victory.

For the finals, the win conditions was for a team to hit 70 points before they could win. This meant we were getting at least three matches between the teams. The first match kicked off in stunning fashion with Chris T who had endured a difficult start to the season getting a win against Punk. Xiaohai also won his match against Big Bird putting Bandits 20 points up. AngryBird got the better of MenaRD the first time around to tie up the scores. 

We entered the second set and this time it was Big Bird against Chris T, and he won while Xiaohai and Punk got to face each other again. Punk won, again taunting Xiaohai. Now with NASR in the lead, MenaRD had to win against AngryBird, and win he did, bringing his side level. We then entered a pivotal third game. Chris T again found himself against Big Bird and unfortunately for him, he could not find a way against the Red Bull Kumite winner and lost. Then Xiaohai did something incredible, up against Punk again, he went for a Ken pick instead of Juri which was what he had been doing. Picking Ken was smart as this was who Punk had lost to against Chris T. With the hopes of his team riding on his back, Xiaohai recorded a stunning victory over Punk. 

He popped off, quickly catching himself and giving Punk a respectful bow. But this meant that the two teams were tied for 50 points with the final game being the decider between the two teams. 

Again, MenaRD stepped up against AngryBird to win it for his team. AngryBird had had the better of the shares between the two at Evo 2023 which was why he was champion. According to Mena, AngryBird had stolen a dream from him in that moment, and now he wanted revenge to also take something that AngryBird wanted away from him. If you have followed Street Fighter League over the seasons, you'll find that NASR have won the league quite a few times, but due to issues like Covid and so on, they were never able to go for the World Championship. Their first chance was last year, but they faltered against the then UYU team which was made up of all the members of Versus Vortex. The defeat hurt AngryBird and this was another chance, but it was coming against the very man who had been on the chair when DCQ grabbed the victory last year to win SFL for UYU. 

The set was intense between the two champions and it went back and forth. It would come down to the very last round, but with immense pressure on both men, it was MenaRD who was able to win the match to tumultuous celebration by his team mates. 

Bandits are SFL season 6 winners and will now have a chance to take on the winners of the Street Fighter League EU and SFL Japan who are yet to have their Grand Finals.