What a Nursing Home Taught Daigo About Competing

Street Fighter legend Daigo "The Beast" Umehara has been to more EVOs than almost anyone alive -- and at 44, he's watching his own game slip, the same way he once watched it in a nursing home. In this conversation from EVO 2025, Daigo opens up about a stretch of his career most fans don't know much about: the years he spent working in elder care after quitting competitive Street Fighter in 2004. What he saw there reshaped how he thinks about decline, mortality, and what it means to keep fighting once your body and mind start slowing down -- lessons he's applying to his own career right now, as he faces the same erosion he once watched happen to others. We also get into EVO Moment 37 and why he never expected it to become what it did, why arcades meant something different to an entire generation of players, and what pushed him to switch to a leverless controller this late in his career. This isn't a highlight reel. It's Daigo, unfiltered, talking about the parts of competing that don't show up in tournament brackets. 0:00 – Introduction & Daigo’s legacy 1:40 – The impact of EVO Moment 37 2:40 – Taking a break and rediscovering passion 3:50 – Lessons from working with the elderly 5:55 – Adapting to new games and staying relevant 7:45 – From arcades to online play 9:30 – Switching to Hit Box controller 10:23 – Closing thoughts Follow along: @PaulDelos_ #daigo #daigoparry #evo #streetfighter