Okuda Aya - Team Wakagoi 25-26

Wakagoi's fighter is Okuda Aya (奥田あや) a 5 Dan Professional born 27th November 1988 and Professional from 2004 at 16. She has been a consistently strong competitor but is self described as liking battles. It has been noted though that this is more enjoying them and doing well when they occur but her base play style favours territory over influence so she does not necessarily go out of her way to start complex fights but just does well when they occur.

The best summary I saw said the defends solidly whilst using using battles to generate territorial gains. It seems to be working well as she consistently gains upsets against top players but has not dominated.

Her ELO is currently 2972 making her the #543rd best player in the world.

Interesting ELO chart as well. She got married in October 2023 which is half way through the last drop (makes sense, many distractions in an engagement), the question is whether that will turn around now and push her back to that 3001 peak (or more).

She has frequently done well in the challenger rounds of cups and competitions, often knocking out big beasts. She has reached some finals

Honinbo

Lost to Xie Yimin 0-3

Meijin

Lost to Xie Yimin 0-2

So like a lot of the female Professionals her big chance of glory was taken by the hurricane that was (is?) Xie Yimin.