Snake Eyez beat arguably the best character in Street Fighter 6 with the worst character in the game and qualified for Capcom Cup

The Capcom Pro Tour 2023 US/Canada West ran its course this weekend, and this high-stakes online event brought in some of the best talent the region has to offer. Not only was there prize money to be earned from competing and placing high, but the player who took first would also secure their spot in the Capcom Cup 2023 finals.

Despite everything we have been seeing and everything we have learned over the last almost three months that Street Fighter 6 has been released, the story line that played out last night was one that almost no one expected. Darryl "Snake Eyez" Lewis, one of the fighting game community's long-running and legendary Zangief players, pulled off an absolute miracle by not only winning the Capcom Pro Tour 2023 US/Canada West with the character who is widely considered the worst in the game, but he did so by toppling arguably the best character in Street Fighter 6 right now.

If you've been following competitive Street Fighter 6 in recent times, then you've probably heard a thing or two about JP. M. Bison's former accountant has proven to be a very strong character in the game, with his recent showings at Evo 2023 and Gamers8 securing him a spot as one of, if not, the best character in the entire game among the community.

With a tool for seemingly every situation, high damage output, incredible full screen zoning, intense corner lockdown and mix ups, great footsies tools, and a counter move that might be the best counter ever in a Street Fighter title, it's no secret that JP is very likely top tier. On the other end of that spectrum, though, we have Zangief.

Over the last three months, we have seen Zangief placed as the absolute worst in the game by numerous top players and pundits. Though game mechanics like Drive Rush help Gief close the gap and regain some ground after a knock down, several of his tools often seem to fall short, sometimes even in basic situations, and the community has overall felt like he just hasn't had what it takes to hang at the highest level among the Kens, Lukes, and JPs.

The disparity between these two characters, in and of itself, is already pretty staggering. However, we also have to add on top of this that JP, stylistically, is an absolute nightmare for Zangief.

You see, Zangief is a traditional grappler character in Street Fighter 6. This means that his movement speed and ability to get in is very limited, but in exchange, he deals incredible damage if he can get in close enough and find an opening.

Simply looking at fighting game character archetypes, traditional grapplers have the hardest time fighting hardcore zoning characters, and JP's ability to zone is probably the best in the entire game. Zangief vs. JP is very likely a 7-3 match up in JP's favor, meaning that out of 10 games where two equally skilled players went against each other with either character, JP would win the majority of the games due to his advantage over Zangief.

This brings us to last night and the top 8 at the Capcom Pro Tour 2023 US/Canada West.

Snake Eyez had an incredible run throughout the tournament, taking his Zangief all the way to winners finals before suffering his first loss. The first player to beat him in the event was Reynald, a well known King of Fighters champion who plays JP here in Street Fighter 6.

Much like you'd expect based on everything I explained above, Snake Eyez suffered an 0-3 loss against Reynald's JP during their first encounter in winners finals. Though Snake definitely put up a fight, he just could not consistently find the openings he needed to secure even a single game win.

In losers finals, Snake Eyez would go up against Nephew's Juri for a chance to take on Reynald once again in grand finals. After a 3-1 win over Nephew, Snake Eyez found himself in the finals and getting his runback against the JP player.

Now, the stage was set here with what was honestly the absolute worst circumstances Snake Eyez could get. Taking everything about the characters' strength difference and match ups into consideration is already bad enough, but now you have a player who has to face the only competitor to beat him in the tournament with the same terrible match up — and Snake Eyez would have to win two full sets of 3-out-of-5 if he wanted to take home the gold.

The only way this situation could have been stacked any worse against Snake Eyez is if Reynald went up 2 games in the first grand finals set and Snake had to battle his way back from the brink of death. Well... that's exactly what happened.

In grand finals, Reynald went up 2 games to Snake Eyez's 1, and not only that, but there was even a point where Reynald sat just one round away from winning the whole thing. After an unfortunate input mistake where a random ground spike was performed, Reynald's JP found himself falling prey to Zangief's advances, and with just a few strong reads on Snake Eyez's part, the grappler player managed to steal the round and cling to his tournament life.

SNAKE EYEZ HAS DONE IT! WE HAVE OUR FIRST ZANGIEF IN CAPCOM CUP! 🏆🏆🏆#CPT2023 #StreetFighter6 pic.twitter.com/zOuz0efQyS

And just like that, the momentum started to shift as a bracket reset was now entirely do-able here. The final game of the first grand finals set saw a visibly shaken Reynald trying to fend off the powerful Zangief, but in the end, a big jump in combo with level 2 super to counter JP's zoning would close out the game and secure Snake Eyez's bracket reset.

With a reset in full effect and just one more 3-out-of-5 set to be played to decide the champion, Snake Eyez had to make sure he was on top of his game if he intended to win the whole thing. The rest of the tournament saw Reynald dropping conversions and missing punishes that were crucial to victory, all while Snake Eyez looked confident and comfortable in the final matches of the event.

As if last night's Street Fighter 6 tournament were a movie script about a fighting game Cinderella story, Snake Eyez would go on to perform a miracle and defeat Reynald in the final set of the event with an incredibly impressive 3-0 victory. Defying all logic, reason, and expectation based on what we've seen from this game so far, last night Snake Eyez pulled off one of the first historic moments Street Fighter 6 has had to offer.

While this might seem like an absolutely out of left field win from Snake Eyez here, it is worth noting that this Zangief player is legitimately one of the best to ever play the character. Snake is known for having unreal patience and reads on his opponent, so I also have to commend Reynald here for playing incredibly well throughout the event.

Reynald's run through the Capcom Pro Tour 2023 US/Canada West was incredibly impressive as well, and he can hang his hat on the fact that he only happened to lose to that one in a million Zangief player.

Banner photo source: Stephanie Lindgren.