Hadouken: Daigo Umehara Interview Bonus Material!
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Eurogamer just posted one of the most epic
interviews ever with Street Fighter superstar Daigo
Umehara, so if you missed it,
that thing out.
To put it together, they enlisted the help of
our own bi-lingual Shino, who also happens to be a friend
of Daigo. In addition to the questions from
Eurogamer, I asked Shino to include a few extra questions
about his recent meeting with US SFIV champ Justin
Wong.
In the interview
below, in addition to her chatting about Daigo’s
background, the core of the piece is a breakdown on their
championship match, where Justin switched to Fei Long,
with the idea that Daigo (as an arcade player) would not
have experience against the console
characters.
First off, there was one thing concerned me at last EVO.
In Japan, the arcade is the mainstream while the home
console is the core in the US. As a matter of fact, I
haven’t played much of it, and I had never played against
home console characters before. So I was not prepared for
console characters at all.
Daigo talks about what he thought of Justin’s
switch, and more importantly, how he was able to play the
match against a great player using an unfamiliar
character. Great
stuff!
Thanks of course
to Daigo, to Shino, and to Eurogamer for kicking off the
whole conversation!
Hit the jump
for the full interview!
Congratulations on your victory at
Season’s Beatings. Wow it was so exciting.
Compared to EVO, it
was a much smaller event, and the physical setting was
also so much different. You know, it was held in
countryside. It was the first time ever for me to go to
Ohio. I had no idea what it was like. But you know, even
the first EVO I participated was held at CSU Cal Poly, at
their gym. So I imagined the Season’s Beatings too would
have the ambiance like that – a laid-back feel. EVO has
been through so many incredible upgrades ever since and
is now in Las Vegas, so everything about this event made
me feel nostalgic.
How was your
condition?
It took me
something like 24 hours to get to Ohio from Tokyo! I had
to wait for 4 hours to transfer in Houston, TX because my
first flight from Tokyo was delayed and missed my
connection there. So I was pretty beat by the time I got
to Ohio. But I didn’t have much to do when I arrived, so
I just slept. After enough sleep, I felt pretty good. I
would say my physical condition was pretty good. Mentally
too, I was at a very good place. I used to get nervous
and could not sleep even when I am exhausted. But now
because I’ve gotten so used to tournaments (in particular
those held in the states), and the fact that Season’s
Beatings was a very comfortable size event, I didn’t feel
nervous at all, and I could put all myself out
there.
EVO 2004 was your
famous 3rd Strike year, right?
EVO was even not “Evolution” when I first
participated at Cal Poly. It was something like B……
B… something. I can’t remember. But anyway, it got
renamed to Evolution. I think it was probably 3rd year of
Evolution at that time. It was 2003, and I went back in
2004.
Yes, so it was my
second year at EVO. I went back again and didn’t do very
well, and then missed a few years-I didn’t make it
anywhere else either, and this was during the time I was
not playing much of games. So I took a break for a year
and went back again this year. This year marks my fourth
year at EVO. So in total, I’m proud to say I have been
part of about half of the EVO
history.
more and more overseas
tournaments?
Well…I
can’t tell. You know what though? I’ve been getting so
many of invites from all over the world, like I don’t
even know what to do with them. I wonder if they are all
in some sort of agreement to trouble me by inviting me in
unison. I get some of them through my site, and some
through my friend’s friends’ friends. For instance,
Season’s Beatings this time too, I got informed by an
acquaintance I made at EVO a while back. He emailed me
the information. I don’t directly receive those
invitations, and sources are varied.
Where have you been for game
tournaments other than the US? Did you mostly go to the
US?
Yes, mostly the US.
Other countries have been one-time visit so far. Not too
many countries though, just France, UK, and Taiwan. It’s
because the tournaments in other countries tend to be
rather small, so I have to turn them down.
What came across your minds
during the final match against
Justin?
src="http://fast1.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/s-kill/91e887b7ad5ab1eff075b793ea1a4318.jpg?v=151650"
width="169" height="226" hspace="8" />First
off, there was one thing concerned me at last EVO. In
Japan, the arcade is the mainstream while the home
console is the core in the US. As a matter of fact, I
haven’t played much of it, and I had never played against
home console characters before. So I was not prepared for
console characters at all.
Luckily at EVO this summer, I didn’t run into
any of the console characters. I was pretty lucky in that
regard. But this time at Season’s Beatings, I met up with
3 players with console characters including Justin. I had
had not played against any of the characters, so it was
pretty challenging. I had to go about trying to get the
feel of them while guessing their moves.
One thing helped me was that being a long-time
Capcom gamer, I did remember how those characters had
been in the past. I assumed they cannot be that
different, like a boxer can’t turn into a kick-boxer. I
guessed that, and I was also praying, like “please don’t
be different!” (LOL) And as I hoped, the two characters I
fought against during prelim didn’t differ that much
except for only details. The overall feel was the
same.
But for the winner’s final,
which was first-three-win system, I had given up on it
before it started. My plan was to see and learn how
Justin’s Fei Long moves, his features and strength. It
was absolutely a never-heard of plan for matches in Japan
since it’s only one game, single-elimination
system.
Playing through the
winner’s final round, I started get some sense of what
Fei Long is about though I lost the round and came back
for rematch. I had an idea that I might have a chance at
a rematch because I knew I would have another 4 rounds in
the grand final, in addition to the three rounds in the
winner’s bracket finals match which I was going to play
as a test run. So I did have enough play time.
Furthermore, I knew that Justin himself would not be able
to play at his best using his non-usual character he
picked only because he felt that it would be my Achilles’
heel. As I foresaw, when I started adjust myself to his
Fei Long’s move, his unfamiliarity and lack of
proficiency of the new character started to surface. And
the latter half of the match became so much easier for
me, and I was able to win!
think Justin’s move was cheap or reasonable?
The day before our
final, Justin and I had had an exhibition match of
first-10-victory system, and I swept the match at 10 to
2. He didn’t use a home console character
during the match, but he came up to me after the
exhibition match and did tell me in person that he would
use one against me if we meet though he chose not to then
since he thought it was not fair. So I was able to
mentally prepare for that. I was also able to physically
prepare on site that day afterwards though it was just a
bit. After the grand final next day, Justin
came to me and apologized for using the console
character.
src="http://fast1.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/s-kill/d7283b4fc9ca8a9df66566db63cbdb03.jpg?v=202200"
width="301" height="169" hspace="8" />But
you know, personally I thought it was an understandable
move by Justin to use Fei Long. At the
exhibition match, he was completely defeated at the score
of 10 to 2. Logically, he would almost have no chance of
winning if he did exactly the same. His pride would have
been saved by the spirit, putting all himself out there,
but think about it, receiving all the hope and support
from the fans in America, he could not do that as a US
Champion. Fans rooted for him and believed in
him as the “only guy” who could defeat the player from
Japan. I’m sure some of the fans too felt that
using a console character against me was not fair, but at
the same time, they must have been feeling disappointed
and frustrated by a Japanese guy always sweeping the
victory from them. So I’m sure Justin too felt some sort
of responsibility as the only guy and felt, “I HAVE TO
win” not only for himself, but also as the US Champ for
the US fans. Furthermore, the Japanese, in my opinion,
enjoy a much better fighting game environment with
enriched arcade culture to begin with. In other
words, the Japanese have an advantage in fighting games
in general. On the unfair battle ground, the Americans
have been doing their best and have been recording
successes. So if there’s any chance that they
can take advantage over Japanese players, I think they
should take that. In that sense, I felt that Justin’s
move was reasonable.
But…. I have to
say, I knew I was in trouble!!! (LOL). I didn’t think I
could win, so I was very pleased, and I am happy with my
victory. Justin himself is a very good player,
and that Justin having brought out a new console
character made me sweat. In fact, I did quickly
lose the winners final… but as we moved on, I realized
that Fei Long didn’t have the unknown abilities I was
afraid of, he was not drastically different from SFII,
and started to feel confident that I may make it with the
style I’d been playing. And I did! I was pretty happy
about that.
Do
you like music?
I
don’t go out of my way to check it out, but I do like
listening to music. I don’t have some
particular songs I download and listen to, but I do enjoy
music. When they sound good, I stay tuned to them. But
it’s not like I have a particular artist I follow and I
don’t buy any specific songs any more.
I suppose you don’t go Karaoke
then?
No (LOL)! I never
go, and I refuse to go even if someone invites me.
Do you like movies? Do you have
a favorite actor or TV star?
I do like movies, both Japanese and foreign
movies. I sometime go to the theater, but mostly on DVD
at home. I check out Sci-Fi and action movies
at a theater to enjoy the scale and sound effects. Dramas
and others, I watch them at home. I can’t think
of any particular actors. There are some I like, but it’s
not like I love them so much that I can’t resist but
following.
Do you have
siblings? What are their names? Authentic like
yours?
One older
sister. Her name is not authentic but unusual. Hoyumi
(‚”). My sister doesn’t really play games much.
With the scale of me being 10, she is 1 (LOL). I got
introduced to videogames through her though.
She was the one who wanted to play videogames. We used to
play action games and RPGs together. She hardly ever went
to arcades and trailed away from the game scene in
general. But I think she still plays home console games
sometimes. She probably likes games more than the average
Japanese.
So you played
other game genres, like shooters and actions? Do you
still do that?
I played
Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and other popular games when
I was a kid like every one else did at the
time. I have a general, mild interest in games
other than fighting games. I used to play non-fighting
games, too, but I hardly ever do that anymore.
