[Video] Umehara's SF5 exhibition from Taipei Game Show

A video of Daigo Umehara (Ryu) vs. GamerBee (Chu) Street Fighter V exhibition match in Taipei Game Show.

Umehara on Yonpachi radio show

On January 23, Daigo Umehara appeared as a guest on a radio show called "Yonpachi 48 Hours" which is hosted by Osamu Suzuki (broadcast writer).

Summary

• They talked about Umehara's pro gamer career, his achievement, his manga. (All we already know)
• He's not on diet or any food restriction.
• He's not married.
• If he has a kid, he won't force/tell his kid to play games.
• The first game he played was Famicom's Super Mario.
• He said the happiest moment of his life was probably when he got Famicom.
• The first fighting game he's really into was Street Fighter II.

Umehara's 100-man kumite returns in next Shotenkaigi

Due to the overwhelming success of the talk show and 100-man kumite from The Fifth Shotenkaigi on January 18, Niconico has announced that Daigo Umehara will do the 100-man kumite again at The Sixth Shotenkaigi on January 25 at WonderGOO Moriya (Ibaraki Prefecture). This time Bon-chan will also join him as a commentator (but expect some casual match).

The event will be streamed live here.

Niconico Shotenkaigi is a series of fan events held in ten book stores around the country. It's a way to get in touch with the Niconico users who live far away.

[Video] All of Umehara's Raging Demon at Master Series

This is a good video showcasing all Raging Demon Daigo Umehara made at Canada Cup's Master Series.

Umehara is now used to Evil Ryu as you can see almost no combo drop in an entire tournament (very different from mid-2014). He started using kara RD (cancelling hop kick into RD) in a real match since Capcom Pro Tour Asia, and the technique now plays an important role in his gameplay.

With how he plays the character now, the fans slowly forget about his Ryu, because his Evil Ryu still shows strong footsie and his main source of damage comes from open play (as opposed to set play such as okizeme cross-up).

Although Umehara's Evil Ryu is already impressive, and is the best Evil Ryu ever, perhaps it's too early to say it's at full potential, knowing how good he is.

See also

• Canada Cup's Master Series summary
• King of Round-robin's new record breaking
• Sako: Umehara has the best Evil Ryu

Umehara confirmed for SF5 stage show in Taiwan

Tip from Mad Catz Japan. It was announced yesterday that Daigo Umehara will go to Taiwan to participate Street Fighter V stage show (with GamerBee, Ono, Ayano) at PlayStation booth in Taipei Game Show 2015 on January 31. There will be an exhibition match.

Note that it is most likely that Umehara will fly back to Japan immediately after this event to play the exhibition match in Tokaigi on February 1.

The King of Round-robin has set a new record!

From the result at Canada Cup's Master Series, Daigo Umehara has now become the first fighting game player in history to win FOUR consecutive round-robin tournaments of HIGHEST COMPETITION LEVEL.

TOPANGA World League

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+21
2	Xiao Hai	7	5	2	+8
3	Bon-chan	7	5	2	+13
4	Wao	7	3	4	+2
5	Xian	7	3	4	-1
6	Fuudo	7	3	4	-8
7	PR Balrog	7	2	5	-18
8	Infiltration	7	1	6	-17

Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+13
2	Xian	7	5	2	+6
3	Gackt	7	5	2	+5
4	Poongko	7	5	2	+4
5	GamerBee	7	3	4	-3
6	Humanbomb	7	3	4	+0
7	Leslie	7	1	6	-12
8	Dark Jiewa	7	0	7	-13

The 4th TOPANGA League

First Stage

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	11	10	1	+17
2	Sako	11	8	3	+15
3	Michael-tan	11	8	3	+11
4	Uryo	11	6	5	+1
5	Momochi	11	6	5	+1
6	Nemo	11	5	6	-3
7	Tokido	11	4	7	-1
8	Kazunoko	11	4	7	-6
9	Pugera	11	4	7	-6
10	Bon-chan	11	4	7	-7
11	Santarou	11	4	7	-11
12	Fuudo	11	3	8	-11

Final Stage

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	5	5	0	+22
2	Momochi	5	4	1	+7
3	Sako	5	2	3	-1
4	Bon-chan	5	2	3	-3
5	Uryo	5	2	3	-9
6	Michael-tan	5	0	5	-16

Canada Cup's Master Series

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+14
2	Kazunoko	7	5	2	+10
3	Xian	7	4	3	+4
4	PR Rog	7	3	4	-2
5	Snake Eyez	7	3	4	-7
6	Xiaohai	7	3	4	-8
7	Pepeday	7	2	5	+0
8	Louffy	7	2	5	-10

Some of old records.

• The only player in history to reach top 8 in Street Fighter IV series tournament four consecutive years at Evo.
• The only player in history to win both Capcom game and Arc System Works game at Evo.
• One of two player in history to win both Tougeki and Evo in the same year on the same game.

Canada Cup Master Series summary

Info
- Canada Cup's previous champions are invited (Umehara (2010), Kazunoko (2011), Xiaohai (2013), Pepeday (2014)
- Louffy is invited as Evo 2014 champ
- Snake Eyez qualified from winning Wednesday Night Fights Season 3
- PR Balrog qualified from winning tournament in Day1 (Jan 9)
- Last two days is pay-per-view ($14.95)
- Stream Day 1 (Jan 9)
- Stream Day 2 (Jan 10)
- Stream Day 3 (Jan 11)
- Due to terrorist attack in France, flights were delayed and Louffy arrived on the last day

Prizes (Canadian $)

• $10,000 for 1st place
• $4,000 for 2nd place
• $2,500 for 3rd place
• $1,000 for 4th place
• $750 for 5th and 6 place
• $500 for 7th and 8th place

Shosen Book Tower promoting UmeBooks

Tip from Mad Catz Japan. The 8th floor of Shosen Book Tower bookstore in Akihabara currently has a whole shelf of Daigo Umehara's related books. (Willpower to Keep Winning, Match Theory, Umehara Column, To Live Is To Game, Fighting Gamers, Tonari no Pro Gamer)

Umehara: Button mashing is the real fun

Daigo Umehara dropped some wisdoms again in the talk session in the Niconico's "Challenge Umehara" event yesterday.

During the talk about Street Fighter V and an ideal fighting game, Umehara pointed out that the real fun in a game lies in pushing buttons (lever/stick doesn't count).

Umehara explained that it all comes down to the fact that people want to push buttons and get some reward. A game is more fun when they can do this as much as they want. As a result, a game is less fun if it promotes defensive play style–because they are given less time to push buttons.

Umehara also added that you will be penalized for doing nothing in other games such as mahjong and poker. That makes him wonder why it is viable to do nothing in fighting games. He suggested that a fighting game should promote play-making, for example, by limiting how many times you can block (10 times) or escape a throw (5 times) and reducing timer from 99 seconds to 40-50 seconds per round.

Umehara said that, just like in real world, people who work deserve recognition, regardless of their skill. Beginners should be able to win simply because they work harder in a match.

As for Street Fighter V, Umehara feels that the game's pace is too slow, as there was nothing else to do during the long block stun. He suggested that players should be able to perform something, not just waiting for the sequence to finish. He understands that it is still in development, but warned that Capcom definitely don't want to launch the game without some tweaks.

Sako: Sadly, I don't feel like winning Umehara now

Sako talked about his performance and opponents in the final stage of The 4th TOPANGA League in an interview by Hori which was published on December 22.

• Sako was actually surprised by the overall result in B league. He didn't have much confidence until he got to play.
• "When you look at the list of players, getting 3rd place [in A league] is good enough for me. Of course, I feel terrible for the matches I lost, but I really lost so I can't really complain."

Final stage of TOPANGA League

• Sako admits that he was completely defeated in those three matches against Bon-chan, Momochi, Umehara.

vs. Bon-chan

• He points out that Bon-chan trained with Pugera who has better Ibuki. (Bon invited Pugera to train with him after the second stage)
• Sako researches by looking at the videos that his opponents lost.

vs. Uryo

• He thinks Viper will do better than Chun-Li against Elena, and Uryo's Viper is scary.
• They both live in Osaka but since Sako doesn't go to the arcades they rarely see each other.

vs. Michael-tan

• He thinks it's in Elena's favor.
• "If you watch out for kara-throw and fMK, all Ken has left is Hadoken in that range."
• Dealing with Hadoken and Healing are the keys.
• Sako thinks it's good to see a young player like Michael (23 years old) compete with the men in 30s.
• "This old man isn't done yet!" is also an inspiration when fighting young players. (laugh)
• "If there's a SF2X player who can compete at highest level at 40, I can do it, too." (laugh)

vs. Momochi

• "I lost in the mind game, then I lost the game itself."
• "At the beginning, I won because I made Momochi play my game."
• In the second half, Momochi played extremely defensive, so Sako went in and got countered.
• He says he completely lost confidence when Healing didn't help (gain life lead). He was too afraid of getting countered so he wasn't sure what to do, being aggressive or defensive.
• (His wife asks "Do you think you're mentally strong or weak?") Sako thinks he's mentally weak as seen in Momochi match. He thinks he should give himself more time between a match instead of eagerly continue which is a bad habit.

vs. Daigo Umehara

• "[Umehara] was too strong [to the point that] I laughed during the match." (laugh)
• "[Umehara's] fending and the way he uses hop kick and crMK>Hadoken were amazing."
• "All I can say is he was great! I completely lost!" (laugh)
• (When pointed out that Sako used to use Evil Ryu) "I think there's no better Evil Ryu than [Umehara's]"
• "Umehara's Evil Ryu should be illegal." (laugh)
• (His wife asks "What if you use Evil Ryu, too?") Sako thinks if he uses Evil Ryu the score may change, but outcome will be the same. "Sadly, I don't feel like winning (Umehara)."
• "I will train hard to close the gap." (between himself and Umehara)
• "Fighting game becomes fun when you get to fight Umehara."

Future

• Sako will attend Shadowloo Showdown in February.
• There's possibility that he will change character.
• He also plans to play Guilty Gear Xrd.

Puyopuyo Tetris is Daigo Umehara's GOTY2014

From 4Gamer.net's interview.

Q1 - What's your game of the year (released in 2004)?

Umehara: Puyopuyo Tetris. It's a standard game that you can have fun without any obstacle at home.

Q2 - What is your entertainment content of the year (released in 2014)?

Umehara: Game of Thrones TV series. I like the world view and story.

Q3 - Who had your attention the most in 2014?

Umehara: No one particularly.

Q4 - What is your aim in 2015? Also please leave message to the reader.

Umehara: I'll do my best on my activities as a pro gamer and also promote gaming in 2015. Additionally, I plan to release more manga and book in 2015, I'm looking forward to your supports.

Happy Holidays from Alex Valle feat. Daigo Umehara

From Alex Valle's tweet.

Umehara: Fighting Gamers now in bookstores

These are pictures of Umehara: Fighting Gamers volume 1 taken by Kengoro Nishide, the manga artist himself, at various bookstores today. The manga's release date is actually December 26 but you can buy it now.

Yodobashi Akiba

Shosen Booktower

Anibro Gamers Akihabara

Melonbook Akihabara

Animate Ikebukuro

Junkudo Ikebukuro

Kinokuniya Shinjuku

Animate Shinjuku

Book1st Shinjuku

Yamashita Shibuya

Shibuya Tsutaya

Umehara on TOPANGA TV tonight

Daigo Umehara appeared as special guest on TOPANGA TV tonight. There was no main topic so they talked about everything including TOPANGA League, Capcom Cup, Umehara's manga (that will be released on Friday), training, and Canada Cup's Master Series.

• Umehara shows that there're deers on his socks.
• He thinks he already graduated from Ryu from winning TOPANGA World League, so he moves on.
• Before Evil Ryu, he tried Ken (which was better than current version) and Guile.
• He trained Yun, Elena, Ken matchup the most.
• He says Elena is so bad against Evil Ryu. He trained Ibuki matchup instead before Sako match.
• He was so cautious on Viper matchup. He felt that he needs to give everything.
• He didn't train Sagat matchup at all.
• He didn't have much time to prepare for Capcom Cup since it's right after TOPANGA League. But he wanted to win the League more anyway.
• He visited Facebook HQ, was impressed by how they have everything (arcade cabinets, spa, dentist, brand cafes, yoga room, train station, etc)
• Ryu is so bad against Decapre. The moment he saw her, he said "it's over."

http://www.twitch.tv/topangatv/b/602763903
Skip to 00:40:15 for Umehara, skip to 01:27:00 for the matches.

http://www.twitch.tv/topangatv/b/602780317
This's the 2d part (stream was down). Talk only.

Daigo Umehara is the king of round-robin in 2014

Fact shows that Daigo Umehara in 2014 is the king of round-robin. He won 27 matches out of 30. Looking at the name of his opponents, this also means that he's the strongest player of 2014.

TOPANGA World League

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+21
2	Xiao Hai	7	5	2	+8
3	Bon-chan	7	5	2	+13
4	Wao	7	3	4	+2
5	Xian	7	3	4	-1
6	Fuudo	7	3	4	-8
7	PR Balrog	7	2	5	-18
8	Infiltration	7	1	6	-17

Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	7	6	1	+13
2	Xian	7	5	2	+6
3	Gackt	7	5	2	+5
4	Poongko	7	5	2	+4
5	GamerBee	7	3	4	-3
6	Humanbomb	7	3	4	+0
7	Leslie	7	1	6	-12
8	Dark Jiewa	7	0	7	-13

The 4th TOPANGA League

First Stage

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	11	10	1	+17
2	Sako	11	8	3	+15
3	Michael-tan	11	8	3	+11
4	Uryo	11	6	5	+1
5	Momochi	11	6	5	+1
6	Nemo	11	5	6	-3
7	Tokido	11	4	7	-1
8	Kazunoko	11	4	7	-6
9	Pugera	11	4	7	-6
10	Bon-chan	11	4	7	-7
11	Santarou	11	4	7	-11
12	Fuudo	11	3	8	-11

Final Stage

	Player	P	W	L	GD
1	Umehara	5	5	0	+22
2	Momochi	5	4	1	+7
3	Sako	5	2	3	-1
4	Bon-chan	5	2	3	-3
5	Uryo	5	2	3	-9
6	Michael-tan	5	0	5	-16

Umehara confirmed for Nico's New Year's Eve event

Daigo Umehara is confirmed to partcipate in Niconico's gaming related New Year's Eve event at Niconico's headquarters in Ikebukuro.

At the event on December 31, from 15:30 to 18:30 (JST), participants will be able to challenge Umehara in USF4 and receive some prize, regardless of the result. A live stream is planned.

Umehara announced for Tokaigi 2015

It's announced just now that Daigo Umehara will participate in Niconico Tokaigi 2015 which will be held on January 31 and February 1, 2015.

Tokaigi is a spin-off event from Niconico Chokaigi event. This new event will focus on gaming.

The announcement is not a surprise at all as Umehara is very popular on Niconico, from his match videos and from being an Internet meme. He was in Chokaigi 2012, Chokaigi 2013, Chokaigi 2014, and Shotenkaigi.

Umehara: I didn't practice Dhalsim matchup

Daigo Umehara revealed this evening on Capcom TV show that he didn't really expect to play Dhalsim, and he didn't practice the matchup for Capcom Cup 2014.

Umehara and Mago appeared on the Internet show with Capcom's Sugiyama and Ayano to promote USF4's Omega Mode. When asked about the match, although Umehara appeared to know that Xian used to play Dhalsim, he wasn't convinced that he had to play against Dhalsim.

Note that just before the Capcom Cup 2014, Mago reported that Umehara was recruiting Decapre, Zangief, and Poison via online lobby. Itabashi Zangief also revealed that he trained with Umehara before the tournament.

The Big Picture

 "I'm going to tell you one last time, just counterpick Dhalsim with Yun!"

 "I wrote a bestselling book about winning at life,

and you want me to counterpick someone 10 years younger?
It's just not happening...."

"That's totally unrelated!

You know plebs only watch Evo and Capcom Cup, you need to wi-"

"The Illuminati just informed us that $500,000 will go to Mr. Umehara's appearance fee, sir. They really want to make the tournaments look legit."

"Never mind. I was wrong.

We should focus on the big picture. Stay true to yourself.

Counterpicking is a disgrace anyway."

Evil Ryu's health down to 900 in latest USF4 update

The latest USF4 balance change note for the arcades that was released today revealed that Evil Ryu will get its health reduced from 950 to 900.

The changes will apply on December 15 or tomorrow in Japan. The game will be updated to Version 1.04.