Blind Honda player wins on SF6 EVO stage in fashion

You've got to have ice in your veins on the first day of EVO if you want to make it through pool play. Even more so for the biggest Street Fighter tournament of all time, with over 7,000 players. However, for the blind Honda player BlindWarriorSven it's just another day. On the first day and among 256 pools of players, Sven not only took to the main stage of EVO but pulled off an impressive 2-1 victory on stream.

Taking the stage with a black blindfold, the Honda specialist immediately showed he was at EVO to win. Sven has been blind since the age of six due to cancer, as he talks about on his YouTube channel. I can only imagine the skill and dedication it takes to succeed at such a high level as EVO.

Let's break down his victory, the settings used, and why this is an EVO moment you won't want to miss.

Coming from the Netherlands and having just spent 15 hours in the air to get to EVO, Sven took the offensive immediately. While Luke is a strong character across the board, Sven used sound cues and perfectly time Drive Rush attacks to gain the early advantage. He did this on the back of amazingly solid hit-confirms into Critical Art attacks.

As seen above, the blind Honda player was able to use the sumo wrestler's massive hitbox and cross-ups to guarantee the Hundred Hand Slap special. At that point it's just a cancel into a Critical Art and massive damage.

However, his opponent EternalPancake wasn't just going to roll over. The Luke player took advantage of spacing and Luke's ambiguous projectile attacks to chip out damage and gain pressure at the mid-range. It was looking like Sven was going to take the L before making some EVO magic happen.

Tied 1-1 and each fighter down to their last 1/3rd of life, Sven began to use Honda's best tool: The headbutt. Safe in almost all instances of block, the blind Honda player fended off a Drive Rush and pushed the Luke player back with headbutt pressure. What followed involved Sven taking advantage of EternalPancake's low Drive meter and landing a massive hit confirm into Honda's level 3 Critical Art.

He fell into a burning ring of fire.

Each player down to their last hit, Sven committed to a meaty headbutt on wakeup, getting the round, the win, and a massive eruption from a huge EVO crowd.

This is fighting games, folks.

And if you're wondering how he made this magic possible, it's all thanks to Street Fighter 6's accessibility settings. Sound cues and pings can alert a player with visibility issues as to how far an opponent is, what side of the screen you are on, and more.

You can follow more about Sven and his journey on Twitter @SvenvandeWege and keep track of his progress via the EVO bracket found here.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for esports news and EVO info.