Early Career
Umehara began going to an arcade game center and playing fighting games at around 10 years of age when he was an elementary school student, the same time when Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury: King of Fighters hit the game center. Because the SF2 cabinet had a very long line and also had older kids playing, his first fighting game is actually Garou Densetsu. Because there was usually a long line in his free time and he could not stay too late, Umehara first started challenging other players in Street Fighter II Dash (Champion Edition) even though he felt shy and had to ask for permission to challenge first, but that was also when he started to like playing with other players.
Around the time when he was a 13-year-old middle school student, Umehara shifted his main game to Vampire Hunter because he thought he did better than SF2 and first developed some reputation by setting a 286-win streak record before he was forced to leave due to closing time at Akihabara Sega (now Club Sega) game center. He first joined a tournament when he entered GAMEST Cup's national Vampire Hunter tournament in 1995, though he lost in the block's finals. His second tournament and also his first tournament winning is GAMEST Cup's national Vampire Savior tournament in 1997 where he defeated Ōnuki (now Nuki) in the finals.
In 1998, 18 year old Umehara participated Capcom's official Street Fighter Zero 3 national tournament and advanced to the finals which took place on a stage in Tokyo Game Show 1998: Autumn on October 11. After winning the tournament by defeating Ōnuki 3-1, as the champion, Umehara went on to face Alex Valle, who was the winner of the U.S. national Street Fighter Alpha 3 tournament. The international "Grand Championship" was held in San Francisco, California on November 8. This was Umehara's first trip to U.S. and the first overseas tournament he participated in. The match was played as best out of three games, with each game as best out of five rounds. Umehara came from behind to win 2-1; These two events received a 50-minute TV coverage in Japan.
In September 2001, Umehara gained enough fans to have a book about him published. The title is VERSUS, also known as "Umebon" (ウメ本) or "Ume Book." It contains both his background and stories behind his competitions and opponents.
In 2002, Umehara appeared in U.S. versus Japan theme exhibition matches in Japan. American players competed in four games (Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike and Marvel vs. Capcom 2) for the right to battle Japan's best players in those respective games. Umehara only entered the 3rd Strike exhibition, but defeated all of his opponents, ending each round with Ken's fierce Shoryuken. These events were filmed for the documentary Bang the Machine.
In 2003, Umehara won the Super Street Fighter II Turbo tournament in the first Super Battle Opera (Tougeki) and won the same game in Evolution Championship Series when he joined the event for the first time in the same year, making him the first player to win both SBO and Evolution in same year on the same game. Umehara also went to Evolution 2004 and Absolution 2004 on April 18 in England and won SSF2 Turbo there.
Umehara has participated regularly in a number of tournaments, appearing at least one each year since beginning in 1997, with a brief hiatus in 2008.
Read more about this topic: Daigo Umehara
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“Well, it’s early yet!”
—Robert Pirosh, U.S. screenwriter, George Seaton, George Oppenheimer, and Sam Wood. Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)