IBSG|Kakeru was recently able to stun the world with his victory at Capcom Cup 11, securing him the $1,000,000 grand prize. It’s funny to think that he actually had a fight with his wife about potentially switching to Mai Shiranui during the top 8, but ended up sticking with JP in the end.
During an interview with Walker Plus, Kakeru also revealed how he’s been able to play fighting games throughout his childhood. The article is in Japanese, but translations have been provided by Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor.
“The Sumo hall was beside itself with hype. Compared to when you were a child, how do you feel the Esports scene has grown?” asked Walker Plus.
“My household wasn’t very strict about games so they let us play them pretty freely as we wanted to, but the general vibe in society was always ‘play outside instead of playing games,’ I felt.” — Kakeru
“My household wasn’t very strict about games so they let us play them pretty freely as we wanted to, but the general vibe in society was always ‘play outside instead of playing games,’ I felt,” responded Kakeru.
In the past, BST|Daigo Umehara shared similar experiences, but video games seemed like that they were even more taboo back then. Of course, Daigo is about 16 years Kakeru’s senior, so these were different times altogether.
Still, it would seem that Daigo (as well as Rohto|Tokido) did seemingly have an impact on Kakeru growing up. Kakeru mentioned that both Daigo and Tokido were among the notable players when he started playing fighting games in middle school.
“I started playing fighting games during my second year of middle school and back then there were only a few pro players like Umehara-san (Daigo) or Tokido-san,” continued Kakeru.
“Because of all the hype that they managed to bring back then, we now have the fighting game scene that we do and people like me can become pros and work in this environment that they created.” — Kakeru
Needless to say, it’s difficult to imagine where the fighting game scene would be at today had players like Daigo and Tokido never became so invested into fighting games.
As a result, Kakeru believes that it’s because of the hype that they were able to bring to the scene back then is because we have tournaments like Capcom Cup 11. With that in mind, Kakeru intends to continue to elevate fighting games even higher.
“Because of all the hype that they managed to bring back then, we now have the fighting game scene that we do and people like me can become pros and work in this environment that they created,” continued Kakeru.
“I hope that moving forward, I can help bring the fighting game scene to even further heights.”
Source: Event Hubs
