Red Bull Kumite Canada National Final: Talking Street Fighter 6 with Canada’s top players

Who's ready for some Street Fighter 6 action? Kicking off on March 2 is the Red Bull Kumite Canada National Final, which features the very best of the best when it comes to Canadian Street Fighter 6 players. After the Red Bull Kumite Canada Qualifiers took place, only the top competitors advanced to the National Final. We interviewed some of them ahead of the esports action!

Meet Michael "Mikex" Becker — he entered the competitive scene around a month after the launch of Street Fighter 6. Although he's always followed the scene, he's never competed before the latest iteration of the game. He's drawn to Luke in Street Fighter 6 because he played him a bit in Street Fighter 5. In the interview with esports.gg, he also shared that he goes with Luke because he likes the character's style and control he has over the game.

Despite being new to the competitive side of Street Fighter 6, Mikex boasts several victories already. For example, he took home the gold in the Capcom Pro Tour (CPT) 2023 World Warrior: Canada West Regional Final! Recently, he also duked it out in Capcom Cup X. Check out his list of victories below:

"JOE and Zhen are very strong players over there in the east, and I know Kaymin's a strong player over here in the west," Mikex told esports.gg. "And I actually haven't gotten a chance to play Zhen yet, but I got to meet him briefly, so I'm excited to actually be able to play him and just play all three of those guys on that stage."

Mikex also shared that he tries to find a good balance between work and practice. He said he usually works the whole day and returns home to do chores, have dinner, and practice for about four hours. He then gave Street Fighter 6 fans some words of wisdom.

"I think for anybody that's a spectator or whatever, if you ever think that maybe you could compete and do well in these tournaments — just to give it a try," Mikex said. "The worst thing that can happen is that you lose and you learn something from it, which you really don't lose too much. So why not try and compete with everybody else? There's nothing holding people back. If you can, then you should."

Next up, we have Thunder "JOE UMEROGAN" De Langis. Over time, he's accumulated several victories in not only Street Fighter 6, but Super Smash Bros. 4 as well. He's consistently ranked high among the top Canadian Smash players. When we caught up with how he's doing in Street Fighter 6, he revealed that he entered its competitive scene during the pandemic.

"The first tournament I went to was for Smash Bros. — the Wii U version. And then it was like a wormhole that pulled my whole life into it. In that game, I played the character Ryu. People would always ask me like, 'Oh, do you play Street Fighter? If you play, Ryu is in this game,'" JOE UMEROGAN told esports.gg.

When Street Fighter 5 came out, he played the game semi-seriously. During the pandemic, however, he began to take the game more seriously because there wasn't anything else to do. When Street Fighter 6 launched, he used the experience from Street Fighter 5 to reach the top. His main changed from Ryu to Luke because of the meta.

"He's like the new-generation version of Ryu," JOE UMEROGAN said. "Like his moveset is very similar and he's like the main character in this game — the way Ryu was in other games. So it just feels like a very comfortable pick."

JOE UMEROGAN then shared his thoughts on his fellow Red Bull Kumite Canada National Final competitors. "I'm pretty sure he has to play Zhen first," he said, referring to Kaymin. "I think I'm pretty sure he'll just lose to Zhen. But he's a good player."

"And based on the seeding, I'm pretty sure I have to play Mikex first. He actually qualified for Capcom Cup," JOE UMEROGAN continued. "And we were there earlier this week. When I played him in casual sets, I was kind of destroying him. So I feel like I'll do well against him. And then the next match after that is probably Zhen. And you can never be confident against him because he's so unpredictable. You just have to play. You have to play every set like very in the moment. I just don't know what's going to happen. He's very good."

Another contender for representing Canada after the Red Bull Kumite National Final is Amin "Kaymin" Elsaadi. His main in Street Fighter 6 is Juri, and he's been playing Juri ever since her introduction in Street Fighter 4. In the interview with esports.gg, he revealed that he started playing fighting games competitively back in 2013 thanks to Street Fighter 4 as well. The game was a way for him to keep out of trouble. He said that it also helped him a lot in terms of putting himself on the right path.

"So that's why I kept playing it," Kaymin continued. "I started becoming more and more competitive. But I've been competing for over 10 years now on and off. Now, it's a hobby more than anything, but I love playing. I love competing."

Fast forward to the present, Kaymin told esports.gg that he hopes his participation in Red Bull Kumite would bring a lot of eyes back on Street Fighter in his city. Calgary's FGC, in particular, had a really big scene back in Street Fighter 4. However, it fell off during Street Fighter 5. Since it's picking back up thanks to Street Fighter 6, one of Kaymin's hopes is to revive the competitive scene there.

"The whole east versus west rivalry in Canada hasn't been too strong," he added. "So this brings it back a little bit, and I like that a lot. I like competition. I like when people get fired up. And then I like it when it's regional. It gives you something to fight for."

Kaymin also noted that he's thankful for Red Bull's tournament. The online aspect of it, in particular, provides opportunities for players who don't get to travel a lot and those with busy schedules. Although he works long hours and gets tired after returning home at times, he always tries to do sets even if it's for half an hour a night.

"But because I've been competing so long, it's always on my mind. I'll be at work and it'll be something mundane that I'm doing and I'll just be thinking about [how] there's something I can do to improve in the game," he continued.

Now heading into the Red Bull Kumite Canada National Final, Kaymin shared some thoughts about the competition. "Zhen was second place at Capcom Cup in Street Fighter 5 last year and made top eight in the Loser's Last Chance Qualifier," he said. "Mikex and JOE were both in Capcom Cup this year. They were finalists. So I don't think it'll be easy, but I think I can do it."

As for Kuang "Zhen" himself, he is strong competition in the Red Bull Kumite Canada National Final. As emphasized by Kaymin, Mikex, and JOE UMEROGAN, his experience in not only Street Fighter 6, but also Street Fighter 5, is worthy to note — especially in the recent Capcom Cup LCQ tournament. Check out some of his victories below:

"I qualified for the Red Bull Kumite 2024 Toronto Final!" Zhen wrote on social media. "Anyway see y'all in Toronto."

That's all for now. Are you excited for the Street Fighter 6 action? Stick around on esports.gg for more interviews, news, and updates!