El Fuerte finally features in a Street Fighter 4 grand final

The most chaotic character in Street Fighter 4 finally made his way into the final of a major tournament, and the results were suitably wild.

The Tokyo Game Show played host to an Ultra Street Fighter 4 tournament that featured a bevy of the world’s top fighting game players. Included in the field were such names as Justin Wong, Daigo Umehara, Kenryo “Mago” Hayashi, and Yusuke Momochi.

The event would ultimately come down to two local Japanese players, one of whom would stand as a heavy favorite.

That man would be Takahashi “Bonchan” Masato, runner-up at this year’s edition of Evo, the world’s biggest annual Street Fighter competition. His underdog opponent was a largely unknown player using the handle “Pepeday” hailing from Fukouka Prefecture.

Appropriate, the big favorite Masato’s main choice of character is the massive and intimidating Sagat. Pepeday’s choice? The diminutive luche-librador chef, El Fuerte.

What ensued was one of the most exciting, back-and-forth finals of the year. And the tone was set during the very first round of play, when the two players engaged in such a hectic exchange that it was difficult to tell who was at an advantage. (Skip to the 4 minute and 24 second mark in the video below.)

Ultimately, it was the newcomer known as Pepeday who emerged victorious. Having already eliminated Umehara earlier in the event, the win over Masato gave Pepeday a great run of victories leading up to the biggest accomplishment yet had by an El Fuerte player.

And in doing so, he firmly established that the character is good for more than flips and yips.