Balrog, Ibuki will be legal for Street Fighter V at Evo 2016

With just two weeks to practice, the two newest Street Fighter V characters will be allowed selection during Evo 2016 tournament play.

Last month saw the first misstep in a disappointing Street Fighter V post-launch DLC campaign; Ibuki would not make the late May update. Instead, she would show up alongside the cinematic story expansion that would be released as part of the late June Street Fighter V update. However, Capcom had one extra surprise for their fans in store; Balrog would also join the fray.

As revealed during the Grand Finals of Street Fighter V  play during Community Effort Orlando (CEO) 2016 last night, everyone’s favorite boxing champ was revealed, bringing a complete arsenal of powerful punches to the game.

As you can see in the trailer belowr, Balrog has some new moves, including an actual foot stomp in addition to a flurry of blows from his critical arts. It also appears that his V-Trigger allows Balrog to string together longer combos, including a number of specials, in quick succession.

As great as Balrog’s inclusion is for casual Street Fighter V fans this month (especially with the late teases for the upcoming Juri and Urien reveals), the bigger impact might be with the fighting game community. Despite both Ibuki and Balrog joining the fray on June 30th, both will be legal for play at Evolution Championship Series 2016, starting up on July 15th. The news was confirmed by tournament organizer Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar early this morning on Twitter.

Perhaps in spite of the good intentions by those who want to see a more varied Street Fighter V, it goes against conventional tournament wisdom. Usually, characters released right before major tournaments are banned due to the lack of knowledge on their balance within each fighting game’s meta. If Balrog has moves that are too overpowered, players faithful to the game’s scene, who have been working for months on their Ryu, Chun-Li and Nash game might get unfairly obliterated.

Regardless, both Balrog and Ibuki will be playable for Street Fighter V during Evo 2016 this year, running from July 15 to July 17.

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