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Street Fighter 6's Akuma will be playable in a Combo Breaker 2024

Normally, an update so close to a major tournament would result in playing on the old patch and forbidding players from using the new character.

TJ Denzer

May 17, 2024 7:52 AM

Image via Capcom

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A strange thing happened with Combo Breaker 2024 over this last month. When Capcom announced it would be releasing a large-scale balance patch and Akuma as a DLC character a few days before the Chicago-area tournament, organizer Rick “The Hadou” Thiher made a poll asking players if they should let the patch and Akuma play or stay on the old update for the tournament. The poll overwhelmingly voted in favor of the patch and Akuma will be legal to play at Combo Breaker 2024, just two days after his release.

Combo Breaker 2024 passed down this decision on its social media channels this week. Normally, when a character and patch launches so close to a major tournament, the tournament organizers choose to not run the game with the update and forbid the new character from legal tournament play. In this case, however, tournament lead Rick Thiher announced that the team had sent out a poll to registered Street Fighter 6 players asking them if they wanted the patch and Akuma to run. The results ended up in favor of letting Akuma and the patch run and Combo Breaker 2024 is abiding by them.

Street Fighter 6 at CB2024:

The patch releasing May 22, 2024 will be used. Akuma will be legal. While CB is displeased with this patch's release date, we polled our registered players & over 81% of them want it run.

We hope this will be a novel & fun way to experience CB2024. pic.twitter.com/DwCXZNmNYw

— COMBO BREAKER (@COMBOBREAKER) May 16, 2024

It's going to make for a very interesting tournament to say the least, but one that Combo Breaker can get away with. The tournament is a large one in the Chicago area, but it’s not a stop on the Capcom Cup Pro Tour, which would undoubtedly be a factor in Akuma and the patch running otherwise. Rick himself was dumbfounded by the response, but respects the community’s desire to run the patch anyways.

Akuma comes to Street Fighter 6 next week, and Combo Breaker 2024 kicks off on the weekend after. Stay tuned to our fighting games coverage for more updates on the action as it happens, right here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.