There is only one player who has won three Evo Championships in Street Fighter III: Third Strike. It's not Justin Wong or Daigo Umehara, the players involved in the most famous Evo Third Strike moment. It's not KO, the player who actually won the Evo championship in 2003, the year of Moment 37. No, that honor belongs to one of Daigo's fellow Five Gods of Fighting Games: Shinya "Nuki" Onuki.
Nuki's fighting game career was almost over as soon as it began. As a middle schooler, Nuki entered a Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament at a local arcade. He won the whole thing and decided that was that. He had reached the top of that mountain. There was nothing left to accomplish. But then he started hearing stories of this guy who was taking everybody down. Nobody could beat him. Suddenly, Nuki was back. That mystery fighter, naturally, was none other than Daigo. Their first battle, a Darkstalkers match, went to young Umehara, and that started a rivalry that planted the seeds for two of the greatest fighting game careers of all time.
The world may have found out about Nuki as early as 1998, when he reached the finals of a national Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament with a grand prize that included a flight to California for an international finals. Nuki would fall to Daigo in the finals, a set that both players called the most important in their long history of competition. That would lead to the legendary match between Daigo and Alex Valle that helped to kickstart international competition.
Instead, Nuki would have to wait to make his North American debut until 2002, when he came over to Los Angeles for the very first edition of Evo. He instantly made his mark, coming in second place in two of the event's three main games, Capcom vs. SNK 2 and Street Fighter II: Super Turbo. He would continue to show his versatility in 2003, reaching three Top 8s: 7th in Street Fighter III, another 2nd place in Street Fighter II: Super Turbo, and Nuki even showed that his talents extend into the third dimension with a 5th place finish in Virtua Fighter 4.
Nuki already had proven himself as a champion in Japan. He won the very first Cooperation Cup in 2002, a tournament that has gone on to become the premier team tournament for Street Fighter III, as part of a team with Tokido. He teamed with Daigo to win Super Battle Opera in 2005. He had built a reputation as one of the best Chun-Li players in the world, if not the single best. Still, he was waiting on both a solo major win and an overseas win.
His next trip to Evo in 2005 would cement him in fighting game history. He added two more Top 8s, placing 5th in Capcom vs. SNK 2 and 2nd yet again in Street Fighter II: Turbo. Another second place finish was made just a bit more palatable, though, by a Street Fighter III victory. He had to do it from losers, too, as he rebounded from a 2-1 loss to Justin Wong in Winners Finals to take the bracket, defeating his countryman Nitto 2-0 and then winning consecutive nailbiter 2-1 sets against Justin Wong to finally become champion after eight chances on Evo's main stage.
After a quiet Evo 2006 by his standards -- Nuki merely went home with one medal, for third place in Street Fighter III -- Nuki had another dominant year in 2007. In the spring, he claimed a second Super Battle Opera title, winning Hyper Street Fighter II teams with Kurahashi. Come August, he had another incredible performance at Evo. He made finals in two new games, placing 7th in Guilty Gear XX and 2nd in Virtua Fighter 5. He reached his fourth finals in Street Fighter II: Super Turbo. But he was truly back for Street Fighter III, trying to return to the pinnacle after his 2005 win. In an interview prior to Evo 2007, Nuki said he felt that American players were getting much better at Third Strike, especially players like Ricki Ortiz and the man who nearly stopped him in 2005, Justin Wong. But he was still confident, stating simply, "I'm gonna win."
Nuki would have to get through two fighting game legends to make it happen again. He took down his SBO teammate Tokido 2-0, and then defeated Alex Valle in another 2-0 set to punch his ticket to Grand Finals. To earn another trophy, he'd have to win the runback over Tokido. Not only was this a rematch in this tournament, it was a rematch of Grand Finals all the way back at Nuki's first Evo in 2002, when he reached Grand Finals Winners side of Capcom vs. SNK 2. On that day, Tokido proceeded to reset the bracket and eliminate him. Five years later, Nuki got his revenge, closing out the bracket 2-1 in the first set of Grand Finals, preventing the reset and earning his second Evo championship.
Nuki came back for one last ride in 2008, and it looked like he was going to be denied a third Evo title pretty early in the Street Fighter III bracket. He was knocked down to losers bracket before Top 8, but went on one of the biggest losers runs Evo had seen to that point. In Top 8 alone, he took down Mike Watson, J.R. Rodriguez, Tokido, Amir Amirsaleh, and finally in Grand Finals, he double eliminated Justin Wong, taking the first set 3-0 and coming back from a 2-1 deficit in the second set to win 3-2.
There is a lot of competition for the best Third Strike player of all time. Players like Justin Wong, Tokido, KO, Alex Valle, Nitto and Daigo are all among the players with strong arguments, however nobody can match the three Evo titles Nuki accumulated, all at the height of the game's popularity. Amazingly, he did all of this while playing titles from a wide variety of fighting game series, including anime and 3D fighters.
Nuki stepped back significantly after the Street Fighter IV era hit. He dabbled a bit in Street Fighter V, piloting Chun-Li yet again to a few Top 8s in early tournaments, but for the most part, he kept to himself and occasionally competed in community Third Strike events. He earned a second Cooperation Cup win in 2017 and a third in 2019. When Street Fighter II returned to CEO for the game's 30th anniversary in 2018, Nuki was there, taking the tournament over challengers from Japan and the US alike. At Canada Cup later that year, he won both Super Turbo and Third Strike.
Nuki's time as a major Street Fighter competitor is squarely in the past, but it's easy to see how his resume earned him status as one of the Five Gods of Fighting Games. He very well might be the greatest Third Strike player of all-time, with three Evo titles and a reputation of the best player of the game's best character in Chun-Li, and he was a menace in just about every other title he touched. With all of these accolades and accomplishments under his belt, you can't even begin to tell the story of Evo in the 2000s without telling the story of Nuki, one of the greatest competitors to ever touch the sticks.
See more of Nuki in Evo Legends Powered by Qiddiya Gaming on EvoFGC
