Japanese SSF2T Player Report - Part 1

I've compiled some basic information about the top SSF2T players in Japan. The seed for this list came from the Hyper/ST Player thread(s) on 2ch.net. Discussion there revolves around the question of, "who is the best ____ player?" Players are given scores that represent their mastery of a certain character. While these scores are rather arbitrary -- and simply the opinions of anonymous nerds on a thread -- there is a pretty solid consensus as far as who the top players are.

Here's a sample list that someone posted a couple months ago. Let me stress again that these numbers are just one anonymous person's opinion: I think he may have been factoring in the Neo Star Cup results heavily -- note the high marks for Shiki Guile and Aniken Boxer. Names in bold are players I'll list in detail presently.

Ryu: ShootingD (94), Daigo (92), Gotoh (89), Tencho (86)
Ken: Aniken (93), Mattsun (90)
Honda: Kusumondo (88), Otohonda (85)
O.Honda: Shougatsu (90)
Chun-Li: Otochun (93), Tojo (87)
O.Chun: Inro~ (84)
Blanka: Komoda (94), Nakamu~ (83), ASTEKA (80)
Zangief: Pony (91), Gunze (87), Kakki (80)
Guile: Muteki (94), Kurahashi (88), Shiki (88), Tsunoppi (85)
Dhalsim: Hakase (93), Gian (90), Yoshimura (85), KKY (80)
T.Hawk: Mayakon (90), Inomata (87)
O.Hawk: Toutanki (90), K (88)
Fei-Long: Noguchi (94), Yuubou (87), K (83)
Cammy: Oota (94), Nakamura (85), Tasaka (84), Ikebukuro Cammy (84)
DeeJay: YuuVega (89), yaya (84)
Boxer: Tsuji (91), Anioah (90), Tamashima (90), The SuperStar (87)
Claw: Noguchi (92), ARG (89)
Sagat: yaya (92), Akeome (80)
Dictator: YuuVega (93), Taira (91), MoreVega (87)

Also included in my report: (all of these players get low 80s. postman = high 70s)
Chamu Chun, Suzuki Guile, Sawada Cammy, Makki-7 Boxer, postman Boxer, Kimomaru Dictator

Notes:
Player photos were taken from various sites including a-cho and Grand Master Challenge.

Character illustrations come from SSF2T Revival via Street Fighter Galleries.

Roughly speaking, Kansai refers to the area around Osaka and Kanto is Tokyo and vicinity. "More," "UFO," etc. are names of arcades that these folks often play at. More, BTW, raised their price from 50 yen to 100 yen for a while and some of the hot players jumped ship to Mikado. Nagase UFO's SSF2T is still 20 yen (!), I think. UPDATE: There's an arcade called Hey in Akihabara that has a 10 yen ST machine that some of the Kanto players occasionally visit.

The Win-Loss numbers include tournament matches from X-Mania 6 (December 30th, 2005) through Shinjuku Mikado 3on3 (December 17th, 2006.) I did include HSF (SF2AE) events as well as matches involving sub-characters (IE: Noguchi Claw, Gian Ryu, etc.) "Top players" here refers to other players on the list.
I'm afraid I don't have detailed information for some of the team events including Club Sega 5on5 and X-Mania VII. Toutanki would have gotten a big W/L boost from the latter, in particular.
UPDATE 3.30.07 -- Added additional X-Mania 7 matches to the numbers.

Some of the text is adapted from a series of cheesycute mini-bios on an old 2ch thread. I also gleaned some information from interviews on the Daigo fan page.

Ryu Players

ShootingD
Japanese: シューティングＤ
Color: black
Sub-character: Guile
Region: Kansai (Leebros, UFO)
2006 Wins/Losses: 24 / 8 (75%)
W/L vs. top players: 18 / 8 (69%)

X-Mania (2000) 3on3: 1st
X-Mania III (2002) 3on3: 1st
X-Mania IV (2003) Singles: 1st
Star Cup FINAL: 1st (Ryu, Ryu, Guile)
Grand Master Challenge S1 FINAL: 2nd

The winningest Ryu player in the game, D plays the textbook Ryu. His sense of spacing and his ability to chew up "big four" (Sim, Chun, Claw, Boxer) players is unmatched. It's a good thing D is around; to tell the tale of Street Fighter 2, we need a strong protagonist.

Daigo Umehara
Daigo Fan Page
Japanese: ウメハラ、梅原大吾
Color: brown
Sub-character: Boxer, Guile, Sagat, Zangief, DJ
Region: Kanto
2006 Wins/Losses: 15 / 6 (71%)
W/L vs. top players: 6 / 6 (50%)

X-Mania (2000) 3on3: 3rd
Super Battle Opera 3on3: 1st
Evolution 2003 SSF2T: 1st
Evolution 2004 SSF2T: 1st
Club Sega 5on5 (2006): 2nd
X-Mania VII (2006) SSF2T 3on3: 2nd
Hyper Mania 4 HSF 3on3: 2nd

Umehara + Shoryuken = Umeshoryu. With one of the finest psychic DPs in the game, Daigo got his name on the technique itself. The Umeshoryu actually gained fame during his SFA3 days, but he busts it out plenty when he plays SSF2T. How does he do it? Is it fast reflexes? Anticipation? Simply the power of THE BEAST? You decide.

Related post: Daigo interview

Gotoh
Japanese: ゴトー、ゴトバス
Color: black
Sub-character: Guile, Ken
Region: Chubu/Kansai (Kasugai 50)
2006 Wins/Losses: 14 / 11 (56%)
W/L vs. top players: 10 / 8 (56%)

Hyper Mania 4 HSF 3on3: 2nd

In addition to ST, Gotoh also plays VH (Merman) at an elite level.

Tencho
AKA: Shopkeeper
Japanese: 店長
Color: light blue
Sub-character: Ken
Region: Kanto
2006 Wins/Losses: 14 / 16 (47%)
W/L vs. top players: 4 / 14 (22%)

X-Mania III (2002) Singles: 2nd
X-Mania V (2004) SSF2T 3on3: 3rd
Club Sega 5on5 (2006): 1st
Club Sega HSF 5on5 (2007): 1st

Ken Players

Aniken
AKA: Brother Ken
Aniken's Web Page
Japanese: 兄ケン、　兄オアー
Color: pale green
Sub-character: Boxer, Ryu
Region: Kansai (UFO)
2006 Wins/Losses: 34 / 17 (67%)
W/L vs. top players: 22 / 12 (65%)

X-Mania (2000) 3on3: 1st
X-Mania III (2002) 3on3: 3rd
X-Mania VI (2005) SSF2T 3on3: 2nd
Club Sega 5on5 (2006): 2nd
X-Mania VII (2006) SSF2T 3on3: 2nd
Neo Star Cup 2006: 1st (Ken, Ryu, Boxer)

Aniken used to be known as the player with the "mix-up of god." While it ought to work 50% of the time, Aniken somehow employed the knee bash/Dragon Punch mix-up with 80% efficiency. Recently Aniken has cut back on his use of the mix-up of god, yet he still wins with incredible consistency.
One more thing about Aniken: rumor has it, he once rescued a girl who had fallen on some train tracks by using a real world top-spin kick* to get to her in time. (* - down, down-back, back, up-towards+kick)

Mattsun
Japanese: Mつん、まっつん
Color: blue
Sub-character: Cammy
Region: Kanto (Namiki, Mikado)
2006 Wins/Losses: 9 / 7 (56%)
W/L vs. top players: 5 / 4

TRY Tower 5on5 (2005): 1st

If Aniken is the "Ken of the West," then Mattsun is the "Ken of the East." Mattsun's game is dramatically different, however, as it features a lot more risk taking and odd-ball tricks. His spicy Ken style makes for some of the most entertaining ST matches out there.

E.Honda Players

Kusumondo
Japanese: くすモンド、楠モンド
Color: light green
Sub-character: Chun-Li, Cammy
Region: Kansai
2006 Wins/Losses: 19 / 26 (42%)
W/L vs. top players: 13 / 20 (39%)

X-Mania (2000) 3on3: 2nd
X-Mania V (2004) SSF2T 3on3: 1st
X-Mania VI (2005) SSF2T 3on3: 2nd
X-Mania VIII (2007) 3on3: 2nd

Chun-Li Players (pic: AstroGuy2)

Otochun
AKA: Brother Chun
Japanese: オトチュン、弟ちゅんりー
Color: blue
Sub-character: E.Honda, Ryu
Region: Kansai (UFO)
2006 Wins/Losses: 31 / 15 (67%)
W/L vs. top players: 20 / 11 (65%)

Neyagawa ABC Championship (2000): 2nd
X-Mania 2001 3on3: 3rd
Star Cup 1: 1st (Chun, Chun, Honda)
Star Cup 2: 1st (Chun, Honda, Ryu)
X-Mania III (2002) 3on3: 1st
Super Battle Opera 3on3: 1st
Star Cup 4: 2nd (Chun, Chun, Honda)
X-Mania IV (2003) 3on3: 2nd
X-Mania V (2004) HSF 3on3: 2nd
X-Mania VI (2005) SSF2T 3on3: 3rd
Grand Master Challenge S1 FINAL: 1st
X-Mania VII (2006) HSF 3on3: 2nd
X-Mania VII (2006) SSF2T 3on3: 1st
Neo Star Cup 2007: 3rd (Chun, Chun, Ryu)
X-Mania VIII (2007) SSF2T 3on3: 2nd
Super Battle Opera '08 2on2: 1st

As the strongest player in recent history, Otochun is the king of Super Turbo. Among other things that make his Chun-Li game so fierce, is some slick use of the vertical jump roundhouse. Crack reflexes and high priority give him an iron wall of defense.
Otochun is also a gentleman and he's always gracious in post-victory interviews.

Tojo
Japanese: トウジョウ
Color: purple
Sub-character: E.Honda
Region: Kanto (Nakano Royal)
2006 Wins/Losses: 14 / 8 (64%)
W/L vs. top players: 3 / 5

TRY Tower 5on5 (2005): 2nd

Since Akishima retired a little while ago, Tojo has worked hard to become the best Chun-Li player in the Kanto area.

Chamu
Japanese: チャ無、ちむちむ
Color: grey
Sub-character:
Region: Kanto (Nakano Broadway, Mikado)
2006 Wins/Losses: 8 / 11 (42%)
W/L vs. top players: 4 / 8 (33%)

Club Sega 5on5 (2006): 1st
Club Sega HSF 5on5 (2007): 1st
Hyper Mania 4 HSF 3on3: 1st

The strongest woman in the world? Chamu Chun is a killer. This past year she beat Aniken, Kurahashi and Daigo back-to-back at the Club Sega 5on5 tournament.


Chamu and co. onlooking @ X-Mania Gaiden Source

To be continued...