Capcom confirms Rashid will be legal at EVO, character voice actor shares special messages
EVO is on the horizon as the fighting game community is surely continually checking their calendars to see just how far away from the August 4 start date we are.
The business of freshly added DLC characters and major tournaments has always been a bit on the sticky side since play time and experience with new fighters can be limited, and such is the case with Street Fighter 6's first DLC addition.
We learned just this week that Rashid will be joining the Street Fighter 6 roster on July 24, fewer than two weeks before EVO weekend 2023.
The rules for how long a character must be out before becoming tournament legal can vary from event to event, but Capcom tweeted today that Rashid will indeed be eligible at this year's big dance.
The development company behind Street Fighter posted some special voice lines from Rashid's English voice actor, Ian Sinclair, concerning EVO 2023 around noon on Friday. They followed that up with a clarifying post noting that this all implies Rashid will be playable during the Las Vegas event:
To help clarify, Rashid will be an eligible character for the SF6 tournament at #EVO2023. Good luck to everyone! https://t.co/wvwm2rjUaL — Capcom Fighters (@CapcomFighters) July 7, 2023
The Street Fighter community is reacting to this news with a hint of trepidation, mainly because of how oppressively powerful Rashid was for the bulk of Street Fighter 5's competitive run.
It wasn't at all uncommon to see more than one or two Rashid players make it into the top 8 brackets of stacked tournaments, and he was the bane of many players' existences for many years.
Capcom has made clear efforts to learn from their many SF5 mistakes as they've more appropriately balanced SF6 thus far, but it's more than understandable that the community would be at least a little worried of the potential of the Arab fighter being overpowered and thus putting a damper on the competition at EVO.
We recently released a video breaking down Rashid's new SF6 character trailer and discussing whether or not he'll be the monster he once was, and without giving too much away, we're not overly worried.
Let us know how you feel about this news (and whether or not you'll be attending EVO 2023) in the comments below. EVO registration is still open until 11:59 PM PDT on July 9.
Source: EventHubs
