Never forget the amount of consistent slander Mena used to get after he went through an initial slump sometime after his first CC win, when Birdie was nerfed. Dude stayed focused, continued to support his people/region and solidified himself as a force within the games elite. Much Respect ✊🏽
I thought the slander was from the Diago worshippers and simps being upset that Mena was popping off and talking trash to their "god". But more than one thing can be true at the same time.
@@chickenpoop9130 I don't believe him, it's like Kizze said Punk always undersells himself. Edit: I should've watched the video before commenting because god, that was actually crazy. Idk if anyone could actually think of doing that in that situation.
I doubt he even knew about the sourspot to begin with, or what the spacings would be if that's the case. Regardless that's one of the closest matches we'll probably ever see in the games history and we're only a month in
MenaRD was amazing in the tournament, also shoutout to Punk/Pink for the best comeback and the "skill issue" meme, which funny enough, was used on him for complaining about blanka.
Another probably not surprising takeaway to most was that a lot of the non-beta characters had pretty good showings despite what some people where saying about the influence of the crack.
Nishikin did win a major 9 years ago with Blanka, grand finals over Bonchan. Other than that the only time Blanka has won a major tournament was well, do you want to count CvS2?
brian literally said the idea behind EX flashkick was to cover all options punk would take, including jumping which would've went over EX boom. but that guy had to be a smartass.
Nice touch with that DK music. I was literally thinking Blanka looked like Donkey Kong a little and then in that moment I heard the music subtly playing in the background.
On one hand, MenaRD is a monster and deserves all the best. On the other hand, the sheer amount of Blanka I've had to trudge my way through in ranked now has been absolutely soul killing.
I havent seen that much blanka. Maybe it's confirmation bias/frequency illusion? Record all your matches in an excel sheet if you're frustrated and see if it's real or not.
@@stevenluoma1268 Nah, it was just the regular spike of people playing a character after it wins a tournament. There was a big spike of Blanka players for like 2 days and then it just died off again. Just like how Marisa is everywhere right now because of Big Bird, but that's also going to go down again once. But it's just far more noticeable when nobody enjoys playing against Blanka.
Tbh, I'm glad i was finally able to catch a fighting game when it was released. I've always liked and played fighting games, but never tried them seriously because I always missed that hype window where everyone is just learning and developing a meta.
There were great matches, particularly watching the one Caba/Punk match. I think Mena is amazing with Blanka, yet some people used to say that Blanka players were weird. I was also glad to see Nephew/Big Al doing so well. He is excellent at SF5, but seems to be even better at SF6.
I played as Blanka for the first time 1 day before MenaRD won CEO. Went through Blanka's moves in training mode that day and was like, "This moveset is absolutely bonkers. Why do we not hear more about this character?" And then MenaRD won as Blanka the next day. SF6 Blanka feels like Capcom put Smash Bros Sonic in a Street Fighter Game.
Haha as a smash player I can see what you mean. Blanka ball kinda similar to Sonic spindash. But he's probably more similar to Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. Has a move similar to spindash and he has mecha cooper which is similar to Blanka chan. Not only that but they look alike when it comes to the color pallete. The Blanka chan has to be a take from mecha cooper because I see no reason why they would give Blanka of all characters a move like that.
Crazy how Blanka has the up back blanka ball but when lily had something similar with her condor dive due to a bug it got removed. Lily needs it so badly!
concerning the character representation in top 8, do you believe that mena's use of blanka was more of an instance of countering specific players than blanka's actual strength overall? there's a couple strong blankas in my local scene and they regularly place well but i dont think many people are getting good practice against the character until they show up for their weekly bracket, at least not right now thanks for the vid, brian. CEO was awesome and i appreciate your insight
In my opinion he gets countered pretty hard in neutral by characters like Guile and Deejay. Mena definitely wouldn't have picked Blanka in matchups like that
that was an awesome tournament. I'm glad Mena chose Blanka and especially glad he had to bused him instead of bland Luke. He may have won because of a knowledge check but Blanka seems like he has the tools to be tricky. good job Mena, and good job capcom
I wasn't surprised to see so many juri and also not surprised the top 8 wasn't flooded with dj like people thought. the character is great by even sf6 standards but he also doesn't have that big ass button that you can buffer drive rush off. juri has that and everything else, she's so good.
Im a Plat 3 blanka. I think he does have good matchups against Juri, guile, cammy, and a few other strong characters. But in my experience he struggles a lot with Honda. And has a harder time with Luke, Ryu, Ken.
JP is just a knowledge check, if you don't know the matchup you can get dominated but overall he is probably bottom A tier. Still a strong character but no where near top tier he's not better than Luke,guile,juri,ken,Honda,blanka,or manon, but he's in the next group for sure.
@@v3lld039 his counter is a double edged sword, it's really useful but so useful that it is an easy callout after a while and then it becomes a detriment
@@v3lld039 they are knowledge checks for sure but even once you know what the matchup is with them all there stuff is safe so it's still kinda tough with JP once you know the matchup you get in once and just delete him,once you get into normal Range against JP(for most characters) all he can do is ex counter and hope they don't bait it.
Air Ball is technically minus but its safety depends on when and where it hits, it can be anything from -8 to -2. EX Air Ball is always at least +3 tho.
Finally someone showing my boi Riddles some respect. Also Jahzzo a smash player got 33rd. Knew they could do it. However idk what the hell happened to Idom. He's probably my second favorite SF player right after Punk. Sticky Fingers kinda washed him no cap. Idom probably waiting on that Laura DLC. His Laura is a work of art. Will she be coming back??? Regardless Idom still did great.
Jwong vs Punk set was insane. Some of the cleanest sets I've seen so far on this game.
Jwong bottled it against phenom. He had the kill then did super 1
Never forget the amount of consistent slander Mena used to get after he went through an initial slump sometime after his first CC win, when Birdie was nerfed.
Dude stayed focused, continued to support his people/region and solidified himself as a force within the games elite. Much Respect ✊🏽
I thought the slander was from the Diago worshippers and simps being upset that Mena was popping off and talking trash to their "god". But more than one thing can be true at the same time.
I don't know if Punk is that big-brained or just lucky, but that micro-walk backwards right before the EX Flash Kick was godlike precision. Awesome.
@protodevilin Punk said on stream yesterday that it was just luck
@@chickenpoop9130 I don't believe him, it's like Kizze said Punk always undersells himself.
Edit: I should've watched the video before commenting because god, that was actually crazy. Idk if anyone could actually think of doing that in that situation.
I doubt he even knew about the sourspot to begin with, or what the spacings would be if that's the case. Regardless that's one of the closest matches we'll probably ever see in the games history and we're only a month in
Punk is just good ong
It was destiny
MenaRD was amazing in the tournament, also shoutout to Punk/Pink for the best comeback and the "skill issue" meme, which funny enough, was used on him for complaining about blanka.
Mena’s Blanka is an absolute masterpiece. So fun to watch!
Another probably not surprising takeaway to most was that a lot of the non-beta characters had pretty good showings despite what some people where saying about the influence of the crack.
ppl really thought playing some muddy parsec matches for a few months was gonna put them on the same level as the pros, lmao
Nishikin did win a major 9 years ago with Blanka, grand finals over Bonchan. Other than that the only time Blanka has won a major tournament was well, do you want to count CvS2?
Editor once again impressing me with the music taste, did not expect Ultimate Chicken Horse
Was it the E-102 gamma theme? Great theme.
Also Bayou Boogie!
Waterfall is also the best song from that game hands down 🤟
No, what you don't get about JP is that /I/ don't know how to beat him, and therefore he needs nerfs.
Nephew had a heroic run himself, was so exciting to watch
I would hope so, he's had 8 months of practice
DKCountry music during Blanka pressure breakdown was perfect! lol
MenaRD orgulhando nós latinos ❤️🇩🇴🇧🇷🇦🇷🇨🇱🇪🇨🇨🇴
8:42 "Caba should have done EX boom" stream monsters with 20/20 hindsight always come through
i fucking hate them
brian literally said the idea behind EX flashkick was to cover all options punk would take, including jumping which would've went over EX boom. but that guy had to be a smartass.
Nice touch with that DK music. I was literally thinking Blanka looked like Donkey Kong a little and then in that moment I heard the music subtly playing in the background.
On one hand, MenaRD is a monster and deserves all the best. On the other hand, the sheer amount of Blanka I've had to trudge my way through in ranked now has been absolutely soul killing.
I havent seen that much blanka. Maybe it's confirmation bias/frequency illusion? Record all your matches in an excel sheet if you're frustrated and see if it's real or not.
@@stevenluoma1268 Nah, it was just the regular spike of people playing a character after it wins a tournament. There was a big spike of Blanka players for like 2 days and then it just died off again. Just like how Marisa is everywhere right now because of Big Bird, but that's also going to go down again once. But it's just far more noticeable when nobody enjoys playing against Blanka.
Love the tournament breakdowns, keep up the good work.
Tbh, I'm glad i was finally able to catch a fighting game when it was released. I've always liked and played fighting games, but never tried them seriously because I always missed that hype window where everyone is just learning and developing a meta.
I feel like every caba match was insane
A couple things:
- excellent music choice from the editor 👌
-that Punk v Caba match was wild! I jumped when the flash kick didn't chip kill
Oddly enough, I've seen the coverage, but I actually enjoyed your take on things far more. Always enjoyable to watch!
There were great matches, particularly watching the one Caba/Punk match. I think Mena is amazing with Blanka, yet some people used to say that Blanka players were weird. I was also glad to see Nephew/Big Al doing so well. He is excellent at SF5, but seems to be even better at SF6.
I played as Blanka for the first time 1 day before MenaRD won CEO. Went through Blanka's moves in training mode that day and was like, "This moveset is absolutely bonkers. Why do we not hear more about this character?" And then MenaRD won as Blanka the next day. SF6 Blanka feels like Capcom put Smash Bros Sonic in a Street Fighter Game.
Haha as a smash player I can see what you mean. Blanka ball kinda similar to Sonic spindash. But he's probably more similar to Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. Has a move similar to spindash and he has mecha cooper which is similar to Blanka chan. Not only that but they look alike when it comes to the color pallete. The Blanka chan has to be a take from mecha cooper because I see no reason why they would give Blanka of all characters a move like that.
Punk is watching the pixel spacing analysis and thinking, "Yes, that's exactly what I planned. I labbed this scenario for 20 hours."
Blanka is underrated since sf4,sfv and SF6 mena won the ceo tournament
MenaRD poniendo nuestro país arriba!
Cheers!
Ono must be over the moon happy that blanka won
Deciding this game would be FT3 was a blessing, look how many INSANE game 5s we got cuz of adaptation skills from all players.
The donkey Kong country music during the blanka breakdown is perfect 😂
I will be the only Ryu in top 24 at CEO.
Just wait a decade 💪
So true brine f
Crazy how Blanka has the up back blanka ball but when lily had something similar with her condor dive due to a bug it got removed. Lily needs it so badly!
love that DKC music towards the end of the video
Blanka FTW! Love to see it!
In Pools FlashMetroid was showing off so much tech with Blanka-chan
concerning the character representation in top 8, do you believe that mena's use of blanka was more of an instance of countering specific players than blanka's actual strength overall?
there's a couple strong blankas in my local scene and they regularly place well but i dont think many people are getting good practice against the character until they show up for their weekly bracket, at least not right now
thanks for the vid, brian. CEO was awesome and i appreciate your insight
In my opinion he gets countered pretty hard in neutral by characters like Guile and Deejay. Mena definitely wouldn't have picked Blanka in matchups like that
@@Uooooooooooooh mena picks blanka into guile instead of luke.
punk legit took a step back before the ex flash. thats how he won fucking amazing.
that was an awesome tournament. I'm glad Mena chose Blanka and especially glad he had to bused him instead of bland Luke. He may have won because of a knowledge check but Blanka seems like he has the tools to be tricky. good job Mena, and good job capcom
That whole Punk vs Caba match was legendary.
I love the fact in top 24 not a single JP. Meanwhile everyone during my climb in gold is 1 and done when I win as jp 1-0. Smh.
Feets on the thumbnail got me cackling right now lol
ceo was amazing great matches i enjoy them also Mena godlike showing of blanka setups of the doll setups was nasty .
Mena is the legendary counterpicker
Still trying to figure out how to drive Rush correctly I think I'm starting to get the hang of it
he literally went "beast mode"
And people say that the damage nerf on modern controls is so small that it doesn't matter lmao
What song is being played in the beginning?
Im from canada and get matched up vs riddles in masters sometimes. hes a beast, he can definitely break top 8 if he keeps it up
just witnessing such a thing was an immense joy to me. mena is goat!
lets go we need DR to take the capcom cup
Watching the vods modern gief seemed to give Menard the most trouble throughout the Tourney.
Believe me I'm not a JP hater 😂😂
I just enjoyed your Jamie's hustle 🤭👌
My man Punk with el footsies
Mena’s Blanka is no joke. ⚡️⚡️
love this recap, thanks Brian!
I wasn't surprised to see so many juri and also not surprised the top 8 wasn't flooded with dj like people thought. the character is great by even sf6 standards but he also doesn't have that big ass button that you can buffer drive rush off. juri has that and everything else, she's so good.
I enjoy the JP MU, it’s the Guile one that makes me want to jump ship😅
Irish Impact mention in chat
ANGRY COMMENT ABOUT SOL
Holy 🎉
Crouching ups ypur defense?
14:25 He stood up and got shorter. 😂
Looks at title.... looks at Blanka in CVS2
Is that the e102 theme from sonic adventure?? Haha
JP isn’t that bad to anyone who’s played against MvC2 keep away
Pixel spacing. Great.
is he playin with acontroller?
>Withdraws from tournament
>Uses lack of JPs to downplay
Its big brain time
First and foremost; beautiful thumbnail
This game makes wanna play again😅
MenaRD went through 1000 plus men and won the tournament.
High level mix up.
Im a Plat 3 blanka. I think he does have good matchups against Juri, guile, cammy, and a few other strong characters.
But in my experience he struggles a lot with Honda. And has a harder time with Luke, Ryu, Ken.
He dominates Ryu and can hold his own against Ken. Luke and Honda are legit tough matchups for him.
Honestly just came here to say CVS2 was a game before with Blanka being S tier. But if this is "sf only" then sure.
I think Luke and Lilly plays Jp well
Let go honda... Top 24
I have a good question ❓️
Are you guys only watching the other character?
Like, I know my moves but I need to react to yours
I really enjoy watching Caba's Guile
I just got the game today sure who I'm going to Maine but I'm definitely thinking Lily I like how was she plays
Good luck!
@@pjbpiano thanks hopefully I'll do good
Become the legendary Lily Player
@@CodeTetsu that is the plan lol
@@CodeTetsu command grab my way to the top LOL
What's up with punk holding up a sign that says SKILLL ISSUE?
Okay. So is Dhalsim gonna win the $1,000,000?
Blanka never won a tournament. Luke did. And then gave it to Blanka at the last moment.
JP is just a knowledge check, if you don't know the matchup you can get dominated but overall he is probably bottom A tier. Still a strong character but no where near top tier he's not better than Luke,guile,juri,ken,Honda,blanka,or manon, but he's in the next group for sure.
I disagree I think Honda and blanks are more of a knowledge check then JP but with his counter I’d say JP edges it out above them
@@v3lld039 his counter is a double edged sword, it's really useful but so useful that it is an easy callout after a while and then it becomes a detriment
@@v3lld039 they are knowledge checks for sure but even once you know what the matchup is with them all there stuff is safe so it's still kinda tough with JP once you know the matchup you get in once and just delete him,once you get into normal
Range against JP(for most characters) all he can do is ex counter and hope they don't bait it.
Dominican abare is unbeatable
I don’t see any Dhalsim x_x
He should have sonic boomed him
Menard hooping everyone..
Doesn't matter when you read this.
@5:20 hey i didn't complain about nothin', leave me out of this
yipeeee
Juri army unite!
Blanka is indeed wild. Has any seen his full-screen corner crossup? Aris posted a video of it like a week ago.
It's pronounced 'Ma (like mat) Nong (do not pronounce the g)'
Add a lil French twang to it and you're saying it correctly
Bruh…
Yeah not sure why everyone put the stress on the second syllable. But it doesn't bother me nearly as much as people calling Ryu "Rai-yu".
I thought blank ball was negative on block
Well, the jump blanka ball
Air Ball is technically minus but its safety depends on when and where it hits, it can be anything from -8 to -2. EX Air Ball is always at least +3 tho.
I watch this live also watch the Tekken 7 top 8
Big monkey man takes it all
I don't complain about JP, I complain about not being able to afford the game lol
Dude if Idom the one who carried you and your team in Max team tournament got bodied then what chance did you have with that JP of yours x')
We never saw him play in that.
@@evilded2we saw him get bodied by shine and mena in that tournament
gg
Nice drip
look ma I'm on tv
WHAT??? Did y’all not play CVS2? Blanka has won majors, stop with dumb comments
CVS2 is considered a separate game from Street Fighter.
Finally someone showing my boi Riddles some respect. Also Jahzzo a smash player got 33rd. Knew they could do it. However idk what the hell happened to Idom. He's probably my second favorite SF player right after Punk. Sticky Fingers kinda washed him no cap. Idom probably waiting on that Laura DLC. His Laura is a work of art. Will she be coming back??? Regardless Idom still did great.