Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
We’re less than a month away from EVO 2023, the year’s biggest fighting game event. Going down in Las Vegas, EVO will feature tournaments for multiple popular fighters, including the newly-released Street Fighter 6. The event is scheduled to kick off less than two weeks from the release of Rashid, Street Fighter 6’s first DLC character, leading many players to assume he wouldn’t be an eligible fighter for the tournament. However, Capcom has confirmed otherwise: Rashid will be eligible at EVO 2023.
The news comes directly from developer and publisher Capcom through a tweet on the company’s dedicated esports Twitter account. It's also just a few days before registration closes for the event. Rashid will be released on July 24, 2023, and Evo begins on August 3, meaning that players will only have about a week and a half to learn the character before taking him to the highest stakes tournament in the FGC. This also goes the other way, as even non-Rashid players will need to develop a base understanding of the character before they play against him.
Often, new characters will be banned from major events if they launch too close to keep the event fair. EVO has been no exception, and many characters have been banned in the past for launching too close to the event. Capcom’s decision to make Rashid a legal character at EVO 2023 could set an interesting precedent moving forward for the young fighting game.
It’ll be quite interesting to see just how prevalent Rashid is at EVO 2023, given the massive gamble that it’ll be to select him. It’s not even the only major Street Fighter 6 news to drop today, as Capcom also confirmed that the new installment has already sold two million copies since it launched a month ago. Stick with Shacknews for all your EVO 2023 news leading up to the event.