Daigo Umehara

About

Daigo Umehara (Japanese: 梅原 大吾, Hepburn: Umehara Daigo; born 19 May 1981) 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 “Umehara” (ウメハラ; written in katakana instead of kanji) 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 “the god of 2D fighting games” (2D格闘ゲームの神, 2D Kakutō Gēmu no Kami).

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…