Daigo “The Beast” Umehara
2000’s Era Gamer
Class of 2021 Inductee
Daigo Umehara is a Japanese esports player and author.
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 an incredibly rare thing in the world of competitive video games.
Evolution 2004
“Evo Moment 37”
Despite having never matched up 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.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-viewed-competitive-videogame-match
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.
Career highlights and awards:
6× EVO champion (2003–2004, 2009–2010)
2× SBO champion (2003, 2005)