Daigo Umehara (梅原 大吾) is a Japanese esports player and author who competes competitively 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 "Umehara" (ウメハラ) 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 an incredibly rare thing 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 "the god of 2D fighting games" (2D格闘ゲームの神).
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 record in a single outing before he was forced to leave due to Akihabara Sega (now Club Sega ) game center closing for the day.
1933
His disappointing results (he finished respectively last and 33rd) made him give up on Ryu.
1995
Umehara enrolled in his first tournament when he entered GAMEST Cup's national Vampire Hunter tournament in 1995, losing in the block's finals.
1997
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.
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.
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.
1998
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.
2000
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.
2001
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.
2003
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.
2004
Umehara also went to Evolution 2004 and Absolution 2004 on April 18 in England and won on SSFII Turbo there.
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.
2016
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.
2017
Since then, he has continued to play with Guile in spite of a new balance patch that partially restored Ryu in 2017.
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.
