is a Japanese esports player and author who competes professionally at fighting video games. He specializes in 2D arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and or "Ume" in Japan, Daigo is one of the world's most famous Street Fighter players and is often considered its greatest. His longevity is seen as rare in the world of competitive video games. He currently holds a world record of "the most successful player in major tournaments of Street Fighter" in the Guinness World Records and is a six time Evo Championship Series winner.
Before properly being called a pro gamer from signing a sponsorship deal with Mad Catz, Japanese media usually referred to Daigo as .
Early career Daigo began going to an arcade game center and playing fighting games as an elementary school student around 10 years of age. Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury: King of Fighters had recently been released and were Daigo's first two fighting games. Street Fighter II often had a very long line with older players, so he began learning Fatal Fury first. After some time and due to the limited time he could stay at the game center, Daigo started challenging other players in Street Fighter II' (Champion Edition) for an opportunity to play even though he felt shy and had to ask for permission. This was when he discovered that he preferred competing with other players.
Around the time when he was a 13-year-old middle school student, Daigo shifted his main game to Vampire Hunter because he thought he was more skilled in that game than in Street Fighter II. He developed a reputation in Vampire Hunter by setting a 286-win streak recordAt 256 wins the game's counter resets to zero, but it still counts. in a single outing before he was forced to leave due to Akihabara Sega (now Club Sega) game center closing for the day. Umehara enrolled in his first tournament when he entered GAMEST Cup's national Vampire Hunter tournament in 1995, losing in the block's finals. His first tournament victory came at his second tournament, GAMEST Cup's national Vampire Savior tournament in 1997, where he defeated Ōnuki (now Nuki) in the finals.
In 1998, at the age of 17 Daigo participated in Capcom's official Street Fighter Zero 3 national tournament and advanced to the finals which took place on a stage in Tokyo Game Show 1998: Autumn on October 11. After winning the tournament by defeating Ōnuki 3–1, Daigo, as the champion, went on to face Alex Valle, the winner of the U.S. national Street Fighter Alpha 3 tournament. The international "Grand Championship" was held in San Francisco, California on November 8. This was Daigo's first trip to the U.S. and his first overseas tournament appearance. The match was best of three games, with five-round games. Daigo came from behind to win 2–1. Both events aired as a 50-minute TV report in Japan.
In September 2001, Daigo's popularity led to the publishing of a mini-autobiography called VERSUS (known as "Umehon" (ウメ本) or "Ume Book" by fans). The book's content is separated into six chapters chronicling the games in which he competes and includes background stories, anecdotes of competitions, and analysis of his opponents.
In November 2000, 4 months after the B4 Street fighter championships, the top Ranked players from the event Flew out to Shinagawa, Tokyo Japan to play in an exhibition. American players competed in four games (Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike and Marvel vs. Capcom 2) for the right to battle Japan's best players in those respective games. Umehara only entered the 3rd Strike exhibition, but defeated all of his opponents, ending each round with Ken's fierce Shoryuken. These events were filmed for the documentary Bang the Machine.cast members have stated that the Bang The Machine documentary may never be officially released, because material was destroyed during the events of September 11, 2001.
In 2003, Daigo won the Super Street Fighter II Turbo tournament in the first Super Battle Opera (Tougeki) and won the same game in Evolution Championship Series when he joined the event for the first time in the same year, making him the first player to win both the SBO and Evolution in the same year on the same game. Umehara also went to Evolution 2004 and Absolution 2004 on April 18 in England and won on SSFII Turbo there.
Daigo has participated regularly in a number of tournaments, appearing in at least one each year since his start in 1997, with a brief hiatus in 2008.
Play style
Throughout his career, Daigo Umehara's main character has been Ryu and his play style based on zoning (keeping the opponent at a specific distance) even though he is also adept in close combat. Since Street Fighter V'''s balance patch in December 2016 that nerfed Ryu to balance the game, Daigo switched to Guile, a charge character. Daigo said, "I don't care if I play a top tier character. I don't need to pick a top tier character, but I want to have a character that can fight the top tiers. It's boring if you go to tournament and you know you're going to run into a really bad match up, it's like 'Oh, I can't win because of the match up'". Hesitating between Urien and Guile, he finally chose the latter, but decided to try Ryu one more time in Topanga League 6 and Final Round 20. His disappointing results (he finished respectively last and 33rd) made him give up on Ryu. Since then, he has continued to play with Guile in spite of a new balance patch that partially restored Ryu in 2017.
Evolution 2004
Despite having never matched off against him before, Umehara was known for having a supposed rivalry with the American Justin Wong due to their differences in gaming philosophies. The two players met each other in the loser's finals of Evo 2004's Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament. Umehara, playing using the character Ken, was down to his last pixel of vitality and any special attack by Wong's Chun-Li, even if guarded, could knock Ken out. Wong attempted to hit his opponent with Chun-Li's "Super Art" move, forcing Umehara to parry 15 attacks in a very short period of time. Umehara did so successfully and went on to counter a final kick of Chun-Li in mid-air before launching a combo move himself and winning the match. Though Umehara lost the grand finals to Kenji Obata, the clip of him parrying Wong's multihit attack became hugely influential and has been compared to famous sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Miracle on Ice. It was at one point the most-watched competitive gaming clip of all time. It has also been called “Most important fighting game moment of all time” by many players in the fighting game community.
Street Fighter IV era In July 2008, Umehara came out of retirement and became competitive once again. This time, his focus was on the newly released Street Fighter IV. Because of this, Japanese arcade gaming magazine Arcadia has included a DVD featuring "Umehara Concept Matches" in its January 2009 issue (released on November 29, 2008) and "The God has returned" was stated in Umehara's player introduction part. The DVD contains exhibition matches between him and Japan's 6 top players such as Inoue, Itabashi Zangief, Fuudo, Nemo, and Mago.
2009 On March 5, Umehara made an appearance as the "god of the fighting games world" on the TV show "Gamer's Koshien". He and four other top Japanese players (Soushihan KSK, Itabashi Zangief, Mago, and Tokido) competed with each other and with celebrities in a Street Fighter IV round-robin tournament.
On April 18, at GameStop's Street Fighter IV National Tournament 2009 in San Francisco, California, four players from three countries held exhibition matches following the main competition. Umehara, who came by Capcom's invitation, defeated players Iyo, Poongko and Justin Wong to win the tournament. For the win, he was awarded a free trip to Evolution 2009 in Las Vegas.
Umehara began writing a column in Arcadia called Umehara Column: Michi, starting with the August issue. ("Umehara Column: Street")
Thanks to his win at the GameStop tournament, Umehara entered the Evolution 2009 Street Fighter IV competition as a seeded player in the semi-finals on July 18, which was the second day of the event. In the third and final day, Umehara defeated Justin Wong and placed him in the Losers Bracket, then advanced to the grand finals only to meet Wong again. The two fought until the last game possible, but Umehara ultimately won the competition.
The September issueThe release date is July 30. of Arcadia magazine included a DVD featuring a set of "Umehara's Concept Matches." This was a follow-up to a previous DVD which released in late 2008.
On August 7, Umehara participated in an all night tournament called "GODSGARDEN."
Umehara participated in exhibition matches in a Street Fighter IV competition in Taiwan on October 10. The matches were broadcast live on Famitsu's web channel.
Umehara returned to the United States to join a tournament called Season's Beatings, held October 16–18 in Columbus, Ohio. He won Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV Singles competition.
In a November interview with Simon Parkin, a 28 year old Daigo stated that he felt he was, currently, at his peak as a gamer. He went on to clarify his claim: "My reactions are probably comparable to when I was younger, but I no longer grow agitated when I'm cornered. Nothing can mentally break me anymore; I have mastered nervousness and tension. I can instantly tell opponents apart and categorize them into groups and types according to their personality and weaknesses. As I haven't felt my physical abilities weakening yet, I think I might be at the peak of my career as a fighting gamer."
On November 26, Umehara and five other top Japanese Street Fighter IV players joined a Nico Nico live internet show to talk about the second GODSGARDEN tournament. The show also featured an exhibition match between Umehara and Mago.
2010 Instead of participating in GODSGARDEN #2 (March 6), Umehara flew to France to enter Street Fighter IV tournaments in the World Game Cup gaming event, which took place March 3–7. He placed second in singles and first in 2-on-2.
On April 4, Umehara and two teammates participated in an official Street Fighter IV National Tournament and qualified for the top 14. His team was eliminated, in the quarter finals.
Umehara participated in Capcom's Super Street Fighter IV "Fight Club" launch party in Los Angeles, United States on April 23. Umehara held exhibition matches in which he played various characters including Hakan, Guy, and Dee Jay against a dozen challengers. The event closed with a 3-out-of-5 match between Umehara and Justin Wong, ending in a double-K.O. draw which left Umehara undefeated all night. It was also revealed at the event that Umehara had accepted a sponsorship deal with Mad Catz and would play under their name in future tournaments.
The limited edition of Super Street Fighter IV from the e-CAPCOM store included a special DVD featuring two tournaments between Japan's 8 top players: Umehara, Tokido, Iyo, Shirou, Kin Devu, Momochi, Tokidoki Nukings, and Itabashi Zangief. The Super Street Fighter IV Technical Guide published by Enterbrain which was released on April 28 includes a DVD featuring exhibition matches of the new characters played by Japan's 7 top players: Umehara, Tokido, Kin Devu, Iyo, Momochi, Itabashi Zangief, and Shirou.
On May 9, Umehara appeared on the NHK Sunday night program "MAG-NET" in a feature about Street Fighter.<ref name=HondaNikki>
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On May 15, Nico Nico Live held a Super Street Fighter IV online competition where participating online players on Xbox Live got a chance to fight Japan's 3 top players: Umehara, Mago, and Tokido. They also held offline matches and a brief talking segment.