Avenue Fighter 6 professional MenaRD has been acknowledged by his dwelling nation of the Dominican Republic, which introduced him with an award to honor his combating sport achievements.
Saul Leonardo ‘MenaRD’ Mena II is an expert combating sport participant from the Dominican Republic. Whereas he’s been competing because the days of Avenue Fighter IV, he first rose to fame after Avenue Fighter V’s launch in 2016.
Again then, the Dominican Republic wasn’t a area identified for combating sport prowess — however he put his nation on the map by profitable Capcom Cup in 2017 and went on to turn into one of many biggest gamers in SFV’s lifetime.
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In actual fact, Mena is the primary and solely two-time Capcom Cup champion, having additionally taken the event for SFV in 2023. On prime of this, he’s additionally a three-time Evo champion, having gained Evo Japan in 2024 and 2025, in addition to profitable Evo Las Vegas in 2025.
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Mena’s achievements have cemented him as one of many biggest Avenue Fighter gamers of all time, bringing him generational wealth that he used to influence his native combating sport scene. As an illustration, the ‘dojo’ the place gamers would apply Avenue Fighter was a small, cramped venue that was extremely secretive and suffered from frequent energy outages.
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After profitable a staggering $250K from Capcom Cup 2017, he created a brand new place for them to play, sponsored different competitor’s journeys to tournaments across the globe, and even began his personal esports staff, the Santo Domingo Tigers.
Mena is now a family identify within the Dominican Republic, and to thank him for his constructive influence, the nation introduced him with the Satisfaction of Dominican Tradition award on August 28, 2025 — the identical day as his twenty sixth birthday.
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In an interview on the purple carpet, Mena spoke about what it was like being acknowledged for such an achievement and what the award meant to him.
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“In a loopy means, beginning this gaming journey and experiencing what I’m experiencing proper now, having a lot success — that’s what it’s, that’s what one works for, and what the neighborhood would really like me to do,” he mentioned.
MenaRD has helped each his household and his neighborhood come a great distance since rising to fame, each of which he credit for serving to him rise to the highest.
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“I really feel that I’m who I’m due to my neighborhood,” he advised me in an interview again in 2018. “Since they helped me have a greater life, I’ll do my greatest to construct a greater neighborhood so the longer term era can have it simpler within the path of being a professional gamer. It’s my second household. [They have] all the time been tremendous supportive after I characterize, and tremendous aggressive when enjoying domestically. I like my neighborhood.”
