10/06/04 23:45:31 bMr8B0ta0
[No one steps up to challenge superplayer Daigo Umehara.]
He's breezing through 2-D fighter Super Street Fighter 2 X:Grand Master Chakkenge in Shinjuku game center Mikado.
Street Fighter character Ryu socks a shoryuken "rising daragon fist" into a green savage called Bkanka,sending him flat on his back.
Ryu unleashes a hurricane kick, but Blanka's up on his feet, cjarging.
Umehara moves the joystick in aquarter circle towards Blanka and presses the puch button, which plants a hadoken "wave-motion fist" in Blanka's face.
Umehara throttles opponent, not even breaking a sweat as he plays in the game's fastest setting.
It's less like he's engaged in virtual combat and more like he's flipping through a magazine.
Umehara is one of the top 2-D fighting players not only in japan, but in the world.
Rather, he was "I stopped playing a few years ago," Umehara says, brushing ashock of hair under his knit cap.
"I never go to game centers anymore, and I don't remember the last time I was in one before today."
Umehara has quit, cold turkey.
The game was sucking up too much of his time, energy, and money.
At twenty-six years old, he's already retired.