36 Facts About Daigo Umehara

Daigo Umehara is a Japanese arcade fighting video game player.

Daigo Umehara specializes in 2D arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom.

Daigo Umehara's longevity is seen as an incredibly rare thing in the world of competitive video games.

Daigo Umehara 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.

Daigo Umehara began going to an arcade game center and playing fighting games as an elementary school student around 10 years of age.

Around the time when he was a 13-year-old middle school student, Daigo Umehara shifted his main game to Vampire Hunter because he thought he was more skilled in that game than in Street Fighter II.

Daigo Umehara developed a reputation in Vampire Hunter by setting a 286-win streak record in a single outing before he was forced to leave due to Akihabara Sega game center closing for the day.

Daigo Umehara enrolled in his first tournament when he entered GAMEST Cup's national Vampire Hunter tournament in 1995, losing in the block's finals.

In 1998, at the age of 17 Daigo Umehara 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.

In September 2001, Daigo Umehara's popularity led to the publishing of a mini-autobiography called VERSUS.

In 2002, Daigo Umehara appeared in a US versus Japan exhibition in Japan.

Daigo Umehara only entered the 3rd Strike exhibition, but defeated all of his opponents, ending each round with Ken's fierce Shoryuken.

In 2003, Daigo Umehara won the Super Street Fighter II Turbo tournament in the first Super Battle Opera 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.

Daigo Umehara went to Evolution 2004 and Absolution 2004 on April 18 in England and won on SSFII Turbo there.

Daigo Umehara 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.

Since Street Fighter V's balance patch in December 2016 that nerfed Ryu to balance the game, Daigo Umehara switched to Guile, a charge character.

Daigo 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 Daigo Umehara to parry 15 attacks in a very short period of time.

Daigo 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.

In July 2008, Daigo Umehara came out of retirement and became competitive .

Daigo Umehara, who came by Capcom's invitation, defeated players Iyo, Poongko and Justin Wong to win the tournament.

Thanks to his win at the GameStop tournament, Daigo 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.

Daigo Umehara won Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV Singles competition.

Daigo Umehara placed second in singles and first in 2-on-2.

Daigo Umehara held exhibition matches in which he played various characters including Hakan, Guy, and Dee Jay against a dozen challengers.

Nevertheless, Daigo Umehara secured a win without ever dropping into the Losers bracket.

Daigo Umehara published his first book The Will to Keep Winning on April 2,2012.

On June 6,2013, Daigo Umehara spoke at the first in a series of seminars hosted by Tohmatsu Innovation Co, Ltd.

On November 24,2013, Daigo Umehara held a panel at the DODA career fair where he spoke about his experiences as a professional gamer.

In December 2015, Daigo Umehara announced his intentions to donate the entirety of his winnings from the Capcom Pro Tour 2015 Finals, a sum of $60,000, to the Evo Scholarship, a New York University scholarship program which offers financial assistance to students wishing to study game design at the NYU Game Center at the Tisch School of the Arts.

In February 2016, Daigo Umehara was narrowly defeated by American rapper and music producer Lupe Fiasco in a Street Fighter V exhibition match.

Several observers noted that Daigo Umehara's timing appeared to be off, and that he did not capitalize on key strategic openings during the match.

On November 30,2016, Daigo Umehara announced that he had entered a new sponsorship deal with gaming headset maker HyperX.

On March 1,2017, Daigo Umehara announced that he had entered another sponsorship with Japanese game developer Cygames, alongside fellow pro fighting gamers Darryl "Snake Eyez" Lewis and Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez.

From March to May 2017, Daigo Umehara participated in the ELEAGUE Street Fighter Invitational, during which he played solely as Guile.

The series is illustrated by Kengoro Nishide and written by Saitaru Orika and Maki Tomoi, with Daigo Umehara acting as an editorial supervisor.