“This character is not normal” – Is Rashid too OP in Street Fighter 6?

Rashid is officially out now in Street Fighter 6. He's proving to be an incredibly popular character, with numerous players jumping into the game to try him out for the first time. However, thanks to those skilled at quickly uncovering the secret spice in newly released characters, it's starting to look like Rashid is a real powerhouse.

Heading on Twitter today (or X? I don't know, but I'll keep calling it Twitter) and searching Rashid will provide a seemingly endless selection of combo clips, mix-up montages, and aerial acrobatics. As assumed following the release of the official character demo video early in the month, Rashid is proving to be a truly scary rushdown character, able to quickly close the distance and break your defense.

"Good luck against Rashid my friends, but this character is not normal," writes user TheLolHounds, who posted his own findings online to the community. The consensus is that Rashid looks far too wild to be reasonable, frankly overshadowing other members of the cast like Lily and Zangief.

Let's dive into some of the stank that has been discovered. First up, Rashid is able to delay his overhead strike after his Wing Stroke special move. This allows players to either hit you with a crouching low attack that must be blocked while crouching, or an aerial heavy attack that must be crouched standing. This comes out absurdly fast, so your best bet as of right now is to hit him out of the aerial start up, otherwise you'll have to guess high or low.

Sonicfox is also testing out the character and discovering some gross offensive strats. They posted a video online of Rashid being able to mix up which direction he hits you from following a basic combo, carrying you to the corner if you guess wrong and get hit. Sure, there's a slight tell with the walk animation, but in the heat of a tense fight it's easy to miss.

But perhaps most disgusting is Rashid's level 2 glitch, which frankly seems unintended and broken as of writing. With some simple setup, Rashid can safely walk his opponent to the corner thanks with his tornado super, breaking their entire drive gauge in the process. It appears safe to do, meaning your options to counter it is to... get hit.

The reaction to this glitch has been a mixture of laughter, uproar, and excitement from the online community. London-based Street Fighter 6 weekly tournament, The Fight Lab, has outright banned the technique, while legendary players such as Justin Wong are having a blast and jokingly pointing to Evo's decision to legalise the character, even though Rashid has all these seemingly unsurmountable strengths.

Funnily enough, I spoke to Evo general manager Rick Thiher last week about the event, and asked his thoughts on Rashid being legal. According to Capcom Pro Tour rules, Rashid fits within the rules, but is it best for the competitive scene? Note that this answer was given prior to Rashid's release.

"I think it impacts the tournament in a lot of ways. It will create a hyperbolic time chamber for both Rashid players and people interested in defeating Rashid in the weeks leading up to the show. Usually those last few days would be spent practicing setups and combos. It'll be imperative now that the player base engages with that character. In that regard, Capcom has an excellent marketing moment for the character."

Thiher continues: "I generally prefer longer windows between character or patch releases and competition. That has not been the norm for the Capcom Pro Tour for many many years now. They just have not in some time released anything this close to an event, so there is a wealth of new players who haven't ecnountered this rule as well as legacy players who forgot this rule existed."

Regardless of Thiher and the world at large's opinion on the character, the rules state that Rashid is legal unless Capcom says otherwise! The race is on to discover the full extend of what Rashid can do, and whether or not a last minute change in ruling will protect the health and wallets of tournament attendees in the near future. For now, the winds certainly are turbulent.