The Nash army (however many of you are still out there) may be soon losing its torchbearer.

On a recent episode of Kachitagari TV, Masato "RB|Bonchan" Takahashi seemed to imply that he'd be lowering Nash to secondary character status in favor of Karin.

The Japanese player had a rough transition to Street Fighter 5, and the community gave him even less of a chance after he switched to Nash, a character regarded as low tier in Season 2. When he wound up winning three CPT events in three weeks, he inspired a new sense of hope for Nash players, and fear for the rest of us.

Though he's still been performing well, (he finished ninth at EVO this year after being knocked into the losers bracket during pools) he's transitioning away from the Street Fighter Alpha character.

"I've been thinking a lot, during these days playing Nash. How long has this season been now? About 4 months? ... I feel like, keeping with Nash specifically, it's just not healthy. It can be painful, but above all, nothing's being discovered with him," Bonchan explained on the air.

Even those that don't regularly use the character may find themselves a little sad at this news, especially since Bonchan's Nash was such an entertaining watch:



Click images for animated versions

He went on to further clarify his decision, as well as explain that he'll still have Nash in his back pocket.

"That's all fine and good if the character's strong, right? If you can say "I'll win every time using him", then that's fine, but I can't rely on that when it comes to Nash. So I've been thinking, if there's something... I've actually been playing Karin a lot, she was my first sub character," he continues.

"Karin's weaknesses, well, I haven't played her that much since she's just a sub character, so I can't say I'm entirely sure about all the situations with her, but I feel like she does poorly against big characters - Zangief, Birdie, Abigail... but she really fits me. It feels like Karin is a really good match for where I'm at right now."

Though we're sad to see Nash take a back seat, history has proven that Bonchan can be entertaining and exciting no matter which character he chooses to use.

What do you think of the switch? Are you looking forward to Bonchan's Karin? Let us know in the comments.

Translation provided by our own MajinTenshinhan. Thanks to buiwara1009 and an anonymous reader for sending this in.