When we see our favorite fighting game players (or any other professional) dominating their field, they can appear invincible, but they’re still just a person like anyone else who has a past and story to tell.
BST|Daigo Umehara has been traveling the world for over two decades and competing for three though his life experience of course extends beyond just fighting games.
During a recent stream, Umehara received a lengthy letter from a newer fan, who only recently discovered him after a Crazy Raccoon Cup tournament for Street Fighter 6, asking for some advice and helpful words to which he gladly obliged.
We won’t go into the full details because there’s a lot of dark and heavy stuff in the letter, but basically a 25-year-old woman reached out to Daigo expressing how her rough childhood and circumstances led to a feeling of emptiness and essentially having lost the will to live.
After reading through the whole letter, Daigo says that this overflow of emotions and despair was likely triggered / brought back to the surface by something else going on in her life too on top of her past. The stresses of life and need to keep moving forward can help push down those feelings for a time though they will come back up and hit hard.
“But then comes a moment when your concentration breaks, and all those feelings you’ve been suppressing come gushing forth,” said Daigo. “I’ve experienced this myself. Of course, my situation wasn’t on the same level as this person’s, but I suspect they’re going through the same sort of thing. But the thing is, these feelings tend to soften with time.”
She also expresses regret for her parents blocking her from attending college and following her dreams, which the now 43-year-old offers some personal perspective to.
“Looking at me, who went pro at 29, do I seem like I’m somehow at a disadvantage, or like I look somehow pathetic?”
“I was 29 when I became a pro gamer,” said Umehara. “Now it’s typical, or at least not rare, for people to go pro in their early 20s. Some people are only 18 when they go pro… So what do you think? Looking at me, who went pro at 29, do I seem like I’m somehow at a disadvantage, or like I look somehow pathetic?”
Though it may seem weird to think back on now, Daigo essentially walked away from fighting games for years to focus on Mahjong and working in a nursing home, but Street Fighter 4 helped reignite his competitive fire.
He was then famously approached by Mad Catz, who wanted to make Daigo “Japan’s first pro gamer,” so he’s helped pioneer the new era of the fighting game community and what it can mean to be a professional player.
So to him, it’s never too late, and you’re never too old to do most things you truly want.
While Umehara can’t fully relate personally, he tries his best to advise the young woman who claims she’s never experienced real love in her life.
The wise master says that the first step is to be genuinely kind to other people without expecting anything in return because all of her relationships with others have been “transactional” to this point — and that putting forth true kindness will bring the same to her and not just those that want something from her.
Umehara closes out this segment with a heartfelt and rather poetic perspective about life and its different stages.
“You may feel like you’ve done things in life that are irredeemable, but that’s not true at all,” said Daigo. “On the contrary, your life is just beginning. You’re what 25, 26? Still young.
“I, for one, prefer songs that start dark and then have a fun chorus, to songs that are just cheerful the whole way through. So I hope that’s how your life goes”
“25 is just… If I were to liken it to a song, the vocals haven’t even kicked in yet. It’s still just the intro melody. And maybe your intro was a dark one, but listen.
“I, for one, prefer songs that start dark and then have a fun chorus, to songs that are just cheerful the whole way through. So I hope that’s how your life goes. And I think that can still happen for you. I think your life’s gonna have a fun chorus.”
Though he apparently got to this letter a few months late, we do hope that the writer was able to listen to his words and that her life is reaching a brighter place now.
The perspective is just also good to hear in general, especially for people facing transitions to the next stages of their life that can feel scary and overwhelming.
You can check out the nice excerpt from his discussion below, and you can find the full-length video on Daigo’s YouTube channel with English subtitles though be warned it contains some really heavy topics including child abuse and a lot of the dark things that can lead to.
【English subtitles available】
Daigo draws from his own past to deliver kind life advice to a struggling womanFull video below pic.twitter.com/LNmJkFjhQG
— Daigo Umehara (@daigothebeast) August 6, 2024