by Johnny Yu LinkImage: Epic Games via PolygonJohnny Yu (he/him) is a guides writer at Polygon. He has written about games such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo 4, and Fire Emblem Engage.Daigo and the Baron are hidden around the Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 2 map and you must find them to complete “The Baron’s Big Deal” found quest you’ll realize that Daigo and the Baron aren’t marked on the map for you you won’t have to wait long as Daigo unleashes a powerful spell that makes his location a bit to find than his hideout Here’s how to locate Daigo and the Baron in Fortnite To locate Daigo and the Baron in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 2 load into a Battle Royale or Zero Build match and wait for a large pink explosion while you’re in the battle bus a pink pillar of light will shoot up into the sky — indicating Daigo and the Baron’s location Alternatively, you can open your map at the start of the game to find Fletcher Kane’s icon marked on the map, which is also where you can find Daigo. To complete the quest, drop out of the battle bus and glide towards the location. Once you’re in close proximity, you’ll finish the quest and receive 30,000 XP. That’s all you need to do for the quest, but if you’d like to know more about Chapter 6 Season 2’s lore, you must first take down the Baron. Once Fletcher Kane has been defeated, Daigo will stop channeling his spell and leave the battlefield saying, “These interruptions are getting tedious.” The best of Polygon in your inbox, every Friday. Finding Daigo and the Baron's location in Fortnite is currently one of the story quests you can complete and you'll earn 30,000 XP for this single task Luckily, once you know what to look for, finding them is relatively easy but in true Fortnite style you're not the only person looking for them watch your back and make sure you're ready for a fight here's where to find Daigo and the Baron in Fortnite In Fortnite you can find Daigo and the Baron's location by following the pink beam leading into the sky after the intial explosion while you're on the Battle Bus look around the island below and wait for a pink explosion - this is where you'll find them only a pink beam will remain which shows you where to find them If you're struggling to locate the Baron and Daigo you can also look for the Fletcher Kane icon on your map This shows up after the intial marker though and is showing you the location of the 'Unstoppable' Medallion so the best way to have a chance at getting there first is to follow the pink beam marker instead there's a chance that someone else has already picked up the Medallion if you're a decent way into the match which means the location you're following if you track the icon may be that of the player that picked it up - not the location you need for Daigo and the Baron look for a pink-purple portal and several characters around it One will be the Baron and one will be Daigo and as soon as you engage with them the story quest will be marked as complete you can also kill the Baron to take his 'Unstoppable' Medallion that increases your sprint speed and lets you knock back enemies you run into Just remember that medallions are visible to everyone on the map That's all for now! If you're looking for more Fortnite help, check out our pages showing you Scorpion's location and how to get Scorpion's Kombat Kit © 2025 Eurogamer.net a brand of IGN Entertainment No part of this website or its content may be reproduced without the copyright owner's permission Eurogamer is a registered trademark of Gamer Network Limited This post is going to focus on two specific pieces which were aimed at emulating Daigo Ikeno's style who was the illustrator on the fighting game community favorite Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike though Zero_Setsu isn't content with just drawing the Street Fighter characters as such but instead takes it one piece further While emulating the pre-match portraits for franchise figureheads Ryu and Ken Zero_Setsu instead chose to put in two other very famous figures — from one of the most famous manga series out there in these artworks we get to see a glimpse of what a fighting game with Daigo Ikeno art might have looked liked if based on one of the biggest intellectual properties in the world Sanji takes on the role of Ken while Zoro embodies Ryu in these amazing pieces that really do feel on par with what Daigo Ikeno produced Capcom's 1999 game back in the day You can check out the full versions of the images below For lots of other cool artwork of varying styles, make sure to check out Zero_Setsu on X and Setsu_Zero on Twitch to see it get made in real time Daigo Kagawa won the national open-weight judo championship for the first time in his career defeating Hisayoshi Harasawa in the final on Tuesday Judo fans closely watched Hifumi Abe to see how the two-time Olympic champion in the 66-kilogram class fared against bigger opponents In the title-clinching contest between the two over-100-kilogram judoka Kagawa won via a yusei decision in the one-day event at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan arena the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic silver medalist finished runner-up for the second consecutive year "I've finally reached the top," said Kagawa who has never competed at the Olympics or the world championships "I've been training hard to win this tournament I was able to fight with confidence using my favorite technique I want to be able to win at international events I'll try to qualify for the next Olympics." the 100-kg gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 Judo: Japanese women aim to rebound from Olympic setback at worlds Judo: 66-kg Olympic champion Hifumi Abe to return at open-weight c'ships Judo: Japan's Haruka Funakubo moves training base to France in bid for gold To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible The Beast himself recently discussed with some compatriots on stream a bit about what makes Street Fighter 6 different from Street Fighter 4 and what makes the new game harder to compete in His guests start the conversation by talking about how they feel Street Fighter 6 doesn't reward "honest" play and how it's more about the individual plus getting your opponent to look for the wrong things in the match up He calls Street Fighter 4 more of a simulation game while Street Fighter 6 is more like an action game We take that simulation game comment as meaning that if you had the execution in SF4 you pretty much knew what to do in almost any given scenario but execution isn't everything in the new game SF6 asks you to balance in more of the where which can largely be determined by your opponent's knowledge and reactions Daigo obviously doesn't say whether one way is better than the other or which he likes more but it is clear he feels like SF6 is a more complex game to compete in at a high level you have to pay close attention to whether or not your opponent is teching throws if they're looking for / can react to Drive Impacts and of course if they are able to check Drive Rushes And those are all things you have to be mindful of in reverse too The mental stack is very different between every Street Fighter game and SF6's Drive System in particular has added more on there than ever before Daigo also recently talked about why he's sticking with Akuma and not really looking at Ryu seriously yet which you should check out if you haven't already You can check out Umehara's full video below with English subtitles where they also discuss the difficulties in the Akuma and Zangief match up BST|Daigo Umehara has seen and reacted to former Capcom Cup champion MenaRD's challenge to play each other in Street Fighter 6 in a first to 10 match in probably the most Daigo way imaginable The Beast himself just released a new video with English subtitles discussing Mena's message and whether or not he should accept so it's this kind of message," Daigo has a chuckle while reading out the Dominican champion's letter for the first time "He's not just talking about doing a casual set The longtime fighting game legend then immediately shifts to logistics mode wondering how it'd work out exactly he also ponders if it's even okay for him to accept at all since it could "make Tokido mad" or a bit upset There's also talk on if they should do it before Season 3 likely coming around May to avoid the balance changes coming to SF6 / their characters "I do think some people would take issue with me just doing this out of the blue Should I play someone else in the meantime Then he begins to contemplate who he could train against to prepare for Luke and Zangief if the FT10 does end up happening but he does sound pretty interested in the prospect of taking on and accepting Mena's challenge at some point The earliest it could happen would probably be Capcom Cup 11 weekend next month since Mena and most of the best players in the world will already be in Japan but there's also Evo Japan 2025 in the Spring as well Daigo doesn't sound like he's in much of a rush to do this the showdown may not even happen this year even if he does agree Only around the first two minutes cover the Mena situation with the rest focusing on him helping his Crazy Raccoon Cup 7 team before the event And team Umehara ended up taking the whole thing in the end You can check out Daigo's new video below to see his Daigo response to Mena's letter as well as his mentor style with Komori Met and the rest of this team At one point, Daigo was informed about the situation related to Tekken 8 Season 2 Daigo drew comparisons to Street Fighter 5's early seasons but noted that Street Fighter 6 is in a really good place right now I think it was only starting from Season 4 that it started to get better." Street Fighter 6 is doing amazing," continued Daigo "It's still Season 2 and we have this balance." Daigo mentioned that it will be interesting to see the direction in which Capcom decides to take Street Fighter 6 considering how well balanced it already is "I don't know what they'll change," stated Daigo It's about which direction to take that really decides the content of the next update and some might get buffed," continued Daigo Street Fighter 6 is as good as later Street Fighter 5.. So it'll be about the direction that they'll want to take." these sort of decisions could lead to more or less consistency for better players Although Daigo Umehara has established quite the name for himself throughout fighting game history most players probably weren't expecting him to win this event as he's primarily been focused on his streaming activities NoahTheProdigy ended up eliminating Daigo at 9th place with a 5-2 set victory Daigo Umehara had an unexpected surprise announcement to make at the event This announcement marks a major change in what we can probably expect from Daigo's fighting game career "Well actually I felt that (Noah's) counterattack response and movement speed was really fast and hard to deal with I will quit streaming and return to Street Fighter 6 as a sport and compete seriously once more so with a bit of time I'd like to take my revenge (against Noah)," said Daigo according to Ryan Hart's translation Daigo is known to be one of the greatest players throughout the eras of Street Fighter 2 It's also worth noting that Daigo holds the Guinness World Record as "the most successful player in major tournaments of Street Fighter." Daigo is known to be a six time Evo Championship Series winner — achieving victory during the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo events at Evo 2003 and Evo 2004 Guilty Gear XX events at Evo 2003 and Evo 2004 and Street Fighter 4 events at Evo 2009 and 2010 Daigo's also famous for "Evo Moment 37," where he pulled off an insane comeback against Justin Wong through a series of parries in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike This moment has become legendary even amongst those not necessarily hardcore about fighting games Although Daigo still competed throughout Street Fighter 5 and Street fighter 6 he's thus far not been as prevalent as a player This was likely due to Daigo putting a greater focus on content creation revolving around the Street Fighter series The path that he has chosen will no doubt be a difficult one as the fighting game space is now occupied by many players that are only half his age Although it's known that reaction times tend to get worse as we age beyond 26 years Daigo has had his share of moments in which he's shown that he can still duke it out with the best of them It will certainly be interesting to see how things play out from here Daigo's declaration today suggests that we'll finally be seeing him back in his element in a way that we haven't seen for years now ABSOLUTELY HUGE INFO DROP FROM DAIGO AT RBK PARIS !!😱😱😱"This year I will quit streaming and return to SF6 as a sport for serious competition once more!!!"FULL POST MATCH NOAH INTERVIEW TRANSLATION WHEN ASKED ABOUT PLAYING YOUNG NOAH:Daigo: "Well actually I felt that… pic.twitter.com/H0vQT26C5B Leading up to this, we saw events in which 2G|Blaz and Mouz|EndingWalker were able to come in second place at Capcom Cup 11 and Red Bull Kumite 2025 respectively The interesting thing about these achievements is that both players were able to place at major tournaments using Ryu a character that was previously being regarded as one of the weaker combatants in Street Fighter 6 A new perception of Ryu is beginning to manifest within the competitive Street Fighter 6 community Could this be a good time for a player like Daigo to finally switch to Ryu Daigo revealed that he still intends to stick with Akuma for the time being Though Daigo does acknowledge that there are some merits to switching to Ryu over Akuma he believes that it would be more prudent for him to stick with the more complex character rather than switching to a simple one "I think Ryu is a pretty strong character now," stated Daigo Ryu players are beating these characters now," continued Daigo But I really think I can go back to Ryu at anytime." Ryu has always been designed to be a simple character to pick up even if he is a little difficult to master Akuma is the type of character that requires quite the commitment for those that wish to master his complexities there's always little room for error when playing as Akuma "You might think I'm underestimating Ryu for saying this but I don't think Ryu is doing anything extremely complicated," said Daigo "That's why I think I can go back to Ryu at anytime and I switch to Ryu or Ken," continued Daigo It's interesting that Daigo thinks that Akuma could receive some buffs in the future Daigo is of the opinion that Ryu won't be receiving any share of buffs anytime soon due to his recent successes Daigo is also open to the possibility of Akuma getting nerfed Daigo says that he's open to switching to another character if that scenario plays out Desk makes use of the Just Defense mechanic against all the super moves in the game and doing some pretty cool punishes for them with each character getting their time to shine as the punishment provider as well Learning to perform these feats is actually not a bad idea considering that Just Defense not only negates chip damage but also recovers a small portion of your hit points as well so with how many hits some of these super attacks have you can actually restore a pretty big chunk of your life bar Some of these take advantage of the fact that contrary to regular blocking Just Defense is possible to do while airborne so you can use it against anti-air supers as well if you're prepared for it Since the video covers every single super in the game that actually can be subjected to blocking or Just Defense it's a pretty neat look at what kind of spacing you'll end up at and what kind of punishment you can look for yourself in training mode the more likely you are to start seeing Just Defense or Hyper Defense applied at high levels because of all the benefits it grants so it's nice to see Desk already showing applications for it Check out Desk's latest video below and see what Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves' own parry-like mechanic can offer in these types of chip situations (or combo drops for that matter) One of the few pro players who's been around since those early arcade days until now in BST|Daigo Umehara recently described what the SF2 craze was like and how it's never really been matched to the younger generation When talking about the fighting game boom to his junior influencer this is what The Beast recalled from his perspective in Japan SF2 was so popular that people were quitting their day jobs to open arcades," said Daigo But that explosion didn't last as long as many people nowadays probably would've thought compared to the trajectory of modern games that caught Umehara's call partner by surprise It felt like a long time at the time because I was a kid wondering if we'd ever have another boom like that." Even when asked about the Street Fighter 4 era Daigo doesn't feel like it hit the same level "Well I'm sure people unfamiliar with the SF2 craze thought SF4 seemed like a big moment for fighting games Daigo goes on to talk about how even the tournament scene was big back then with 8,500 people qualifying for the national event in Japan after getting through qualifier tournaments that may draw 100 people at a bookstore or something You had no idea what kind of players you mind find on what planets "Even if you beat 100 people in a row in your hometown you might lose 100 times as soon as you set out into 'space.'" There was one fighting game that Daigo felt came close to SF2 in Japan though it was from pretty much the same era Daigo himself was playing and served as a witness to the craze back then but it wouldn't be more until Darkstalkers and Street Fighter Alpha that he'd start to make a true name for himself in the competitive scene while still in school Umehara claims the buzz around Street Fighter 6 is the closest to those SF2 days for 2D fighters but feels it's impossible now to ever match what was there over 30 years ago Street Fighter 6 is absolutely huge in Japan with over 1 million copies sold in just its home country which makes up almost a quarter of the total of the 4.4 million sales the game has worldwide And now Capcom Cup 11 is looking like it'll be a huge event taking place in Japan this week too instead of the usual stomping grounds of the United States It's also seemingly gotten close to matching all of Street Fighter 4's lifetime sales in Japan across every version in less than two years But even that isn't close to what Street Fighter 2 pulled in on the consoles back then in the region You should check out the full discussion from Daigo about SF2 and fighting games below And don't think too hard that many of the players now were probably born closer to Street Fighter 4 than they were Street Fighter 2 He was eliminated by NoahTheProdigy via a 5-2 set victory Daigo made an announcement that nobody was really expecting Daigo has seemingly made it his goal to focus more on competitive Street Fighter 6 Daigo is planning to quit streaming so that he may devote all his energy towards this goal Just yesterday, Noah acknowledged the Daigo's desire to have a rematch against him Noah outlined a few conditions for this rematch to happen "I will give you a year to train and get your run back but I will only do it if you come to my hood and play me and give kids hope in my city This could turn out to be an interesting rivalry We'll just have to see if Daigo is willing to accept these conditions .@daigothebeast I will give you a year to train and get your run back but I will only do it if you come to my hood and play me and give kids hope in my city the choice is yours https://t.co/XOZv0py0xM pic.twitter.com/mCgdlLAJBq one of Daigo's viewers asked him to play Capcom vs which immediately prompted an amusing response "No way!" exclaimed Daigo after reading aloud the comment Daigo was asked if K-Groove was more broken than the Rolling Cancel and N-Groove have Rolling Cancel," explained Daigo And K-Groove has 'just defend.' So only three grooves can use Rolling Cancel." "C-Groove and N-Groove are weaker than K-Groove even with Rolling Cancel," continued Daigo this said a lot about how ridiculous A-Groove was in Capcom vs SNK 2 as Daigo mentioned that it was even stronger than K-Groove Daigo had a lot of interesting thoughts to share about some of the older fighting games including how Street Fighter 2 is his favorite in the Street Fighter series thanks to all the memories he has of it Two-time Capcom Cup champion WBG|MenaRD recently challenged BST|Daigo Umehara to a first-to-10 match in Street Fighter 6 and the long-set master recently appeared on a show with Rohto|Tokido to discuss the prospect further as well as the current state of the FGC This isn't the first time that Daigo has talked about Mena's challenge but now he's had more time to think on it and put together his feelings Of course, Tokido famously played Daigo at Kemonomichi during Street Fighter 5 in a very emotionally charged set that's gone down in fighting game history as one of the all-time greats Daigo is a bit surprised that the newer generation even cares about these long sets anymore because that's not where the competitive scene is at now Umehara then gets a bit more philosophical about the rules we play under at fighting game events and whether they're the best they could be or it's just what's become accepted as the norm / how things have been done Tokido encourages Daigo to accept and take Mena on though notes the timing could prove a bit difficult They both note how getting the stars aligned is not quite the same as it used to be with the Capcom Pro Tour and Street Fighter League going on as well as regular game updates The pair are hopeful to find an opening in the seasons to pull off the match at some point though there's no time table set in stone yet it seems At the worst he says they could play right before Street Fighter 7 arrives but considering SF6 is likely to be supported for multiple more years to come they'll hopefully find the time at some point in the not too distant future You can check out the full discussion between Daigo and Tokido below and let us know in the comments who you think would win if he and MenaRD played the FT10 right now Daigo appeared to be interested in potentially using Mai as his new main character it was Mai's fans that impressed Daigo the most but as he learned more about the character "She checks a lot of the boxes I like in a character," said Daigo this was before Daigo knew that Mai's fireballs can be swatted away with simple strikes Daigo began to express a little doubt about Mai He noted that she'll probably struggle against fireballs since her fans can't normally clash with them So it's not really a projectile," responded Daigo to his live chat then she's going to have a hard time against fireballs." Daigo continued experimenting with some setups involving Mai's fan "projectiles." He seemed to still be overall impressed with Mai's capabilities "She looks really strong," continued Daigo and it was like 'What's his selling point?' Maybe I should actually play her for real There aren't many characters who seem this good at first glance." With the last CPT Super Premier of 2024 going down in Japan for Street Fighter 6 this weekend, legendary pro BST|Daigo Umehara recently shared some of his thoughts and concerns about the circuit's current format While attending the Singapore Super Premier a few weeks ago Umehara recorded a video from his hotel room answering some questions from his fans and talking about his experience at the event He notes being surprised by how many strong players were sent to loser's bracket very early like BST|Fuudo Mouz|EndingWalker and plenty of others or were even eliminated before the advanced stages Daigo then notes that he's managed to travel to all four Premiers up to that point (now five counting Japan) and how he may be the only person to do so this year because he's one of the very few players left whose sponsors cover most if not all of their travel expenses He laments a bit about the qualifying structure for the CPT now and how only two competitors are going to come out with a Capcom Cup spot — and the rest basically get nothing I know it's ultimately gonna come down to two people "But going overseas for the first time in a while and maybe it's just last-minute desperation but everyone comes out to these events thinking they have a shot "They spend seven or eight hours in transit There's something not quite right about this system "I can't help but feel like it is kind of a silly system." This isn't the first time Umehara has spoken about Street Fighter 6's pro circuit lately recently either Previously, Daigo discussed how the current CPT structure gives players fewer incentives to travel to multiple offline events around the world That in large part comes to the elimination of the world leaderboard ranking system where even if a player didn't win a tournament they could still earn points to try and qualify for Capcom Cup at the end of the year based on their overall performance He went on to detail how he believes Japanese players would be consistently dominating the scene again in SF6 like we previously saw in Street Fighter 4 5 and pretty much every entry in the series if they were given a reason to travel The recent CPT results may be backing that up a bit at the moment with CR|Shuto and DFM|Itabashi Zangief each won the last two Premier events after the region had largely struggled to take victories at the global scale in SF6 thus far Those concerns don't mean that Daigo isn't still grateful for what the community does have if you told me I should be grateful we have these tournaments at all I wouldn't have a single rebuttal," continued Umehara 'That's what you get for expecting to make money playing with toys,' I'd be like He then attempts to draw some parallels to the movie Challengers comparing a bit the struggle of pro tennis players and pro fighting game players "Those athletes live in a really harsh world which is only natural because they're playing at such a high level But I think whoever loses gets to go home feeling convinced that it really came down to their own weakness "I can't help but wonder if we'll ever have a system that lets us feel that way I feel like participation is going to wane rapidly he points to how the concept of a "pro" player still hasn't really been worked out Daigo also notes the issues trying to balance having an open-bracket tournament structure with that of the logistics of running a stream / event and the wants of players at said events The current CPT is also putting a lot more focus on the regional aspect of the qualification process and less on offline Premiers Although there are 48 players going to Capcom Cup 11 next year only 10 of them are coming from the 8 Premiers this year there also will not be a last chance qualifier tournament before Capcom Cup for those who would wish to travel for the opportunity a final time there's just the top two placers at CPT Japan followed by the winner of Blink Respawn 2024 next weekend and then Kings of the World in December The decentralized nature of these World Warrior events does allow for more players all around the globe to compete for points on that scale but it also comes at the price of lowered exposure and added trouble of even well-informed fans having trouble keeping up with who is winning and where There's a ton to juggle for a world-scale fighting game circuit but Capcom should take a hard look at how the CPT is set up now and figure out a way to improve the experience for both competitors and viewers who want to keep up with the action and follow rivalries / stories as they progress through a season or beyond Daigo does go into some ideas he would prefer which you can check out as part of his discussion below but we'll go more over them another time soon In a clip uploaded by Red Bull Gaming Daigo actually ranks each of his Street Fighter mains based on how much he enjoyed playing them we had Nicholas "MajinTenshinhan" Taylor provide us with translations Characters have been arranged into one of four different categories: S tier Daigo admits that there are some characters that he really didn't enjoy playing but used them anyhow since they were strong Daigo believes that he has potential to move up even higher with time ウメハラの歴代使用キャラ好きランキング@daigothebeastJP pic.twitter.com/Ofmh5uJHA9 Ryu ends up being both at the top of the tier list and the bottom Street Fighter 4 Ryu is said to be Daigo's favorite Street Fighter 5 Ryu took the character in a direction that Daigo really didn't like There's no doubt that this was one of the worst incarnations we've ever seen of Ryu in a mainline Street Fighter game This is my ranking for how much I like my historical mains so actually I'd probably put him here in A rank I'd honestly place him down here in C rank my gratitude for him is actually up in S rank Everyone still keeps calling the White Gi Ken the "Umehara Ken" too He's probably the character I've played the most but my memory focuses more on the losses with him I might have to put him further down than you'd expect (Daigo just silently puts him at the bottom) He's kind of the successor to Street Fighter 4's Ryu this was what I was doing most of Street Fighter 5 Shortly after she was released, BST|Daigo Umehara considered maining Mai Shiranui due to how powerful she felt right from the get go he would eventually have some doubts upon discovering that Mai's fans aren't able to properly collide with fireballs (or any other attacks) unless they get a boost from Mai's level 1 super art Daigo tried Mai Shiranui against actual players during one of his sessions Mai appears to perform well against characters without access to fireballs this is even better than A.K.I.'s projectiles," declared Daigo Despite being a "trap character," Daigo noted that Mai's game plan was a fairly simple yet rewarding one Every time the opponent is forced to block her fan projectile they get forced to deal with several mix ups "It's really obvious what her strengths are." said Daigo towards the end of the video "It's like the developers are shouting at us: 'These are this character's strengths!'" In a recent video upload, BST|Daigo Umehara shared some of his own thoughts about the subject of throw loops in Street Fighter 6 The topic came up when he was asked about the strength of throws in Street Fighter 4 Unlike Street Fighter 5 and Street Fighter 6 throws in Street Fighter 4 typically led to the opponent suffering a hard knockdown state this meant that you couldn't perform a quick getup after taking a throw This was to make up for the fact that throws were a little difficult to actually land in Street Fighter 4 "Was it okay that you couldn't quick rise after throw or sweep [in Street Fighter 4]?" asked one of Daigo's viewers during his stream "I had no problem," responded Daigo after reading aloud the question But there should be a reset after each throw Daigo began talking about how throws worked in Street Fighter 6 Though he believes that throws could probably do with some sort of buff he's not a big fan of the dreaded throw loops as it can make even some of the top players play inconsistently I think they can buff normal throws even more," continued Daigo I think it's too simplistic that you win a round only with throws." Ryu in Street Fighter 6 has seen significant improvements over his Street Fighter 5 incarnation but still ultimately suffers from many of the same problems it would seem that Daigo has hilariously become quite critical of his teammate we can understand everything that happens in the video released on Daigo's YouTube channel even us English speakers can hear the disbelief in Daigo's voice when Naruo announces that he's going Ryu against Ceros' Rashid "I've been training for this," declared Naruo Daigo issued Naruo a stern warning of what would happen if he lost this match your intentions will fall under severe scrutiny This resulted in a lot of laughter from the crew things were looking favorable for Naruo as he was surprisingly after to get win the first game against Ceros' Rashid It was beginning to look like Naruo's high risk play would pay off Naruo ended up losing to Ceros which then resulted in him bracing for the scrutiny that Daigo had promised him "What exactly is your intent!?" exclaimed Daigo upon seeing Rashid hitting Ryu with a Critical Art to end the set "Don't ever pick that character again!" continued Daigo any fan is also very well aware of Saul Mena Coming from an at the time underrepresented region in the competitive fighting game space to win Capcom Cup in 2017 to put his nation on the map he went on to keep winning for years and finally grabbed a second Capcom Cup championship at the end of Street Fighter 5 for its final Capcom Cup we've seen an interaction between these two players that is exciting A few hours ago, MenaRD took to X to write out a lengthy letter to BST|Daigo explaining his reverence for the legendary player and his willingness to fight him on his home turf For the longest time, it's been known that even if you may be able to beat Daigo Umehara in a regular tournament format, trying to best him in a first-to-10 is an entirely different beast Classic exhibitions were held in Street Fighter 4 against Evo champions of the time Daigo's very own event Kemonomichi had him battling against his long-time rival Rohto|Tokido in Street Fighter 5 famously culminating in Tokido being reduced to tears at his loss His prowess in these longer sets have even been compared to DC Comics Batman a character who's often cited to be able to win against any super-powered being within his own canon our outside of it "prep time Daigo" seems to be on the same level of unmatched skill beginning his message to Daigo by saying " I want to confess that I firmly believe you are the best ever at preparing for long sets in Street Fighter" following up by remarking "It would be the greatest honor of my career if I had the opportunity to fight you in a first to 10." Despite the storied career that MenaRD already has at the still very young age of just 25 years old MenaRD clearly feels that there's still more he needs to do in Street Fighter with the fabled "prep time Daigo" being his current goal There's no intention of pressuring Daigo in this message as MenaRD clarifies that it doesn't have to be anytime soon but that he wishes to have this set up at some point in the future and hopes that Daigo will accept his challenge when and if he feels would be a good time for him MenaRD's message was clearly originally written in English and has later been translated to Japanese and its original intent can be found in his post below I want to confess that I firmly believe you are the best ever at preparing for long sets in Street Fighter Your incredible record has proven just how impossibly strong you become when you prepare for a player.It would be the greatest honor of… it didn't take long before Daigo saw this message and during streaming he reads through it and ponders it for a few moments translated from Japanese by myself: "I see perhaps the most casual response imaginable but also very in-character for Daigo His stream chat goes wild at the remark and after a few more seconds of silence Daigo's next followup is to say in a joking manner "Tokido isn't watching You can see Daigo's response below, as clipped by HiFight Daigo accepted MenaRD's letter of challenge https://t.co/vpHN56kvWW pic.twitter.com/EBaCBsOnxq The prospect of a long set between Daigo Umehara and MenaRD is an enticing one While the stated time is "sometime in the future" now that the possibility has been raised we'll most likely see it happen for Street Fighter 6 within the next year or perhaps next few years What are you hoping to see from such a grand exhibition Fans frequently pay attention to BST|Daigo Umehara whenever Ryu gets major buffs in a Street Fighter entry since Daigo was able to make quite a name for himself using Ryu in Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter 4 it would seem that Daigo is content with Akuma even though that combatant received a number of nerfs I don't really know," responded Daigo during one of his livestreams He fell so far and has been climbing back up all this time The last time Ryu was considered top tier in Street Fighter was Season 1 of Street Fighter 5 It was also believed that Ryu could've been strong during the Street Fighter 6 beta period Ryu and his straightforward game plan continues to struggle even in Street Fighter 6 I've been relying on stuff like Drive Rush and Demon Raid right?" continued Daigo when he was asked why he hadn't returned to Ryu after the patch He has to make do with fireballs and footsies." the main reason why Daigo isn't necessarily interested in playing Ryu is because he's wanting to keep things fresh by playing Akuma Daigo notes that he could've potentially been placing better at the beginning if he had just stuck with Guile after Street Fighter 5 but this might've resulted in him becoming bored with Street Fighter 6 Login | Sign Up Time Extension Guest "SF2 was so popular that people were quitting their day jobs to open arcades" Legendary Street Fighter player Daigo "The Beast" Umehara has been speaking about the incredible impact Street Fighter II had on the games industry back in the early '90s and feels that we haven't witnessed anything like it since Street Fighter II: The World Warrior sold over 200,000 arcade cabinets and 15 million home versions—6.3 million of which were sold on the SNES alone It almost single-handedly kick-started the one-on-one fighting game boom which would last for the majority of the 1990s producing a seemingly endless series of sequels from Capcom and a flood of clones from rival companies As spotted by Event Hubs Umehara talked about Capcom's famous fighter during a YouTube interview and tried to explain just how massive it was: SF2 was so popular that people were quitting their day jobs to open arcades he is keen to note that this boom didn't last all that long: wondering if we'd ever have another boom like that "I'm serious. There hasn't been one," he replies. He says that people who assume Street Fighter IV's success gave it parity with the second game perhaps weren't around to experience Street Fighter II's zenith "I'm sure people unfamiliar with the SF2 craze thought SF4 seemed like a big moment for fighting games He also claims that while Street Fighter 6 has done well to revive the series in recent times it too is a long way off matching its 1991 predecessor "It was basically an escalation of the 'cover-mounted gift wars' of the period" [source eventhubs.com] Prev Next Damien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media's sites from an editorial perspective. He's also the editor of Time Extension which – paradoxically – is all about gaming's past glories "That boom was only about two years long It felt like a long time at the time because I was a kid." This pretty much sums up that whole '90s era for me I still discover things like RE2 released the same year as MGS1 when in my memory they feel like they were 2-3 years apart I think Street Fighter 2 is probably the most important game/series of the whole 16-bit generation The SF2 boom became a general fighting game boom I wonder if the boom itself lasted longer than two years but it got diluted among more companies and franchises Fighting games remained popular well into the late 1990s but King of Fighters did enjoy a good bit of popularity in Japan and other Asian countries The arcade/16 bit era will never be repeated I used to play it in a video rental shop around the corner from where I lived They'd got Champion Edition in initially and later had one of the odd non official versions Once I had the Mega Drive port became my most played game until I could beat it with every character My Mum would always give my Sister and I a pound coin to play Street Fighter 2 after we had gone swimming (they had a cabinet at the pool) "It felt like a long time at the time because I was a kid."Beautiful but my nostalgia is anchored on my time with my SNES When the SFC version was released in Japan I only managed to secure 24 copies and they sold back then at £100 each I was making less profit on those than I would have on a game half the price due to the super high purchase cost Show Comments Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment.. We Might Be About To Lose A Powerful Force In The World Of Video Game Preservation we are completely out of cash in September" Limited Run And Retro-Bit Under Fire For Using Recycled Chips In Shantae Advance After More Than 20 Years, Sonic Will No Longer Overlook One Of The UK's Busiest Roads Sega Europe is leaving its Brentford-based office for pastures new The WavePhoenix Brings Nintendo's Best Controller Back To Life For $5 "I'm hoping WavePhoenix gives a second life to WaveBirds" Claims That Square, Capcom, Taito, & Sega Are Promising To Preserve Their Past A "Fabrication" Claims GPS Update: Joseph Redon of the GPS speaks out Street Fighter II: The World Warrior Arcade SNES Capcom 2 News Ex-Capcom Artist Launches Kickstarter For Dhalman, And Boy, Does It Look Like Street Fighter 2 News Street Fighter And Kingdom Hearts Composer Joins Retromessa As It Celebrates 10 Years Feature We Might Be About To Lose A Powerful Force In The World Of Video Game Pr... News Limited Run And Retro-Bit Under Fire For Using Recycled Chips In Shantae... News After More Than 20 Years, Sonic Will No Longer Overlook One Of The UK's ... News The WavePhoenix Brings Nintendo's Best Controller Back To Life For $5 News Claims That Square, Capcom, Taito, & Sega Are Promising To Preserve Thei... News The Fan-Resurrected Sega Neptune Is Getting A Special Doom-Themed Variant News Sega's Altered Beast Gets A Free Fan-Made Remake News Namco's Unported Arcade Classic 'NebulasRay' Gets Its Console Debut Late... News Soon, You'll Be Able To Play Diddy Kong Racing Natively On Your PC News Wii Homebrew Community "Built On Lies And Copyright Infringement" Show More © 2025 Hookshot Media, partner of IGN Entertainment | Hosted by 44 Bytes | AdChoices | Do Not Sell My Personal Information In one of Daigo Umehara's latest videos, the legendary fighting game player was asked by a viewer in chat during a live stream if he would come over and help them learn Street Fighter 6 Daigo ended up meeting up with this person who he had never met before and gave them a personal lesson on how to improve While live streaming his walk to the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Japan Daigo found that he had arrived at his destination early and had a couple of hours to kill before his appointment One of his viewers who was watching live informed Daigo that they happen to live very close by and asked The Beast if he was willing to come over Daigo noted several times that the idea of showing up to a stranger's house is a bit scary (and it totally is) but he decided to meet up with the person anyway who is a university student and a Platinum ranked Modern Zangief player in Street Fighter 6 and the two headed to the viewer's apartment to begin their lesson Daigo legitimately visited this player's home and then proceeded to sit down with them to review some of their losing match footage to help identify where and how they can improve He goes over some of the key aspects the player is missing using an analogy that compares the overall gameplan to a card game Daigo points out that the player does not have enough cards (offensive options) in their hand at the time and that their main focus should be adding more Daigo also covers some of the overall approaches and concepts Zangief needs to focus on to succeed such as simply working on getting in on the opponent as the main goal He also walks the player through how to implement raw Drive Rush into the approach and what options to look for when the opponent aims for specific counters There's some great information to learn here even if you're not a Modern Zangief player you might want to see this video for the simple crazy fact that Daigo actually went to a stranger's house to teach them how to play Street Fighter 6 In a recent video upload, BST|Daigo Umehara took the time to go over and analyze the changes made to Ryu he ends up "howling" in excitement with some of the changes that he goes over Ryu seems totally viable," says Daigo at one point After experimenting with some corner combos Daigo takes notice of how much Drive Gauge Ryu's High Blade Kick depleted from the opponent when they block the technique This seems quite strong considering how it basically takes away an entire bar while remaining safe (even more so than before) "He's good enough that I'd like to try playing with him when I have time," continued Daigo later in the video as long as this game has corner throw loops I feel like he's still going to fall short." Every time Ryu gets buffed since Street Fighter 5 there tends to be a lot of hype that he may finally end up being viable One also has to imagine that there's always a lot of pressure on Daigo to play Ryu but it sounds like he'll probably still be sticking with Akuma while using Ryu for more casual sessions Still, it's worth noting that Kusangi was able to qualify for Capcom Cup 11 with Ryu not too long ago We'll probably get a better feel for what these buffs will do for Ryu around that time Check out all of Daigo's reactions to Ryu's changes in the video below: While we've talked quite a bit about said winners and losers already, another branch of this discussion leads to the players themselves talking about how their main characters were impacted. We now have Daigo "The Beast" Umehara sharing his thoughts on how Akuma's nerfs have affected the powerful Shoto Daigo recently took to his live stream to walk viewers through the changes and more deeply explore them for himself He has since uploaded the segment to YouTube with full English subtitles allowing us to learn more about what he thinks on the matter the main focus for this video is Akuma and the nerfs he received We saw such changes as a slower back walk speed for the fighter a larger hurtbox on his arms when throwing a fireball and less damage on his Overdrive Gou Shoryuken Daigo tests the change made to Akuma's regular and Overdrive Gou Hadoken This change extends the hurtbox forward after the move begins which is intended to make Akuma's already strong fireballs easier to punish with projectile invincible moves and jump in attacks Daigo runs some quick tests and notices that it's still fairly hard to space maneuvers like Akuma's level 2 super and Ken's Overdrive Shoryuken and successfully punish his fireball — though it definitely does appear slightly more punishable now Daigo tests out the nerf to Akuma's Demon Swoop that increases the landing recovery when the Shoto uses it to switch sides and sails over the opponent so that change doesn't matter," Daigo explains And that there seems to be the sentiment Daigo has about Akuma's changes overall He notes that the changes made are "no-brainer" changes (obvious changes) that likely needed to happen as Akuma was too strong he still intends to play the character and feels these changes mostly wont impact him — though that could change as we learn more You can find Daigo's full thoughts on Akuma's changes as well what he thinks about some of the other top tiers' nerfs below Just be sure to hit the closed captions button before watching By this point, many players have already concluded that Terry Bogard ranks on the lower end of the tier list. In a recent video upload, BST|Daigo Umehara recently discussed some interesting topics such as modern controls "The overall skill level right now has far exceeded the developers' expectations Because they just have no idea how skilled the players will prove to be the strongest characters in a game like Street Fighter 6 tend to be the most popular Daigo notes that the game developers can make a character popular by making them really strong "If they want a certain character to be popular they have to make the character so obviously strong or players will betray their expectations," continued Daigo Daigo then applies some amusing logic about the design philosophy behind Terry in Street Fighter 6 Since he's the first guest character in Street Fighter 6 perhaps the developers didn't want him to be stronger than Capcom characters I'm not sure what their intention was with him," declared Daigo "I wonder what they were thinking with Terry I guess maybe they couldn't justify having him outclass Capcom's own characters Daigo concludes that more frequent updates could potentially solve these sort of balance issues but he also notes that this could prove to be expensive for Capcom Earlier this year, Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama mentioned plans for smaller balance patches rather than just a big yearly update. To an extent, Capcom has been fulfilling that promise, but perhaps they're still happening too infrequently for players' tastes. As noted by Daigo, it's not really possible for developers to anticipate exactly how strong or how weak each character will be upon their release. This is why balance updates can be so important. When it comes to controversial decisions, it is likely that their contest will figure highly, too. A blood-soaked Tsutsumi, his left eye cracked open from a clash of heads in the fourth round, seemed to have done more than enough to defend his title with a victory but their fight was scored 114-114 – a draw across the board – from all three officials. The champion didn’t criticize the scoring afterwards, but he was disappointed. Instead, he praised Higa’s strength and toughness and thanked him for the fight. “Higa was so strong, I couldn’t think this was a successful match that I had. I believe I want to be even stronger for upcoming fights,” said Tsutsumi. In 2024 Tsutsumi was in a fight-of-the-year contender with Takuma Inoue. He and Higa had boxed before, sharing a 10-round draw in October 2020. In Tokyo, Japan, at the Ariake Arena, Tsutsumi started well on the front foot, with Higa looking for feints and counters. Tsutsumi was throwing more, but Higa tried to make sure everything he landed counted by loading up with malice and intent each time. Tsutsumi was pocketing the early rounds and staying busy, but Higa landed a warning overhand right to let Tsutsumi know he needed to attack with caution and not abandon. Still, heads clashed in the fourth, and Tsutsumi was left with a nasty cut over his left eye. The doctor was immediately summoned to inspect the wound and, when Tsutsumi re-emerged from his corner, the blood flowed down the side of his face. Higa promptly raked the damaged area with left hooks, and Tsutsumi fought with a sense of urgency, clearly concerned that his night was in danger of being curtailed. The blood streamed down the right side of Tsutsumi’s face through the fifth and sixth, and Higa’s corner loudly cheered when he banged in a right hand. But it wasn’t one way traffic. The champion threw a long right in round six and still forged forwards. He scored to the body, too, although he dabbed at the cut that clearly bothered him. They jostled for position in the seventh, both trying to claim an advantage on the inside, but it was the bloody champion who held the upper hand. Higa was either waiting too long or loading up too much to be winning rounds. By the time Higa had crashed in another meaningful right hand in the seventh, Tsutsumi had already outworked him through the majority of the round, and he had found a home for right uppercuts, too, which Higa had trouble blocking or evading. The challenger needed to do more and throw more, but he was unable to follow up anything significant that he did manage to land. Tsutumi was fighting with ambition and desire. He seemed more desperate to hold on to his crown than Higa appeared to claim it. The cut was a factor, but it by no means distracted Tsutsumi from his mission. Then, however, Higa lashed in a left hook that dumped the champion on to his shorts in round nine. Tsutsumi rose and Higa steamed in to finish him. Higa cracked him with another right over the top and Tsutsumi was fighting hard to keep the marauding challenger off. But, in an instant, the fight seemed as though it could be all over. The emboldened Higa marched forwards and as he swung an uppercut with fight-ending intentions, Tsutsumi crunched him with a right hand that dropped Higa face first on to the canvas. It was astonishing. Higa was hurt, and groggily was allowed to continue, and had to hold to hear the bell to end the ninth. What a round. The action did not subside. Tsutsumi’s volume continued to earn points and the cumulative toll was beginning to show as Higa was rocked by a couple of rights in round 11. Tsutsumi’s engine never faltered. He boxed with a constant enthusiasm and had no intention of falling at the first hurdle as a champion. Higa’s moment of glory in the ninth was only brief, though he was in there pitching with his left hook throughout, and he was doing so with only seconds of the contest remaining. Exhausted, they embraced at the final bell and Higa attempted to clean the blood from his rival’s eye at the end in a sporting gesture. It seemed that the champion had done more than enough for victory. Higa also seemed far more satisfied with the result. The champion, 29, from Tokyo, is now 12-0-3 (8 KOs). The Japanese veteran Higa, who also fights out of Tokyo, is 21-3-2 (19 KOs). This website may contain adult language. TM & © 2025 BoxingScene.All Rights Reserved. This website may contain adult language TM & © 2025 BoxingScene.All Rights Reserved The gameplay and commentary depicted in the ad are based on a Guilty Gear team tournament that Daigo participated in over 14 years ago Despite being mostly known as a top Street Fighter competitor Daigo was able to surprise everyone by scoring a victory for his team that day "Umehara ga kimetaaaaaaaaaaaa!" can be heard getting shouted by the commentator in both the ad and the actual clip that it's based on this amazing scene has become quite the meme in Japan the advertisement has taken some creative liberties with what happened over 14 years ago Rather than facing off against a Faust player Daigo is instead fighting a cup of noodles within the game itself Those responsible for the creation of the commercial have clearly paid attention to the small details The combo that Daigo's Sol Badguy performs in the commercial is similar to what he actually did in the tournament he participated in Sol proceeds to pull out a giant teapot with boiling hot water He then opts to pour the giant teapot's contents into the Nissin Cup Noodles Sol then activates a super that has him placing two giant slices of cheese on top of the noodle cup We then cut back to real life with Daigo eating the cup of noodles there's a lot of yelling in the commercial as it's trying to emulate the high energy of that tournament moment that's become so iconic within the fighting game community ウメハラがぁ！！！チリトマトにぃぃっ！！！！チーズでフタをしたぁぁーっ！！！！#カップヌードルチリトマト #チーズフタチリトマト pic.twitter.com/V1onlxKwGp this commercial has caused Jiyuna to develop a hankering for a Nissin Noodle Cup Daigo in an official Cup Noodle commercial recreating his famous Guilty Gear moment from SBO 20+ years ago.I will buy Cup Noodle for lunch today. https://t.co/T6kOazBjZM It's interesting to note that the clips seen in the ad weren't just simply edited into the commercial It turns out that everything seen in the advertisement was recreated as some obvious differences can be observed Crazy. I thought the Daigo Cup Noodle ad was just current Daigo edited into the old footage, but they actually completely recreated the scene with background actors. The attention to detail is insane. https://t.co/pKjq9w29bY Here's the original clip that this commercial is based on for comparison: BST|Daigo Umehara recently released a new video where he goes through some of the new balance changes in SF6 to see what they look like in practice and offer some early impressions — especially for Cammy The Killer Bee was arguably one of the fighters hit hardest in the patch and Daigo doesn't seem to disagree — though he also looks pretty happy about it as an Akuma player The biggest things he seems to focus on is crouching medium punch being made much easier to whiff punish and Cammy no longer switches sides after Overdrive Cannon Spike This means she can't get out of the corner simply by guessing right on a reversal And Daigo has some funny analogies to help explain how he felt about Cammy before So it sounds like he doesn't expect her to really drop off much or anything but that Capcom hopefully did a decent job balancing her now Daigo doesn't seem overly impressed with E Honda and Marisa's buffs in the new update though does note they should have some better options now he was surprised by her buffs to increase her meter gain at higher medal levels which he describes as "amazing" and maybe a bit scary Daigo previously released videos focusing on his thoughts on Ryu's buffs and M. Bison's nerfs in the update as well He does have others on Akuma and Ed as well but those don't have English subtitles just yet You can check out Daigo's latest translated video below to get his thoughts and some chuckles about where SF6 is heading now It seems someone over at Twitch may not have been quite as familiar with The Beast French variety streamer Ponce recently received a package from Twitch containing the big purple heart trophy from the company for his accolades he took a closer look at the 5 million hours watched trophy itself and realized it wasn't actually his It's exceptional," said Ponce as translated by Kahikusu Ponce seems to accept the great humor of this situation and is pretty much laughing the entire time we don't have Daigo's reaction to this mishap yet he probably won't mind much and may have a laugh himself Umehara obviously already has no shortage of trophies from all of the tournaments he's won over the years Plus, Daigo was recently honored at the Japan eSports Awards where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award and Live Entertainment Best Bout Award earlier this year it seems congratulations are still in order for Daigo and Ponce here And we assume Twitch will make this right for both creators and get them their own true trophies at some point in the near future AD Leave a rating/comment#PaintingBack to ArticlesSHARE Professional Street Fighter V player and fighting game legend Daigo “The Beast” Umehara recently encountered a young player from Japan who goes by the name of Akira While waiting for players to join his open lobby Daigo was about to hop out and play ranked matches because of the lack of players But then a player named Akira joined the lobby The whole match was translated by YouTube channel FGC Translated Daigo immediately recalled a rumor of a young unknown player destroying the top ranked players in Japan — which also includes pro players Akira is a Cammy main who showed experience and composure that would rival any SFV pro today Akira displayed some early game jitters as he threw a random DP after knocking Daigo down Akira then proved the rumors about him were true and clutched out a close first round against Daigo Akira showcased his expertise in spacing and corner pressure by utilizing Cammy’s movement and long range pokes Akira then earned an impressive comeback to win in the first game by pushing Daigo into the corner and stunning him for the win Daigo was even surprised by how much Akira knew about the Cammy versus Guile match-up with Akira winning the first two games and getting to match point against Daigo What’s interesting about watching the entire match from Daigo’s perspective is that you can tell he’s slowly coming to understand how to combat his opponents as he casually talks about normals and frame data on his stream even those who only watch the game can tell he’s good.” Daigo even got hyped while playing against Akira as he won the very last round you can’t find a guy like this that often.” Daigo has continued playing against Akira online Daigo has also taken up an ambassador role for Street Fighter hoping that more young players will join the scene Daigo understands that there aren’t that many young players jumping into the deep end of competitive Street Fighter V While there are some young players in Japan who have made a name for themselves in the competitive scene — like 21-year old Masaki “Kawano” Kawano who finished in 17th place during the CPT East Asia 1 online qualifier — it’s still extremely unusual to receive such high praise from arguably the greatest player to ever play Street Fighter It should also be mentioned that Daigo has a keen eye for talent. He formed his first esports roster, Team Beast back in 2017 which included Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez and DC “Infexious” Coleman who are all top-tier FGC talents For us who want to learn more about Japanese SFV prodigy Akira we’re just going to have to wait until the young player decides to pursue a career in competitive play READ MORE: Luffy wins the Capcom Cup 2020 fan vote by a landslide Sign up for a free ONE Esports account and start engaging with other fans You'll also receive a monthly newsletter and other goodies Regardless, it would appear that Daigo is committed to seeing things through with Akuma, who does feel like a strong character by his own right in Street Fighter 6. As such, The FGC Place has uploaded numerous videos featuring sets of Daigo taking on other top ranked players with their respective characters The first video has Daigo going up against the highest ranked Ryu user This is a fighter that Daigo himself used to be known for but hasn't really played the character seriously since Street Fighter 5 Season 2 Though Ryu tends to pale in comparison to other Shotos in SF6 so Daigo will have to be careful in this match considering Akuma's glass jaw Daigo finds himself going up against VARREL|Moke The "World's Strongest Woman" is said to be difficult to play in Street Fighter 6 but tends to be viewed as a great character for those that are able to get over her intense learning curve we get the opportunity to see the Akuma vs Rashid in this set is being played by RB|Gachikun the Capcom Cup 2018 Champion for Street Fighter 5 Gachikun is a top Rashid main in Street Fighter 6 the top ranked Ed user according to the online leaderboards the meta has seemingly shifted in Ed's favor Daigo will have to be particularly careful when Ed acquires his level 2 super art considering that it's one of the best moves in the game The FGC Place recently uploaded some footage featuring BST|Daigo Umehara's ranked sessions Daigo is still playing as Akuma even though the character also received his fair share of nerfs With Kimberly looking especially dangerous after her buffs Daigo ended up running into the fourth best Kimberly of the leaderboards While Daigo is known for having immaculate pressure with Akuma's fireball game his usage of fireballs against Kimberly becomes more reserved due to her numerous anti-zoning tools In a recent video, Daigo appeared to be ecstatic about Cammy getting nerfed She's finally obeying the law," hilariously said Daigo about Cammy upon reading her patch notes her explosive damage output still forces Daigo to play very carefully around her options we also threw in a match featuring Daigo going up against Hibiki Even though Lily did receive some buffs herself they don't really impact her gameplay that much but this is still a player that requires Daigo to really lock in to defeat In their latest "The Matches That Made Me" entry, EvoFGC sits down with Daigo as he recounts the five most important bouts of his career Moment 37 is understandably the first he brings up but he shares a bit of background information that raises the stakes even higher: he was planning to quit fighting games after that tournament I thought to quit playing fighting games after that that year's Evo I entered that tournament with the intent of it being my last," reveals Daigo Moment 37 is already the kind of thing one might expect to see in a movie or a dramatic narrative but this extra bit of information makes it all the more so Where everyone naturally sees Moment 37 Daigo as one of the greatest competitors of all time hitting the hottest part of his ascent Daigo was experiencing it as a bookend to a chapter but evidently a career in professional fighting games was not on The Beast's mind at the time He was not concerned with making sure sponsors would be looking his way and people would be remembering his name but was instead hoping simply not to leave anything on the table in his final event "So during that match I felt I'm in an unfavorable situation I want to make this a match to remember," he continues and I think those emotions were reflected in how I played and they were a big part of what made that comeback happen." He goes on to offer a few more particulars about preparing for the Evo 2004 tournament and then goes on to detail four more incredible bouts from his storied fighting game career Check it all out via the video below and share your reactions in the comments Lower down, Yoshiki Takei faces Daigo Higa for the WBO bantamweight strap in an intriguing match-up. Here's everything you need to know ahead of Takei vs. Higa. Takei vs. Higa will be held at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. Yoshiki Takei retained his WBO bantamweight title via a close 12-round unanimous decision over the plucky, and perhaps unlucky, Daigo Higa. The scores – 115-112, 114-113 and 114-113 – told the story of how close this contest was as Takei recovered from a knockdown scored against him in the 11th to repel his game challenger in a one-sided last round. This latest victory marked the sixth time that Takei, a product of the Ohashi gym after making the switch from kickboxing in 2020, had entertained while warming a Japanese crowd for the arrival of their hero and star attraction, Naoya Inoue. The 28 year old claimed the title in May – on the card headlined by Inoue-Luis Nery, when he outscored the more experienced Jason Moloney over 12 rounds in a minor upset. Higa, from Tokyo, represented a tricky opening defense, having reigned as WBC flyweight champion from 2017-18, beaten Juan Hernandez Navarrete for the vacant strap, and later halted Moises Fuentes in one round in his second successful defense. But the 29-year-old challenger’s form, at least at the highest level, had been patchy since. He surrendered his belt on the scales prior to being stopped by Cristofer Rosales in 2018, and three years later was outpointed by the streaking Ryosuke Nishida. But prior to challenging Takei, Higa exhibited his power when he knocked out Navapon Khaikana in four rounds – his 19th KO in 21 victories – to cement his spot atop the WBO rankings. The southpaw Takei, ranked fourth at 118lbs by the independent TBRB compared to eighth for his challenger, waited until 50 seconds had elapsed before launching his first punch – a right jab that scored through the guard and was followed by very little in a quiet opening session. Higa reminded the champion he remained dangerous in the fourth. A right-hand nudged Takei to the ropes from where an exciting, albeit brief, exchange ensued. The underdog then employed a quick jab to expose Takei’s wide-open defense and somewhat clumsy footwork, and the round closed with the younger man taking a meaty left. The pattern continued into the next as Higa, growing in confidence, scurried after the skedaddling favourite to close the distance and respond every time Takei hurled the increasingly predictable lead uppercut. Takei improved in the sixth and seventh – adding some variation to his output – but the threat from the willing challenger remained. Takei planted his feet to open the eighth, yet his tendency to dangle his arms rather than lock them, and thus invite Higa to take aim at his exposed chin, was a bad habit he seemed unwilling to rectify. Takei persisted with his tactics in the ninth, generating spots of success and likely catching the judges' attention, but when Higa planted another blow on his swelling right eye, the approach was too foolhardy to be deemed calculated. To his credit, Takei duly produced his best work of the fight. Higa, after a tremendous effort through the previous 11 rounds, was hurt by uppercuts and hooks and, briefly, as he reeled back to the ropes, it looked like Takei was going to score a dramatic last-gasp triumph. In truth, his dominance in the final three minutes secured victory on the cards which, as flawed and crude as he sometimes appeared, is the mark of a champion. Takei improved to 10-0 (8), whereas Higa dropped to 21-3-1 (19). The Beast's ability to rapidly download and understand his opponents was unparalleled, and so many times we saw evidence that he knew what they wanted to do before even they did. YogaFlame24 has put together a compilation of Daigo's best SF4 Ryu moments and sometimes about his Yun (two characters he played during the majority of later-stage Street Fighter 4) but it was with Street Fighter poster boy that the Japanese god of fighting games made his initial impressions It was also with Ryu that Daigo cemented the legacy of the "Ume-Shoryu," as Daigo took full advantage of the fact that all of Ryu's Shoryukens had start up invincibility paired with Street Fighter 4's frame trap and tech-heavy interactions Nowhere was the Ume-Shoryu put on display more prominently than at DreamHack Winter 2013 when he nailed Gamerbee with three seemingly psychic Dragon Punches in a row to start their Grand Finals set his understanding of the nuances of Street Fighter 4's feel and flow were often put on full display as he manipulated world class opponents with seemingly no effort at all along with many more that you've likely forgotten about and plenty of other top tier competitors (we feel extra bad for SF4 Dhalsim players that wound up facing The Beast) look like it's their first day playing.