he was great at a game that took skill to play
This argument is just a straight up logical fallacy.
You think SF4 takes more skill than 6 right? That’s not an uncommon opinion. SF6 is a highly volatile game that’s based on constant guessing so there’s a lot of variance in outcomes between 2 equally skilled players. It also has a lot of easy access universal mechanics that are hard to deal with even at the highest ELOs (raw drive rush, DI.) In theory, you could argue the game has a reduced skill gap.
But I’d argue that’s what actually makes what Mena is doing so special. Dude is playing the fighting game equivalent of a slot machine and
consistently winning tournaments. That kinda stability in the most random and volatile game ever is remarkable and is a testament to the fact that his skill and IQ are otherworldly.
That being said, matchups matter too. As godlike as Kakeru is Mena just seems to own him mentally and he’s smoked him in every tournament they’ve ever played.
Since the conclusion of season 1 Mena only has 2 true demons—Fuudo and Punk. Fuudo because Mena struggles against DJ (majority of his tournament losses are to him) and Fuudo has the best one. Punk because stylistically he just isn’t a good matchup for Mena regardless of what characters are picked. I believe Punk has won 3 of their last 4 big matchups. But unfortunately both their runs ended early.