Tokido

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Tokido

ときど

Player Information

Name:

谷口一

Romanized Name:

Hajime Taniguchi

Nationality:

Japan

Born:

July 7, 1985 (age 38)

Years Active:

2002 - Present

Teams:

REJECT
Rohto
Hit Box Arcade

Nicknames:

Murderface

Approx. Total Winnings:

$630,162

Games:

Street Fighter
The King of Fighters
Marvel vs. Capcom
Tekken
Capcom vs. SNK
Persona
SoulCalibur

Links

Achievements

History

2010-12-06 — 2011-06-25

The Traveling Circus

2011-06-25 — 2016-03-??

Mad Catz

2017-01-04 — 2019-01-31

Echo Fox

2019-03-13 — Present

Rohto

2023-07-06 — Present

REJECT

2023-08-01 — Present

Hit Box Arcade

Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi (born July 7, 1985) is a Japanese Fighting Games player currently representing REJECT, Rohto and Hit Box Arcade.

Tokido has achieved over 25 EVO Top-8 placings across Street Fighter, The King of Fighters, Tekken, BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Capcom vs SNK, Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter X Tekken franchises, winning Capcom vs. SNK 2 in 2002, Super Street Fighter II Turbo in 2007, and Street Fighter V in 2017. He was also a top-level competitor in Soul Calibur, Persona 4 Arena and Marvel vs. Capcom before solely dedicating himself to the Street Fighter series.

As one of the Five Japanese Gods of fighting games, Tokido became the face of consistency throughout his career, being able to compete at the highest level in any fighting game he dedicated himself to. In the "modern era" of the fighting game community, he is most known for mastering Akuma, using the character to its full potential to win dozens of major tournaments. For his vast success and the longevity of his career in a variety of different fighting games, Tokido is widely considered to be one of the greatest fighting game players of all time.

Biography[edit]

Tokido was introduced to fighting games in the 1990s, when he played Street Fighter II on the Super Famicom and The King of Fighters '94 on the Neo Geo MVS.^[1] By competing against his older cousin, Tokido got a taste of victory in games and started chasing self-improvement within the genre.

At 17 years of age, Tokido won his first EVO championship during a visit to the United States. Throughout the 2000s, he cemented himself as a top competitor in multiple fighting game franchises, including Melty Blood, BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive. Although controversial even between his inner-circle friends, Tokido would always focus on cheap characters, going for oppressive strategies to win a plethora of championships in many different games.

Tokido got into Street Fighter IV late compared to other high-level players. When he did, Mad Catz teammate Daigo Umehara suggested him to pick Akuma, as a character like Ryu would be too difficult to win with initially. While maining a Akuma, he became famous for his vortex tactics (locking opponents in ambiguous guessing games as they're recovering from being knocked down) and adopting a eccentric persona on stage. Despite quickly becoming one of the best and most famous Street Fighter IV's players in the world, Tokido continued to juggle several high-demanding fighting games at the same time, such as Tekken 6, The King of Fighter XIII, Soul Calibur V, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Street Fighter X Tekken and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, having success in all of them. At EVO 2013 and EVO 2014, Tokido took second place in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and The King of Fighters XIII respectively, losing to Xian and Xiao Hai in grand finals.

With the release of Street Fighter V, Tokido shifted his focus to Street Fighter completely. Using Ryu to great effect, he immediately reached top placings in multiple premier tournaments, losing only to Infiltration during the first few tournaments of the game. Tokido would eventually defeat Infiltration at CEO in order to qualify for Capcom Cup 2016, and he also went on to win SEAM later in the year. In January 4 2017, Tokido was signed by Echo Fox and once again decided to dedicate all his training to mastering Akuma. At EVO 2017, Tokido went on a tear through the losers' bracket, defeating FChamp, NuckleDu, Itabashi Zangief, Kazunoko and finally Punk to win the tournament in legendary fashion.^[2] As 2017 wore on, Tokido continued to consistently place first or second in every tournament he attended, including Capcom Cup 2017.

In the 2018 season of the Capcom Pro Tour, Tokido continued his streak of incredibly consistent tournament victories, winning RAGE, ELEAGUE, NorCal Regionals, Tokyo Game Show and Canada Cup, while also getting second place at six other premier tournaments. In the following year, he repeated his success at NorCal Regionals and Canada Cup, and also won Game Over Tournament.

Aside from winning Topanga Championship and Intel World Open Japan & South Korea Finals, Tokido closed out Street Fighter V by dominating the competition at Topanga World Championship 2023, being undefeated in the event over many of the game's other past champions and completing what is arguably the best tournament resume in SFV history.

Results[edit]

Street Fighter 6[edit]

Street Fighter V[edit]

Street Fighter IV[edit]

Street Fighter III[edit]

Street Fighter II[edit]

Street Fighter x Tekken[edit]

The King of Fighters XIII[edit]

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3[edit]

Tekken Tag Tournament 2[edit]

Tekken 6[edit]

Persona 4 Arena[edit]

Soulcalibur V[edit]

Guilty Gear XX[edit]

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift[edit]

Capcom vs. SNK 2[edit]

Trivia[edit]

Referred to as the best fighting game player of all time by old-school personalities James Chen, UltraDavid and Justin Wong.^[3]
Is one of the Five Gods of Fighting Games.
Was ranked as the best Street Fighter V player of 2016-2019 on the PGRSF 2016-19.
Throughout his carrer, Tokido has gotten Top 8 at EVO in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Guilty Gear XX Reload, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Guilty Gear XX Slash teams, Virtua Fighter 5, Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Teams, Capcom vs SNK 2, Tekken 6, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2, Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Street Fighter X Tekken, The King of Fighters XIII, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter V and Street Fighter 6, adding to over 25 EVO Top 8 placings.
Started playing fighting games at the age of six.
According to Bonchan, Tokido has a philosophy to train himself physically to compete well.^[4]
An iconic moment of his career came at SoCal Regionals 2010 in a match against Clakey D, where he ended the match by mimicking Akuma's Raging Demon pose.^[5]
Used to be known for taking on a somewhat eccentric persona on stage. More recently, he stated that he means to leave such behaviors behind him and "show entertainment in-game, not out of it".^[6]
After winning EVO 2017, Tokido delivered a mantra that was repeated by fighting games fans all over the world: "Fighting games [are]... something so great".
Had a friendly rivalry with Hungrybox in Jenga.^[7]
Shocked the american fighting game community during his first trip to the United States in 2002 by convincingly beating Justin Wong with Urien in Street Fighter III: Third Strike.^[8]
Nominated for the "Esports Player of the Year" award at The Game Awards 2018.^[9]
Is one of a handful of players to have an EVO Top-8 Finish in both Street Fighter game and a main franchise Tekken game, the others being Ryan Hart, Justin Wong and Poongko.

Media[edit]

Interviews[edit]

2022-08-05 | EVO 2022 Tokido Interview by EVO
2017-02-21 | Casuals: Tokido, Looking Beyond the Raging Demon by Michael Martin of Red Bull Esports

Gallery[edit]

Tokido at EVO 2015
Tokido at Capcom Cup 2015
Tokido against long-time Rival Daigo Umehara
Tokido upon winning EVO 2017
Tokido's raging demon pose
Tokido at EVO 2018
Tokido at Red Bull Kumite 2019

References[edit]

[1] "The Story of Tokido".

[2] ICONIC Esports Moments: Tokido's Legendary Run at EVO 2017

[3] "UltraChen: Greatest Of All Time Fighting Game Player (2018-02-27)".

[4] "Bonchan attributed his evolution to his friends and mentors Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi and Daigo Umehara.".

[5] "SoCal Regionals-Tokido vs Clakey D". 2010-11-08.

[6] "Tokido: Origins".

[7] Tokido vs. Hungrybox – Jenga at #HXGiving

[8] Evo 2002 3s Tokido vs Justin Wong

[9] "FGC nominations for The Game Awards 2018 include Evo, Tokido & SonicFox".

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

Date	Place	Event			Prize
2023
2023-09-29	1st	Frontier Cup	3 : 0	Dogura
2023-09-16	1st	CPT 2023 World Warrior: Japan #3	3 : 0	Kazunoko
2023-09-02	13th - 16th	CPT 2023 World Warrior: Japan #2	0 : 2	Itabashi Zangief
2023-08-19	13th - 16th	CPT 2023 World Warrior: Japan #1	1 : 2	Ryusei
2023-08-06	4th	Evolution Championship Series 2023	2 : 3	MenaRD	$7,000
2023-07-02	9th - 16th	Red Bull Kumite 2023 - South Africa	3 : 5	JabhiM	$2,000
All Results

Date	Place	Event			Prize
2023
2023-05-28	1st	Topanga World Championship 2023	7/0	Round Robin	$17,787
2023-04-02	65th - 96th	Evolution Championship Series: Japan 2023	0 : 2	stormKUBO
2023-02-13	5th - 6th	Capcom Cup IX - Last Chance Qualifier	2 : 3	Gachikun
2022
2022-12-25	5th - 6th	CPT 2022 World Warrior: Japan Regional Final	2 : 3	Yamaguchi
2022-12-11	2nd	BeePro Cup 2022	2 : 3 1 : 3	Oil King	$344
2022-12-03	7th - 8th	CPT 2022 World Warrior: Japan #5	2 : 3	NISHIKIN
2022-11-27	1st	CPT 2022 World Warrior: Japan #4	1 : 3 3 : 2	pugera
2022-10-22	5th - 6th	CPT 2022 World Warrior: Japan #3	2 : 3	Yamaguchi
2022-09-11	9th - 12th	CPT 2022 World Warrior: Japan #2	0 : 2	Yamaguchi
2022-08-21	13th - 16th	CPT 2022 World Warrior: Japan #1	1 : 2	Mago
2022-08-07	4th	Evolution Championship Series 2022	0 : 3	iDom	$926
2022-06-19	2nd	Topanga Championship 4	5/1	Round Robin	$7,795
All Results

Date	Place	Event		Prize
2023
2023-01-21	4th	Street Fighter League Pro-JP 2022	0 : 2
2022
2022-01-29	1st	Street Fighter League Pro-JP 2021		$10,850
2021
2021-01-30	2nd	Street Fighter League Pro-JP 2020		$5,968
2019
2019-12-01	6th	Street Fighter League Pro-JP 2019 - Season 2		$304
2019-03-21	5th	Street Fighter League Pro-JP 2019 - Season 1		$450
2018
2018-07-28	6th	RAGE Street Fighter V All-Star League
2016
2016-06-05	1st	Street Fighter V Crash		$8,592
All Results

Date	Place	Event			Prize
2015
2015-12-06	9th - 12th	Capcom Cup 2015	1 : 3	Misse
2015-11-01	1st	Canada Cup 2015	2 : 3 3 : 2	Fuudo	$7,000
2015-09-20	25th - 32nd	Tokyo Game Show 2015	0 : 2	Kyoku
2015-07-19	5th - 6th	Evolution Championship Series 2015	1 : 3	GamerBee	$2,945
2015-06-28	9th - 12th	CEO 2015	1 : 2	Xiao Hai
2015-06-21	2nd	South East Asia Major 2015	0 : 3	Mago	$3,000
2015-05-30	4th	FFM Rumble 8	1 : 2	Infexious
2015-05-24	4th	StunFest 2015	1 : 3	Daigo	$1,000
2015-04-05	2nd	Hypespotting 4	2 : 3	Mago	$3,000
2015-03-28	2nd	Red Bull Kumite 2015	1 : 3 1 : 3	Bonchan
2015-03-20	25th - 32nd	Final Round XVIII	1 : 2	Xiao Hai
2015-03-15	4th	SXSW Gaming Fighters Invitational	1 : 3	Kazunoko	$1,500
All Results

Date	Place	Event			Prize
2012
2012-12-08	2nd	Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Global Tournament	0 : 3	MOV	$2,200
2012-05-06	2nd	Shadowloo Showdown 2012	0 : 3 0 : 3	MOV
2008
2008-08-10	4th	Evolution Championship Series 2008	1 : 2	Nuki
2007
2007-08-26	2nd	Evolution Championship Series 2007	L	Nuki	$2,000
2006
2006-08-20	5th - 6th	Evolution Championship Series 2006	L	Issei Suzuki	$500
All Results

Date	Place	Event			Prize
2013
2013-09-29	1st	Canada Cup 2013	3 : 0 3 : 1	Infiltration
2013-06-23	1st	South East Asia Major 2013	0 : 3 3 : 1	Justin Wong
2012
2012-12-08	2nd	Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Global Tournament	1 : 3 0 : 3	Infiltration	$10,000
2012-05-06	4th	Shadowloo Showdown 2012	0 : 2	JWong
All Results

Date	Place	Event	Partner	Result
2012
2012-07-08	3rd	Evolution Championship Series 2012	Tokido Fuudo	0 : 2	Infiltration Laugh
All Results

Date	Place	Event			Prize
2014
2014-05-04	5th - 6th	Northwest Majors VI	0 : 3	ApologyMan
2014-03-30	7th - 8th	Id Global Tournament 2014	2 : 3	Bonchan
2013
2013-10-13	4th	Shadowloo Showdown 2013	1 : 3	ABEGEN
2013-09-29	4th	Canada Cup 2013	1 : 3	Filipino Champ
2013-06-23	3rd	South East Asia Major 2013	3 : 5	Kazunoko
2012
2012-10-28	3rd	Canada Cup 2012	0 : 3	Justin Wong
2012-05-06	7th - 8th	Shadowloo Showdown 2012	1 : 2	Antman
2012-02-19	3rd	World Game Cup 2012	0 : 2	Zak Bennett	$250
2011
2011-11-06	3rd	Canada Cup 2011	1 : 2	Filipino Champ
2011-06-26	1st	Shadowloo Showdown 2011	3 : 0	Mago
2011-06-12	1st	CEO 2011	2 : 3 3 : 1	Justin Wong	$1,600
2011-03-13	7th - 8th	Final Round XIV	1 : 3	PR Balrog
All Results

Date	Place	Event			Prize
2011
2011-07-31	7th - 8th	Evolution Championship Series 2011	0 : 2	JustFrameJames
2011-06-26	1st	Shadowloo Showdown 2011	W	GamerBee
2011-06-12	3rd	CEO 2011	0 : 3	FightingGM	$100
2010
2010-07-11	5th - 6th	Evolution Championship Series 2010	0 : 2	Rip
All Results

Date	Place	Event
2013
2013-07-12	9th - 12th	Evolution Championship Series 2013	L	Domi
2013-06-23	2nd	South East Asia Major 2013	5 : 3 1 : 5	Kazunoko
2012
2012-10-28	1st	Canada Cup 2012	3 : 2	Kazunoko
All Results

Date	Place	Event
2005
2005-08-14	7th - 8th	Evolution Championship Series 2005	0 : 2	Ruin
All Results

General

Specific

Tokido

Biography[edit]

Results[edit]

Street Fighter 6[edit]

Street Fighter V[edit]

Street Fighter IV[edit]

Street Fighter III[edit]

Street Fighter II[edit]

Street Fighter x Tekken[edit]

The King of Fighters XIII[edit]

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3[edit]

Tekken Tag Tournament 2[edit]

Tekken 6[edit]

Persona 4 Arena[edit]

Soulcalibur V[edit]

Guilty Gear XX[edit]

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift[edit]

Capcom vs. SNK 2[edit]

Trivia[edit]

Media[edit]

Interviews[edit]

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]