Ever since winning Evo Japan 2024, MenaRD was the man who had almost everything. Capcom Cup titles, twice, in 2017 and 2022. A Street Fighter League World Championship in 2023. A Red Bull Kumite win in 2024. And another Evo Japan win in 2025. But until Sunday night, his trophy case was missing just one thing: an Evo Las Vegas trophy. After a dominant run through Winners bracket, his wait is over. MenaRD is the Evo 2025 Street Fighter 6 champion.

MenaRD wasn't flawless at Evo 2025, as multiple players pushed him to a decisive Game 3 in the leadup to Sunday's final bracket. Rangasamy, Moke, Dual Kevin, and Torimeshi all managed to take a game against the bull, but every time, he recovered and found a way to take the set. In the arena Sunday night, though, his Blanka was as close to perfect as it gets, especially against the level of competition he faced. After dropping Game 1 to Phenom in Winners Semifinals, he won his next nine games in a row, taking Winners Finals and Grand Finals over Kakeru with clean 3-0s. With the win, MenaRD becomes the first ever Street Fighter player to complete the Grand Slam, with wins at Capcom Cup, Red Bull Kumite, Evo Japan, and of course, Evo Las Vegas.

Kakeru did his best to follow up his Capcom Cup 11 win with an Evo Championship, but MenaRD was simply too much. Against the rest of the field, he looked almost untouchable. He stormed through Winners Bracket, taking wins over GO1, Shine and Itabashi Zangief to qualify for Sunday's finals on Winners side. Once there, he sent Fuudo to Losers by a 3-1 set count, and was the only one able to stand up to Micky on Losers side, sending the prodigy out of the tournament in another 3-1 set. Kakeru will take home his third Evo medal, joining the ones he earned for finishing 5th at Evo 2023 and 2nd at Evo Japan 2024.

Even if Micky had lost right away after falling to Shine to close out Round 2 pools, it would have been a result to be proud of for the youngster from Hong Kong, who was entering his first ever North American major tournament at Evo 2025. But of course, he didn't. Nine sets later, the Cammy player had qualified for Sunday's final bracket after taking out, among others, VxBao, Tako, Shine in the runback, EndingWalker, and Torimeshi, winning four of those five sets by a 2-1 set count. At this point, it should have been clear that he could handle high pressure situations, but plenty of strong players have cracked under the bright lights of the arena. Instead, Micky kept it going, taking out AngryBird 3-0, Fuudo 3-2, and Phenom 3-2 before finally falling to Kakeru by a score of 3-1 to go out at third place. Watching his Losers run Saturday, it was easy to say Micky would be the future of Street Fighter 6. But after Sunday's incredible performance, Micky has made it clear: the future is now.

After an uncharacteristic 97th place finish at Evo 2024, Phenom bounced back in a big way, proving he's not just one of Europe's best Street Fighter 6 players, but one of the world's best. He was pushed to a Game 3 just twice on his rampage through Winners bracket, against Haitani and Momochi, and he also picked up wins over John Takeuchi, Ryusei, and Leshar en route to the finals. After falling 3-1 to MenaRD in Winners Semifinals, Phenom picked himself up and hung on to win a back-and-forth Game 5 set over Xiaohai. He fell to Micky in another set that went the distance to finish at 4th pace, but he'll go home with the first Evo medal of his career.

Fuudo was on fire in the leadup to Evo, winning the Topanga Championship 6 in mid-July and taking CPT Premier event Blink Respawn 2025 the very next weekend. He kept that momentum rolling through Winners bracket Friday and Saturday at Evo, dropping just one single game to Yamaguchi en route to the finals, with wins over Riddles, JuicyJoe, and Punk. But after falling 3-1 to Kakeru in Winners Semifnals, he lost a Game 5 nail-biter to Micky to finish at 5th place. Despite how well he has played throughout the SF6 era, this was Fuudo's first Evo medal for the game, which will join two from Street Fighter IV and three from Street Fighter V in his collection.

Xiaohai didn't drop a single game until Top 24, but his momentum was abruptly squelched by Torimeshi, who sent him to the Losers bracket with a 2-1 score. He picked himself up like nothing happened, taking out Shuto 2-0, Dual Kevin 2-1, and Itabashi Zangief 2-0 to earn his way into his second Evo Finals in the Street Fighter 6 era, and his first since placing 7th at Evo Japan 2024. After barely staving off a reverse 3-0 attempt from Leshar in Losers Round 1 of the final bracket, Xiaohai fell to Phenom in another Game 5 set to go out at 5th place. Still, he'll go home with his whopping 11th Evo medal as he continues to prove he's one of the most talented fighting game players on the planet.

An early loss to Punk meant AngryBird was going to have to work for it if he wanted to make his third Evo Vegas finals in three chances in the Street Fighter 6 era. But he buckled down in Losers and made it happen, taking out Moke 2-1, Yamaguchi 2-0, and Momochi 2-0 to qualify yet again. For the second straight year, AngryBird bowed out at 7th place, falling short to the Hong Kong prodigy Micky. Nonetheless, he'll go home with his third Evo medal, and with his perfect Top 8 attendance record intact.

Leshar spent the whole weekend on the razor's edge. After falling 0-2 to Phenom in Winners Top 24, Leshar was pushed to the brink of elimination three times. But against DCQ, Pugera, and finally Punk, Leshar was able to clutch up three consecutive decisive Game 3s to advance to Sunday's finals. He nearly managed to pull a reverse 3-0 against Xiaohai's Mai, but came up just short in the final game. Although he wasn't able to pull off an insane triple crown after winning COMBO BREAKER and CEO earlier this summer, Leshar will still go home with his third Evo medal, to go with the medals he won for 3rd place at Evo Japan 2023 for THE KING OF FIGHTERS XV and 5th place at Evo Japan 2025 in Street Fighter 6.