Capcom Cup 11 winner Kakeru retires from professional Street Fighter

Some shocking news just came out of the camp of Japanese esports organization Zeta Division: Capcom Cup 11 winner Kakeru “Kakeru” Watanabe is hanging up his leverless controller and retiring from professional play in Street Fighter 6.

The 28-year-old announced his decision to call it quits on his career on his official X account at around 2am ET today, citing neurological issues that began manifesting in August this year.

Not how it should have ended

Like I mentioned above, this actually isn’t the first time anyone’s heard of Kakeru’s health problems. He had to forfeit his match against Victor “Punk” Woodley at the Esports World Cup in August due to his condition flaring up at the time. He would eventually return to active play at the Capcom Pro Tour World Warrior Japan tournament in early September, but was absent from the start of the Street Fighter League (SFL) in Japan thereafter.

Kakeru expressed his regrets about the situation in his announcement, saying that he feels “truly sorry for leaving the [Zeta Division] roster midway through the SFL season”. He was of course a vital piece in their roster — one of, if not the most valuable player on their squad when it came to team leagues like SFL.

ご報告

​いつも温かいご声援、本当にありがとうございます。

​この度、ZETA DIVISIONから発表がありました通り、私はeスポーツ選手としての活動を引退することを決断いたしました。

​突然の活動休止から約2カ月が経過してしまいました。…

— ZETA Kakeru(翔) (@Kakeru_FGC) October 23, 2025

True enough, they really could use his help given that Zeta Division are currently in fourth place in their SFL division. A single match win right now would put them over DetonatioN FocusMe in the standings, giving them a much better shot at making the playoffs at the end of the regular season.

You just hate to see something like this. Injuries in sports are part and parcel of the job, but career-ending injuries and/or conditions like what Kakeru has are just tragic to say the least. We will likely never know the full extent of his neurological dysfunction or even any details for that matter, but it must be really bad if his only recourse is to stop competing altogether.

A legendary run, cut painfully short

Kakeru is one of the best to ever do it in Street Fighter, full stop. Yes, it’s true that he only broke out as a top tier player in SF6, and was basically nowhere to be found in both Street Fighter IV and V. But winning the first ever million-dollar Capcom Cup in 2024 as well as the Gamers8 SF6 tournament made him a legend regardless.

Fighting game tournaments are generally known for not having the biggest prize pools versus other esports titles, particularly team games like League of Legends and Counter-Strike 2. But when huge prize pots starting cropping up in the fighting game community, Kakeru was there to capitalize at the right time.

He took his main character JP to unbelievable heights in his short two-year SF6 run. Kakeru did things with JP that would leave spectators gobsmacked, leaving everyone else including other JP mains in the dust with his mastery of the character. And for his accomplishments, he will go down in fighting game history as one of the greatest players of all time, both in terms of prize money earned and the impact he’s left behind in the wake of his retirement.

At any rate, I wish Kakeru nothing but the best with regards to his health, and a full recovery from his condition if such a thing is even possible. If nothing else, he can leave professional Street Fighter behind knowing that he was once a world champion.