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The story
Yuki Kurihara (11, Tokyo Verdy), the youngest member of Japan’s national squad, won gold in the puzzle-battle game “Puyo Puyo” at the Asian Games. He dominated the quarterfinals 5-0 against Singapore’s representative and the semifinals 10-1 against Thailand’s, becoming the youngest medalist in Asian Games history. He got his competitive start in second grade after placing 3rd at the fighting-game tournament “EVO Japan,” and had already been crowned reigning annual champion at the most recent “Puyo Puyo Grand Prix Final.” On 5ch’s hardware/industry (“geha”) board, discussion focused less on the achievement itself and more on whether “Yuki Kurihara” counts as a “kirakira name” (a flashy, unconventional given name), what brand of controller he used, and how many spectators showed up at the final.
[eSports] 11-year-old Yuki Kurihara takes gold! Youngest medalist in Asian Games history with “Puyo Puyo”
Yuki Kurihara (11, Tokyo Verdy), the youngest member of Japan’s delegation, took on the final of the puzzle-battle game “Puyo Puyo” and came away with the gold medal.
He showed no smile until the semifinals, calmly winning match after match. In the quarterfinals he beat Singapore’s representative 5-0, then crushed Thailand’s representative 10-1 in the semifinals to reach the final, becoming the youngest medalist in Asian Games history.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
adults aren't actually trying.
Sounds like sour grapes.
Pathetic.
Most recently he was crowned annual champion at the 2026 "Puyo Puyo Grand Prix Final." His favorite sports are table tennis and soccer. His best subject is social studies. His go-to pre-match meal is eel. Asked what he wants to buy with his Asian Games prize money, he said, "Honestly, like, jewelry or something."
Pretty good joke for an 11-year-old.
Is he gonna give it to some girl who likes jewelry?
It's kind of a kirakira name.
It's obviously "Yuki," there's no other way to read it, so it's fine…
I've been seeing that name for like 25 years?
Do you never go outside or something?
I don't think I could beat my 11-year-old self.
Jewelry has monetary value.
If you're going to accomplish something big,
of course you'd want something with monetary value!
Lol, that's a totally normal kanji reading.
It's not even trying to be unusual —
it's just a regular on'yomi reading straight out of the dictionary.
There's also Teruaki Sato (the baseball player), you know.
Amemiya ("rain") and Taiyo ("sun")… yeah, that's a kirakira name.
Also, the controller was HORI's Switch controller.
HORIPAD FPS
for Nintendo Switch / PC
https://hori.jp/products/nsw/horipad_ma_plus/
but their controller's flawed design meant nobody looked twice.
LMAOOOO the Asian Games esports final happening right now is basically playing to empty seats
https://krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1790167423/
Guess nobody really cared either way
Yeah, back in the PS4 era they were absolutely gunning for the center seat of esports.
Wait, that thread's still up?
is kind of boring to watch, honestly.
He lost with a big chain, so he switched to disrupting with small chains — but the opponent countered the disruption and he still landed a huge chain on top of it. The back-and-forth really shook things up, it was fun to watch.
SEGA's already running 2v2 events for it, so maybe as an exhibition.
There's barely any character-swapping, so I guess they haven't found anyone who can play both.
Why are they all matching, lol
Well, still better than some cocky esports pro.
Is this hairstyle trending now?
They didn't have to dress all four of them the same.
Maybe he's gonna give it to his mom as a present.
Jewelry = a source of funds
Unlike you guys,
I actually think about assets!
Come on, he's keeping it for himself.
He's gonna use that jewelry as collateral to raise more capital!
…I got called an idiot.
Background and Talking Points
Esports events at the Asian Games have been expanding in recent years, but they’re nowhere near as widely known to the general public as track and field or swimming at the Olympics — and the thread saw comments like “probably a lot of ordinary people don’t even know esports is happening there.” Kurihara’s backstory — getting his start in second grade after placing third at the fighting-game tournament “EVO Japan,” then becoming annual champion at the very next Grand Prix — comes straight from the original article, and his “jewelry or something” answer about what he’d spend his prize money on is something he actually said, not speculation. Where opinions in the thread diverged was mainly over whether the name “Kurihara” counts as a kirakira name, with posters trading arguments over the kanji used and citing other famous people with similar names. Others noted that the controller was made by HORI, sparking side commentary about Sony’s relatively weak presence in esports gear — turning part of the thread into an industry discussion about the pecking order among controller makers.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (“Geha”)) thread “11-Year-Old Wins Gold in Puyo Puyo at the Asian Games eSports!“
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