Daigo vs Menard Best of 10

mutantmagnet

United States3803 Posts

April 29 2026 00:11 GMT

Last year Menard issued a challenge to Daigo Umehara to a best of 10.

Daigo casually accepted with no firm date.

https://x.com/HiFightTH/status/1890011014177145024

Last month a date was confirmed and their match will happen at Evo Japan

April 29th 5pm JST which is 4am EST.

Daigo's record in SF6 hasn't been great in general but this still will be a match to look forward to because every Evo Champion that has tried to challenge Daigo to best of 10 hasn't won.

Daigo 10 – 0 Xian (2013, PAX Prime showmatch) (SF4)
Daigo 10 – 2 Infiltration (2013, exhibition FT10) (SF4)
Daigo 10 – 5 Tokido (2018, Kemonomichi FT10 – SFV)

Harris1st

Germany7202 Posts

April 29 2026 09:10 GMT

Could you give a bit of background to SF6 and the players?

Seems like a cool and hype thing, but I don't know the first thing about any of that xD

DarkPlasmaBall

United States45915 Posts

April 29 2026 13:51 GMT

I think you mean First To 10 (Wins), not Best Of 10 (Games).

Very cool!

polgas

Canada1780 Posts

April 29 2026 19:53 GMT

Daigo is considered the greatest Street Fighter (SF) player ever.

+ Show Spoiler +

MenaRD is the most recent Evo (most popular fighting tourney) SF winner.

+ Show Spoiler +

Harris1st

Germany7202 Posts

April 30 2026 08:01 GMT

Here is the vid

TonDan04

43 Posts

April 30 2026 20:27 GMT

Daigo is way past his prime. For those not familiar with SF players, I would compare Diago as NaDa playing Soma or Soulkey in their current condition. This was purely a publicity stunt and I would say have zero merit.

I would rather watch JWong vs Daigo then Menard cause Menard is probably the best player in the world at the moment.

polgas

Canada1780 Posts

April 30 2026 22:14 GMT

I wouldn't call someone who put up a good fight against Menard past his prime. Kakeru was 0-6 against Menard in last year's Evo finals.

TonDan04

43 Posts

April 30 2026 22:54 GMT

On May 01 2026 07:14 polgas wrote:
I wouldn't call someone who put up a good fight against Menard past his prime. Kakeru was 0-6 against Menard in last year's Evo finals.

you wouldn't say Daigo is past his prime?

polgas

Canada1780 Posts

May 01 2026 05:03 GMT

No.

GTR

51596 Posts

May 01 2026 20:53 GMT

#10

On May 01 2026 05:27 TonDan04 wrote:
Daigo is way past his prime. For those not familiar with SF players, I would compare Diago as NaDa playing Soma or Soulkey in their current condition. This was purely a publicity stunt and I would say have zero merit.

I would rather watch JWong vs Daigo then Menard cause Menard is probably the best player in the world at the moment.

given his age and role in the fgc, daigo is more boxer than nada lol

either way people frame it, daigo deserves a bit of credit for taking 6 games off menard given he hasn't won a major competition since the sf4 days

Harris1st

Germany7202 Posts

May 04 2026 08:49 GMT

#11

Well I guess Daigo peaked so high that even on his way down he is almost as good as prime Menard

mutantmagnet

United States3803 Posts

May 08 2026 21:15 GMT

#12

On May 01 2026 07:54 TonDan04 wrote:

Show nested quote +

you wouldn't say Daigo is past his prime?

Daigo has had poor results in SF6 but even though I agree he is past his prime it doesn't fully encapsulate what we saw here.

Something that wasn't communicated at all by the English cast is that this match was Kemonomichi match.

The underlying premise of these matches is to make them as a definitive statement on who is the better player. This is a big reason over why Tokido cried when he lost to Daigo.

In Kemonomichi matches the rules are there can never be a rematch.

Despite Daigo choosing to fight by these rules he still chose to do this match in SF6 because he thought he could win and there is one indicator he had the potential.

Across 13 sets Daigo won 80% of the first games.

In esports there is a clear bias for players and teams to win a best of 3 set after winning the first game.

Daigo lost to the better player but he demonstrated a level of skill that has been very instructive to Akuma players.

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