Street Fighter League Japan Unveils All 36 Participants, Daigo Absent

The 2023 edition of Street Fighter League Japan looms ahead and with the announcement that the competitive season for Capcom will exclusively held on Street Fighter 6, SFL Japan will be no exception.

Therefore, there is a lot of excitement for the new season and with the promise of hype matches, strong competition, and major takeaways, SFL Japan 2023 is shaping up to be the best one yet. 

In a tweet on their official account, Capcom Esports announced the 1st stage of the 2023 season which will feature 9 teams, up from one last season. They also explained that the first stage will involve a round robin campaign from which 6 teams will qualify for the second stage. 

The tournament is set to begin in July 2023.

There are a total of 36 players who will be available with many of them new to the competition. Unfortunately, arguably the biggest star of the tournament, Daigo Umehara, will not be part of proceedings which has led to a lot of talk about his future in competitive Street Fighter.

The veteran allayed fears in a stream where he explained that he decided to turn down a chance to compete to instead focus on organizing tournaments and events for Street Fighter 6. He also noted, that he would be restricted from playing some pros if he is in SFL and he would rather not have to deal with that constraint. He did mention that he could return for the 2nd half of the season and will be happy to compete in subsequent SFLs, but will be missing at least the first half of this year's edition. 

Daigo is not the only name missing as the likes of YHC-Mochi, Crusher and Gunfight all missing from this year's roster of players. Menawhile,some new names are joining the fray including Sasamo, Jaaji, and Acqua. 

The biggest talking point asides Daigo's absence is the new team that will be joining the league— Cyclops Gaming. The team is made up almost entirely of new players with Dogura, who won the competition with Good 8 Squad earlier this year, the only veteran on the team. However, do not let the title 'new' fool you, as the 'newbies' we are talking about include; GO1, Kazunoko, and Fenrich.

The full list of teams participating are:

• Cyclops Gaming
• Good 8 Squad
• Gyogun
• Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto
• Shinobism
• Team Detonation
• Nagoya OJA BODY STAR
• Team IXA
• FAV Gaming

You can find out more here.