The Official Olympic Committee of the Dominican Republic congratulates professional street fighter MenaRD for his victory in the Capcom Cup. As victors, they are the ultimate Street Fighter V champions, as the official tournament prepares for the release of Street Fighter VI.
“A beautiful sunrise for all Dominicans and Dominican esports. Saul Mena, Capcom Cup Champion.” The IOC tweeted (Translated via google translate), MenaRD has been a famous player since 2017, when he made a huge impact as one of the best fighting game players in Latin America.
Over the years, MenaRD has also poured a lot of his winnings into building the gaming community in his region, which has traditionally not received as much financial support as places like the US, UK or Japan. In 2017, after his first Capcom Cup win, he donated a large portion of his $250,000 winnings to his local influence.
This is a particularly noteworthy race for several reasons. When it was over, it was announced that next year’s Capcom Cup would not only be dedicated to Street Fighter 6, but that it would have a prize pool of over $2,000,000, with $1,000,000 going to the champion. That’s an amazing amount of money, especially compared to other fighting game events.
So, while there’s no public announcement of Street Fighter VI, it’s an exciting event for both the people of the Dominican Republic and competitive-minded Street Fighter VI players. Players tend to go where the money is, so with a financial incentive, and with the hype train already running full steam ahead, it looks more and more like Street Fighter 6 will have a huge impact.
For more Street Fighter articles, check out our article on modders creating skins 6 months before Street Fighter came out, as well as the recently concluded largest video game tournament in Ireland.
