Daigo Umehara in SPA!

Recently, Daigo Umehara had an article on SPA!, a well-known weekly news magazine in Japan.

Summary
- The title of the article is "Pro gamer job"
- They recognized him as "God of fighting game world" and "Japan's first pro [fighting] gamer."
- Umehara explained what he does as a pro gamer. Winning prize money from tournaments, appearances in events, contract with Mad Catz.
- Although the main target is America, he went to many countries. He said he went abroad probably 11 times last year. He also went to Kuwait. There're offers from South Korea, China, and Thailand as well.
- He talked about Evolution. There're around 5,000 attendees at the venue. He couldn't even see the entrance from the stage.
- He said Evo's prize money for the champion is around $18,000. (Beast Note: probably Evo 2010)
- He doesn't plan to live in America, he wants to stay in Japan where [the competition] is in the world's highest level. To be more specific, Tokyo players are in the highest level. He added that America doesn't have a place [such as game center where high level players come to play together].
- Last year in SSF4 era, he practiced 13 hours a day at home. But this year, it's 6-7 hours a day at the game center.
- They also interviewed Hiroaki Inaba (GODSGARDEN cofounder). The topic was "fighting game tournament boom."
- GODSGARDEN 4 has more unique visitors than Hikaru Utada's concert on Ustream. 450,000 to 345,000.
- Inaba-san said GG is different from other tournaments. It focuses on entertaining rather than looking for whos's the best. The players play important part. And thanks to a player like Daigo Umehara, "to defeat the god" became part of it. He also revealed that the next event will be at the end of this year.

Umehara had an article in Friday Dynamite magazine in April and Tokyo Newspaper last month.