Summary
TheStreet Fighterseries is home tosome of the most unique and powerful charactersin the genre, ranging from the unkillable M. Bison to the more raw powerhouse type, such as Zangief. However, while every single character is strong in their own ways, not all of them are winners.
Specifically, not every character has had their time in the spotlight on the big stage, seeing countless EVOs, Capcom Cups, and more major tournaments go by without them being the character at the end, hoisting the trophy alongside the pro who mains them!
First Appearance
Super Street Fighter II
Thunder Hawk kicks off this list, as he was a remarkably strong, arguably the strongest, character in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo that fell to the unfortunate curse of not being popular enough to really gain any traction in competition.
Even so, his highest placement was second place in the hands of Damien Dailidenas during EVO 2011, falling just short to Diago Umehara’s Balrog during the High Rollers Casino Cup for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo during EVO 2011!
Street Fighter Alpha
Okay, so this one might be an obvious one, as Dan is a parody character intended to be bad. However, he is still one of the most popular fighters in the series, and was even pretty decent inStreet Fighter 5, even making a decent run here and there in some tournaments.
But, as expected, he never won any of them, or even came close. He’s a hilarious and fun character to play, but you won’t see him hoisting any trophies anytime soon. Nonetheless, we hope to see him make an appearance inStreet Fighter 6and use the Drive System to secure his first massive win!
Street Fighter IV
Next up is Crimson Viper, one of the more popular newcomers from Street Fighter 4, who utilized her unique secret spy gadgets to her advantage, making her very devastating in the right hands. Unfortunately, she fell just a tad short of hoisting a trophy with those skills.
During EVO 2011, Abdullatif Alhmili took C. Viper all the way to the grand finals, but lost to Keita Ai’s deadly Fei Long. There were also a total of three C. Vipers in the top eight that year, so she had a solid showing, but failed to finish strong!
Street Fighter (Non-Playable), Street Fighter Alpha (Playable)
Following a similar trend to the others listed thus far is Adon, who made many grand finals appearances but could never pull the trigger to seal the deal. He’s loud, ultra-aggressive, and a master at Muay Thai, making it clear he’s Sagat’s former student.
EVO 2012 saw Bruce Yu-lin Hsiang’s Adon fall to Seon-woo Lee’s Akuma in the grand final. Then again, in 2015, he lost to Yusuke Momochi’s Evil Ryu in the grand finals as well. He was so close several times, and it’s a shame we may never see him in action again!
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Q is up next and is in a sea of killers in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, offering solid defensive gameplay that is relatively hard to implement against the likes of Chun-Li, Yun, and Ken. Still, he is a massively popular character, and seeing him not even be close to the running is quite sad.
Mystery shrouds this man, with the biggest being how he is pretty solid in isolation, but never quite good enough to have anyone pick up the mantle and carry him forward to victory. Which is to say, we get it, Third Strike is a tremendous game, but if you weren’t playing the top four characters, you had your work cut out for you!
Street Fighter III: New Generation
Speaking of Third Strike, Oro was a pretty solid character overall, but also didn’t have ‘it’ compared to the top of the top. Still, this immortal hermit is very popular and was strong enough in Third Strike and even Street Fighter 5 that you’d assume he would have won at least one major tournament.
But, to be fair, Oro is a very technical fighter and can take a lot to master, which is likely why you don’t see many pros attempt to learn him over others. With that said, you must always ‘Respect the Stones’ as one Brian_F would say!
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact
Hugo is another Third Strike entrant and served as the wrestling representative, replacing Zangeif in the title and becoming a beloved character. Despite this, he was always seen as being in the bottom to middle tier, making him a perfect contender for this list.
Aside from the impressive EVO 2024 run by Hayao, where he placed fourth with Hugo, he has rarely advanced far in tournaments, which can be attributed to his role as a grappler. All things aside, we love Hugo and love to see him eventually return to the series in some form aside from just being a background character!
Guy made his debut in the Final Fight series before sneaking his way into Street Fighter via the first Alpha installment, utilizing his mastery of ninjutsu to overwhelm and keep his opponents on their toes. He’s a tremendously cool and popular character who never won the big one.
It wasn’t until EVO 2016 when Guy made it to the grand finals under the wing of Lord BBH, who ultimately fell a hair short of greatness to Ryo Yoshida’s Akuma.
While Guy was considered top-tier in Alpha 1, it was super short-lived, and there weren’t all that many major tournaments surrounding that title, so he pretty much never had the chance to show off his potential on the big stage!
Street Fighter V
Menat is a fascinating character, as she is one of the more popular newcomers introduced in Street Fighter 5, but also had the lowest play rate due to the technical nature of her gameplay, placing her in an odd spot. Nonetheless, she’s a solid character and is popular enough that we’re surprised she didn’t secure at least one major event.
She didn’t place in a single top eight in the history of Street Fighter 5’s long-winded EVO run, which is more of the same for the other major tournaments. She’s one of the more frequently requested characters you will see pop up in fans' wishlists for Street Fighter 6, and we agree she needs to return as well, but hopefully she can win it big this time around if she makes a comeback!
Last and certainly not least, we have Makoto, a fan favorite and beloved character who is consistently ranked among the top five characters in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike. She is exceptionally strong and pretty irritating to go up against, but could never quite get the upper hand over Chun-Li, Yun, Ken, or even Alex.
Makoto’s highest recorded placement at a major event was during EVO 2017 when Erik K took her all the way to the grand finals before losing to Hao Liu’s Yun. This is arguably the most surprising entry on this list, as you would be a fool to assume she never won at least one major in her lifetime!
