Street Fighter 5 is very much a different game than when it released 7 years ago, and the game’s built up quite a competitive history across the world.
With the finals for the last SF5 Capcom Cup now just hours away, we decided to look back across all 5 world finals events for the game to see which players and characters had the most successful appearances.
Since Capcom Cup IX is doing things differently this year by running only the top 16 for the main bracket, we’ve also narrowed the range for all other Capcom Cups on the top 16 as well to specifically note those who consistently made it the farthest (and make the data more manageable).
The most popular / successful characters across SF5’s Capcom Cup history aren’t too surprising considering both Karin and R. Mika managed to rack up 7 appearances as main picks across the tournaments even though they barely much of an impact this year.
Some of the fighters we generally associate as being top meta contenders at one point or another like Urien, Kolin and Guile, however, are further down the list than you may expect.
Across all 5 SF5 Capcom Cups, there’ve been a total of 29 characters who’ve made it to the top 16 at least once, which leaves 11 more who never got a shot at the title between Blanka, Sagat, Sakura, Falke (although 2 made it to group stage), Akira, Alex, Dan, E. Honda, G, Gill, Juri, Kage, Lucia, Oro, Rose and Seth.
Luke was obviously a new addition compared to previous years, but Capcom Cup IX is also the first finals we’ve seen an Ed, Balrog, Vega and Cody player make it this far too.
• Karin – 7 (1)
• R. Mika – 7
• M. Bison – 5 (1)
• Rashid – 5 (1)
• Ibuki – 5
• Cammy – 4 (2)
• Chun-Li – 4 (2)
• Ken – 4 (2)
• Akuma – 4
• Laura – 4
• Luke – 4
• Necalli – 3 (2)
• Dhalsim – 3 (1)
• Guile – 3 (1)
• Zeku – 2 (2)
• Abigail – 2
• Cody – 2
• F.A.N.G – 2
• Urien – 2
• Birdie – 1 (2)
• Nash – 1 (2)
• Balrog – 1 (1)
• Kolin – 1 (1)
• Ed – 1
• Menat – 1
• Ryu – 1
• Vega – 1
• Zangief – 1
• Poison – 0 (2)
As for the competitors themselves, we’ve managed to see 50 different players reach the top 16 over 5 years, and only 19 of them have made it that far at least twice.
You of course have the big names like Punk, Mouz|Problem X, Rohto|Tokido, Luffy and BST|Fuudo up there as consistent finalists, but there’s just 1 player who almost had a perfect score.
RZR|Xian is the only player to qualify for Capcom Cup every year for SF5 and reached the top 16 in 4 of them though he was unfortunately eliminated in the group stage this year, so he fell just short of keeping that impressive streak alive.
Capcom Cup IX is shaping up to be representative of the newer talent as well as those who never gave up because there’s 10 new players in the top 16 this year between UYU|NL, HB|Kawano, Takamura, M80|EndingWalker, BLG|Zhen, BLG|Vxbao, G8S|Pugera, M.Lizard, MADFGC|VegaPatch and Valmaster.
Who’s going to end up winning it all to be crowned the final king of Street Fighter 5 remains to be seen, but you can check out the breakdown of all who’ve made it to the big stage below.
• Xian – 4
• Fujimura – 3
• Fuudo – 3
• Luffy – 3
• Momochi – 3
• Phenom – 3
• Problem X – 3
• Punk – 3
• Tokido – 3
• AngryBird – 2
• Bonchan – 2
• Daigo – 2
• iDom – 2
• Itabashi Zangief – 2
• MenaRD – 2
• MisterCrimson – 2
• Moke – 2
• Nemo – 2
• Xiao Hai – 2
• 801 Strider – 1
• Caba – 1
• Chris Tatarian – 1
• DidimoKOF – 1
• Eita – 1
• EndingWalker – 1
• Filipino Champ – 1
• Gachikun – 1
• Go1 – 1
• Haitani – 1
• HotDog29 – 1
• Infexious – 1
• John Takeuchi – 1
• Justin Wong – 1
• Kawano – 1
• Kazunoko – 1
• M.Lizard – 1
• Machabo – 1
• Mago – 1
• MOV – 1
• NL – 1
• NuckleDu – 1
• OilKing – 1
• Pugera – 1
• Ricki Ortiz – 1
• StormKubo – 1
• Takamura – 1
• Valmaster – 1
• VegaPatch – 1
• Vxbao – 1
• Zhen – 1
Note: Numbers in parenthesis represent secondary / side character choices.
