International challenges being issued across the fighting game community are certainly something new, but having a two-time world champion call out someone regarded as one of the very best long-set competitors in the world has the potential for something special.
BST|Daigo Umehara has seen and reacted to former Capcom Cup champion MenaRD’s challenge to play each other in Street Fighter 6 in a first to 10 match in probably the most Daigo way imaginable.
The Beast himself just released a new video with English subtitles discussing Mena’s message and whether or not he should accept.
“Oh okay, so it’s this kind of message,” Daigo has a chuckle while reading out the Dominican champion’s letter for the first time. “He’s not just talking about doing a casual set. Yeah, it really is polite.”
The longtime fighting game legend then immediately shifts to logistics mode wondering how it’d work out exactly.
“Who would he play? Zangief? I wonder when he wants to do this. Would it be okay if it’s not this year? I haven’t done a first to 10 in a while.”
After some viewer comments, he also ponders if it’s even okay for him to accept at all since it could “make Tokido mad” or a bit upset.
He doesn’t say why, but we presume it’d be due to the legendary Kemonomichi set between Daigo and Tokido in Street Fighter 5 that was followed up by their rematch at the Topanga Championship in 2020 that felt like the perfect conclusion to their rivalry at the time.
There’s also talk on if they should do it before Season 3 likely coming around May to avoid the balance changes coming to SF6 / their characters.
“I do think some people would take issue with me just doing this out of the blue. Should I play someone else in the meantime? Should I go for it? Now I wanna do it.”
Then he begins to contemplate who he could train against to prepare for Luke and Zangief if the FT10 does end up happening.
So nothing is concrete yet, but he does sound pretty interested in the prospect of taking on and accepting Mena’s challenge at some point.
The earliest it could happen would probably be Capcom Cup 11 weekend next month since Mena and most of the best players in the world will already be in Japan, but there’s also Evo Japan 2025 in the Spring as well.
But at the same time, however, Daigo doesn’t sound like he’s in much of a rush to do this, so like he said, the showdown may not even happen this year even if he does agree.
Only around the first two minutes cover the Mena situation with the rest focusing on him helping his Crazy Raccoon Cup 7 team before the event.
And team Umehara ended up taking the whole thing in the end.
You can check out Daigo’s new video below to see his Daigo response to Mena’s letter as well as his mentor style with Komori Met and the rest of this team.
Source: Event Hubs
