Daigo Umehara's Event Schedule 2015

- Canada Cup's Master Series [January 9-11]
- 5th Niconico Shotenkaigi [January 18]
- Yonpahi radio show [January 23]
- 6th Niconico Shotenkaigi [January 25]
- Taipei Game Show [Jan 31]
- Tokaigi 2015 [Feb 1]

Monday, January 28, 2013

[Update with video] Kokujin vs. Nero-tan FT5 result



This's the latest match of Sentos Carnival III online tournament tonight. It's Kokujin (Ryu) vs. Nero-tan (Blanka). Recorded stream is here.

Kokujin, who couldn't DP>FADC>Metsu in 2010, invested more time on SF4 in 2012 and now has 4000 PP Ryu. (He was at Evo 2012 and played on the stage if you remember.)

You all know ChocoBlanka but probably not NeroBlanka. This female player has 4000 PP Blanka and participated in Japan qualifying tournament of SF 25th Anniversary Tournaments last year (though lost in her first fight).

Kokujin already lost to Karipaku last year, can he afford to lose to another female player?

Note that Kokujin was coached by a.k.a. jojo (the well-known dictator player) and Nuki while playing this match. He also trained with ChocoBlanka the other day.

You can see  the result below OR wait until Sentos uploaded the match video which will be added to this post later.



Friday, January 25, 2013

Umehara, Kana Ueda in Mago's birthday party

Kana Ueda posted a picture from Mago's birthday party (that they held privately) just less than half an hour ago. It's also revealed that Daigo Umehara and Gunslinger Stratos producer were also there.


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Arc System Works Festival announced

Arc System Works Festival was announced yesterday via 4Gamer.

- Date: May 19
- Location: Pacifico Yokohama National Convention Hall
- This's basically a big event of smaller events including tournament finals of Arc Revolution Cup. (We expect it to have mini concert and voice actors talk show.)
- Arc Revolution Cup is the official national tournaments of BlazBlue Chronophantasma, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena. Qualifiers will begin in February. All tournaments are 1 on 1.

The information we really want to know is still missing – the prizes. Blue Revo, official BlazBlue tournament last year, had 1 million yen prize money for the winner (a team of 3 players).

Monday, January 21, 2013

[Update with video] KSK vs. Karipaku FT5 result

UPDATE: Sentosu uploaded the match video.



This's first-to-five match between KSK and Karipaku from Sentosu Carnival III online tournament tonight.

You probably know KSK, the cofounder of GODSGARDEN. Karipaku is the female Cody player who arguably is the strongest female SF4 player in Japan (if not the world). She has 4000 PP on Xbox Live. She already beat Kokujin in a first-to-ten last year. She almost OCV.d an entire team in The 2nd TOPANGA Charity Cup.

Recorded stream links
- KSK's viewpoint
- Karipaku's viewpoint
- Sentosu's (organizer) viewpoint

Note: You need a paid membership to watch recorded stream on Nico.

KSK was well-prepared for the match as you can see in the latest Kao TV (although he has spent much more time playing Dragon Quest X). He asked Nekojita (the Abel player) and a well-known online Cody player to train him. But Karipaku plays both arcade and online and has a well-known Abel player as adviser.

Picture: Karipaku (far left) vs. Negi (right)


Spoiler below


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Umehara on TOPANGA TV tonight

Daigo Umehara appeared as the special guest on tonight's TOPANGA TV to promote his Battle Tour 2013 charity events. See the recorded stream below (skip to 1:40:00 for Umehara).



Notes
- Although born in Aomori, Umehara has never visited Hokkaido (island where Sapporo is). (Aomori is near but on different island.)
- Fans then Mago asked him to play Ranked Match.
- It's very unusual for Umehara to talk casually and just have fun while playing. In fact, the last time we saw this is when he was on TOPANGA TV in June 2012.
- On his first opponent, Umehara asked Mago what character does this player use. Mago said Akuma. Then Umehara joked "Then I'm gonna counterpick with Yun."
- When the Akuma player blocked too much in the corner, Umehara said "I gave up" then jumped back to the opposite corner!
- Someone pointed out that Umehara was wearing Norman Tulloch brand sweater (made in Scotland) which is being sold for 14,000-16,000 yen.

TOPANGA Z: Tokido vs. Nemo result

This is tournament final. Winner gets 50,000 yen. Loser gets nothing. Recorded stream is here.

Tokido (Magneto, Doom, Phoenix) 6-10 Nemo (Strange, Nova, Spencer)
  1. 0-1
  2. 1-0
  3. 0-1
  4. 1-0 *Dark 31 finish
  5. 0-1
  6. 0-1
  7. 0-1
  8. 1-0
  9. 1-0
  10. 0-1 *Dark Phoenix activation got countered
  11. 0-1 *Dark Phoenix activation got countered
  12. 0-1 *Phoenix was left alone with 2 bars
  13. 1-0 *Dark 13 finish
  14. 0-1 *Dark Phoenix killed by Bionic Arm bait
  15. 1-0
  16. 0-1 *Nemo successfully snapped in and killed Phoenix

All results
Abegen vs. VX
Nemo vs. Uda
Frieda vs. Jeo
OGTY vs. Tokido
Tokido vs. VX
Frieda vs. Nemo

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Evo 2013 lineup announced, let people choose 8th game

Evolution 2013's game lineup was announced.

  1. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
  2. Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition Ver.2012
  3. Tekken Tag Tournament 2
  4. Mortal Kombat 9
  5. Street Fighter X Tekken Ver.2013
  6. King of Fighter XIII
  7. Persona 4 Arena

There'll be 8 games. But the 8th game will be decided by donation drive as detailed in the web page. All the donations will go to Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

This is a very good news. Not only there'll be more games this year, they came up with a clever way to choose a game.

We're also excited to see Persona 4 Arena on the list. The game is a sleeping giant and all it needs is high level gameplays from a few well-known players on the big screen, as the game itself already is very spectator-friendly. (We're so hyped seeing Kazunoko vs. Alex Vallle and Tokido vs. Chris G at Canada Cup 2012.)

January Gunslinger Stratos events summary

The 2nd Stratos Party on January 12
- Daigo Umehara, Fuudo, Mago, Nyanshi appeared in Gunslinger Stratos' 2nd Stratos Party. (Read about 1st Stratos Party here) The event is an offline event where players can come to find team members in order to compete in the official tournament on the next day. The location is the same as the tournament venue. There're free-play cabinets, UFO catchers, and merchandise for purchase.
- Umehara team played 2 rounds, won both.
- It was streamed here.



Official national tournament in Tokyo on January 13
- There're 2 official national tournaments. One in Tokyo, and another in Osaka (this Summer). Both will have 10 million yen total prize money.
- Umehara team (Daigo Umehara, Fuudo, Mago, Nyanshi) ended at third fight. It was revealed that they were in the group of death, full of high level players.
- Bon-chan and Tokido were also there at the venue.
- 275 teams participated.
- It is announced that in the next update (Ver. 1.4, releasing today) winning a team that has Umehara as a member in a certain number of times will get you special in-game title "Umehara: Ha." (Reported by 4Gamer) *The title is likely a parody of the title of Evangelion film (Evangelion: Ha = Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance in English)
- 4Gamer posted a tournament report.

Umehara x Taito Station Charity Event Battle Tour 2013 announced

As first mentioned in previous interview, the full details of Daigo Umehara's charity event is now revealed by 4Gamer.net. The event is called Umehara x Taito Station Charity Event Battle Tour 2013.

Umehara will visit 5 Taito Station game centers in 5 prefectures to play SSF4AE2012 with the participants. There will be talk show and raffle for 5 lucky participants. It is limited to 50 participants per shop. The participation fee is 500 yen. All of the fee will be donated to social welfare and charity organization. The event will be streamed at Taito Station's Ustream page where people from home can also make a donation (100 yen+) online. The donators will be presented special footage from Umehara.

Schedule
Date: January 19
Location: Taito Station Sapporo Tanuki Kouji branch

Date: February 16
Location: Taito Station Sendai Nakakechou branch

Date: March 16
Location: Taito Station Osaka Nipponbashi branch

Date: April 20
Location: Taito Station Hiroshima Hondoori branch

Date: May 18
Location: Taito Station Fukuoka Tenjin branch

All will begin from 13:00 JST.  The registration will open one week prior for each shop.

Umehara used to have an event at Taito Station a few times in the past two years as listed below.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

TOPANGA Z: Frieda vs Nemo result

Frieda (Zero, Dante, Magneto) 5-10 Nemo (Strange, Nova, Spencer)
  1. 0-1
  2. 0-1 *Frieda was shut down
  3. 0-1
  4. 1-0 *Zero did the job
  5. 1-0
  6. 0-1
  7. 0-1 *Magneto killed 2 but not enough
  8. 0-1
  9. 1-0 *Frieda managed to win somehow
  10. 1-0 
  11. 0-1 *dominated
  12. 1-0 *dominated
  13. 0-1
  14. 0-1 *good game
  15. 0-1

BEFORE the match
Mago: What do you think about Frieda?
Nemo: I'm looking forward to play Tokido.
Mago: Are you that confident about winning him?
Nemo: Tokido, yes.

Next Wednesday is Nemo vs. Tokido.

Umehara reveals first details of his 2013 projects

SRK just posted a nice interview with Daigo Umehara from during Capcom's Street Fighter 25th Anniversary tournament in San Francisco.

The biggest news is Umehara has revealed that he will continue promoting arcade gaming like he did in the past two years. He will start as early as January 19 somewhere in Sapporo City (far northern of Japan). Furthermore, all the revenue from the events will be donated to buy wheelchairs for a non-profit organization that assists handicapped people. (The organization is lead by Osamu Ichikawa. The disabled player was helped by both Umehara and SRK community.)

The other interesting information is he wants to play SSF4AE2012 at highest level for fans so he doesn't want to spend time on other fighting games. (There goes the dream of seeing him play Darkstalkers Resurrections in a tournament?)

Friday, January 4, 2013

Willpower to Keep Winning reenters top 10, also tops Kindle chart on Amazon Japan

Daigo Umehara's Willpower to Keep Winning has reentered top 10 on Amazon Japan's Bestsellers chart in overall Book category once again. It is staying at 6th place as of now.



On another chart, the Kindle version of the book is currently the best selling product on Amazon Japan's Kindle Store.




Willpower to Keep Winning is one of the best selling pocket books in 2012 on Amazon Japan.