Red Bull Kumite 2025 has proven to be quite the spectacle this weekend for Street Fighter 6 fans. Notable players in attendance include Zeta|Kakeru, WBG|MenaRD, KSG|Xiaohai, G8S|Gachikun, BST|Daigo Umehara, TM|NoahTheProdigy, Mouz|EndingWalker, Reject|BigBird, KC|Kilzyou, RB|Bonchan, Mouz|Problem X, and many more.
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. Indeed, NoahTheProdigy ended up eliminating Daigo at 9th place with a 5-2 set victory.
Following this, 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, but… well…from this year… 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, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter 3, and Street Fighter 4. It’s also worth noting that Daigo holds the Guinness World Record as “the most successful player in major tournaments of Street Fighter.”
Additionally, 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.
Of course, 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.
At this point, Daigo is 43 years old (will be 44 in May). 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. Regardless, 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— Ryan Hart (Drip King) (@RyanJosephHart) April 6, 2025
Source: Event Hubs
