Ryota "Kazunoko" Inoue didn't envision that his love for playing fighting games like Guilty Gear at his local arcades would take his life anywhere. It was just something he had fun doing, something to keep himself occupied as he cobbled together rent money from working various part-time jobs in his late teens and early 20s. "My friend brought me to an arcade, and that was my first experience with competitive gaming," Kazunoko said in 100 Yen, a 2012 documentary about Japan's arcade fighting game scene. "As soon as you win, it just feels great. When you correctly read your opponent and their character moves in the expected way, it’s really all about that kind of competition. I love that about these games."
As much fun as he had, though, real life would force him to move on eventually. That's what he kept telling himself and his parents, at least. In 2010, Kazunoko was fully prepared to leave fighting games in the past and take a crack at a more standard career track. But then in 2011, he took 1st place at the Super Battle Opera 2011 2v2 event in Street Fighter IV, taking out teams with legends like Daigo Umehara and Nemo. Two months later, he traveled to Canada and won Canada Cup over the likes of Tokido, Infiltration, Mago and Momochi.
So why not try to go pro? With two national-level tournament wins under his belt, Kazunoko was running out of answers to that question. Daigo himself had proven it could be done. But Kazunoko, ever humble, still wasn't sure he had it in him. "Ah, well, I’m not there yet. It will be a while yet until I consider myself good," he said in 100 Yen. "In terms of the confidence to become a pro player, well, if the opportunity arose… of course, I’d love for that to happen, but I don’t think it’s likely. It’s scary. I can’t do it, because if I messed up, the community around these games… that world is very important to me."
Then Kazunoko won Super Battle Opera's Street Fighter IV team competition again in 2012, and continued to post strong results in that game and others. He took 2nd at Canada Cup's Persona 4 Arena tournament in 2012, and earned his first trip to an Evo finals stage with a 7th place finish in Street Fighter X Tekken that same summer. If that somehow wasn't enough to prove that Kazunoko had a future as a pro fighting game player, he was about to go on a run that would leave zero doubt.
In 2015, Kazunoko reached a new level. Guilty Gear was the series that made him fall in love with fighting games, and Guilty Gear Xrd, which released in Japan's arcades the year before, was starting to see major international tournaments. Kazunoko was nearly untouchable, winning six notable singles tournaments according to Liquipedia and finishing second in the other two he entered. His biggest win, though, came at the Arc Revolution Cup team tournament, where he combined with Machabo and Dogura to win the 3v3 tournament, Kazunoko's first national-level victory in the game that inspired him to compete in the first place.
Even with a new Guilty Gear to occupy himself, Kazunoko hadn't left Street Fighter behind by any means. In June, he won CEO 2015, his first major solo Street Fighter IV tournament win since Canada Cup four years prior. He followed that up by winning Capcom Cup 2015, closing out the Street Fighter IV era with a 3-2 win over the man who paved the way for professional fighting game players, Daigo Umehara himself, in Grand Finals, winning a $120,000 grand prize that more than justified his decision to go pro.
Kazunoko dedicated himself primarily to Street Fighter V for the next couple of years. Although he never reached the heights he attained in the prior game, he had his moments in SFV's early years, with results like 3rd at Japan Cup 2016, 3rd at Capcom Cup 2016, and 3rd at Evo 2017. He would also occasionally pop in and show he hadn't lost his magic in Guilty Gear, earning 5th place in Xrd at both Evo 2016 and 2017. By reaching the finals in both Guilty Gear Xrd and Street Fighter V in 2017, he became the first player to take home medals in multiple games since Justin Wong did it at Evo 2014 by winning Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and finishing third in Killer Instinct.
Somehow, the strongest year of Kazunoko's career was still ahead of him at this point. The 2018 release of DragonBall FighterZ summoned contenders from just about every corner of the FGC. Five different finalists at Evo 2018's DBFZ bracket had medaled in another game in a prior year. Many of the most talented fighting game players in the world were taking their shots, and Kazunoko was right up there with them, taking fifth at DBFZ's first Evo.
The crazy thing is that Evo was a down tournament for Kazunoko in 2018. He would only lose one more tournament for the rest of the year: Canada Cup 2018, where he finished 2nd. He didn't miss another Grand Finals until CEO 2019, 10 months later, where he finished 7th. In that time, he won TWFIghter Major 2018, SoCal Regionals 2018, South East Asia Major 2018, Japan Round 2018, CouchWarriorsCrossup 2018, and the crowning achievement, the DBFZ World Tour Finals for the 2018-19 season.
That's a run of dominance that would be worthy of celebration no matter what, but few games have seen crossover competition like DragonBall FighterZ. In the final bracket at the World Tour Finals, Kazunoko defeated Fenritti, Dogura and GO1, players who among themselves own a collective three Evo trophies and seven Evo finals medals earned across six different games. Competition at major DBFZ tournaments was often littered with talent with similar resumes, and yet Kazunoko consistently fought his way to the top.
All the while, Kazunoko maintained his dominance across multiple titles. In 2018, he won BlazBlue: CrossTag Battle at Canada Cup and Couchwarriors Crossup, as well as Persona 4 Arena at South East Major. After Samurai Shodown's release in 2019, Kazunoko took home trophies for it at VSFighting, Celtic Throwdown and South East Major.
Kazunoko's legacies in individual series like Street Fighter, Guilty Gear and DBFZ all stand tall on their own, but it's his ability to play at a championship level across so many different fighting games that elevates him to a worthy place in the discussion for the best fighting game player of all time. He may not own an Evo championship, but Kazunoko has won circuit finals for Street Fighter IV, DragonBall FighterZ, all while retaining the ability to win major tournaments in a wide swath of other titles.
Kazunoko's presence hasn't been quite as ubiquitous in the 2020s, as he's spent much of his time growing his content channels on YouTube and Twitch. He's still competing at a high level, though. In February 2022, he reached Top 8 at ArcRevo's Japan and Korea Guilty Gear -Strive- finals to earn his Japanese pro esports license. He is now focused primarily on Street Fighter 6, with a strong Cammy that helped his new sponsor, Crazy Raccoon, reach 3rd place at Street Fighter League Japan 2024.
Few players have shown the ability to take any fighting game and dissect it like Kazunoko has. Twice in the last decade, in 2015 and 2018, he had a genuine case to be called the greatest fighting game player on the planet, taking his unpredictable and lightning quick playstyle and applying it to whatever game he decided he wanted to dominate. Not too bad for a guy who was worried he couldn't live up to the demands of a professional career. Instead, he wound up helping to redefine the heights a professional fighting gamer could reach.
See more of Kazunoko's story in Evo Legends Powered by Qiddiya Gaming on EvoFGC
