'We Don't Take Anything For Granted' — LATAM is the Strongest Region in Street Fighter 6, and It’s Because They’re Hungrier Than You

If you haven’t watched the Street Fighter League Americas 2026 Finals, you’re missing out. It is — and I say this with complete sincerity — some of the best competitive Street Fighter I have ever seen in my life, mostly owing to a heart-stopping set between Derek ‘Blaz’ and Noah ‘NoahTheProdigy’ Solis.

Blaz, a 17-year-old Chilean phenom, broke into the scene with a bang when he was just 14 years old. At 15, he got second place at Capcom Cup — the world’s most competitive Street Fighter tournament — and at 16, he secured third place. During this time, Latin America as a region became extremely strong in Street Fighter 6, with figures like 15-year-old Chilean player Craime making Top 8 at Evo Las Vegas this year and winning the 2026 Esports World Cup for the game.

LATAM’s strength showed itself in spades at the Street Fighter League Americas Finals this year. Blaz and his team 2Game, made up of players from Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, plowed through the competition, culminating in a breathtaking Grand Finals set that had viewers at the edge of their seats. Blaz, using Jamie (a wildly underrepresented character in competitive Street Fighter) and NoahTheProdigy, using Luke, duked it out in a thrilling back-and-forth brawl that saw Blaz perfect parry three times in a row on just a sliver of health against Luke’s projectiles.

This set was something else 👀

#SFLAMERICAS2026 | https://t.co/QNfS4EB9gS https://t.co/UdgkQtx0JH

— Capcom Fighters (@CapcomFighters) November 9, 2026

It was nothing short of jaw-dropping, and Blaz — refusing to switch to Ryu or Sagat, his usual picks — clutched out the win. After a short break, Mexican player Lugabo secured the victory, giving 2Game the comeback they’d been working so hard for after their 3rd place finish last year.

I got the chance to speak with 2Game’s talent backstage in the aftermath of their monumental achievement, where I asked the obvious question: Why is Latin America so good in Street Fighter right now?

“I mean, we don’t take anything for granted,” the team’s coach told me. “That’s why. We don’t have as many opportunities as anyone else, and that's why we’ve got to do whatever we can in any possible way to make sure we play at the highest level, no matter what. That's why we're doing everything we can with any opportunity. Lugabo, for example — this is the third time he's played offline, and he's already that good. It shows we have a lot of hidden talent in Latin America since forever, at least for the past 15 years, but many of them don't have the opportunity to travel. So what you're seeing right now is what happens when we get the chance.”

At 17 years old, Blaz’s achievements remind me fondly of Victor ‘Punk’ Woodley’s first breakout into the scene back in the early days of Street Fighter V. Now more than ever, Street Fighter 6 seems geared toward a generation of younger competitors — but for Blaz, it isn’t one’s age or ‘young man reactions’ that matter.

“What's important for Blaz is not about age, but specifically about knowledge, experience, and how much you can get from playing,” his coach said, translating on Blaz’s behalf.

Of course, I had to ask him about that standout set against NoahTheProdigy, which has since gone viral within the fighting game community and sparked inevitable comparisons to Daigo ‘TheBeast’ Umehara.

“I came into the Noah match thinking it was going to be a little bit easy, but I was a little bit surprised by how Noah played," Blaz explained. "He played a lot more focused on pressure, and it caught me off guard, but one of the things that you need to be able to do at these levels is to never surrender. So I did just that."

For now, 2Game is going home to continue their training in preparation for the Street Fighter League World Championships at Capcom Cup next year. I have to wonder how Blaz will fare as an individual player at this tournament; wildly, it makes me consider the very real possibility that he could win both Capcom Cup and Street Fighter League under 2Game’s banner. We’ll just have to wait and see, but it seems that Blaz’s skills are only growing stronger by the day. And if his latest performance is anything to go by, it’s looking more likely than ever that fighting game fans are in for one hell of a treat.