SB5 angered me...
PR Rog beat Daigo? I think Daigo's getting sick of the game, he needs to retire. That tourney was where I decided I'll never take SSFIV seriously. Flash Metriod posted on FB that he needs to step up his counter-pick game. If you need to counter pick to win that's a stupid ass game. American players annoy me too now lol, the only one I like is Arturo Sanchez. It's crazy to see how full of themselves they all are (especially Marn) then you have a player like Gamerbee saying he doesn't even consider himself a top player.
Daigo wasn't in the best of shape at this event (he was constantly caught sleeping on the side lol) but the guy has still got it, look at his SB5 match with Arturo (that super finish was clearly the highlight of the tourney). Also look at the money matches that he had with Arturo and Philippino Champ later, really intense stuff.
Same in Japan, check out the recent God's Garden online SSF4 tourneys and you will see that he is still one of the best (if not the best) there as well. So yeah, don't get your Daigo fangirl panties in a knot, he hasn't lost his touch yet. Really looking forward to his participation in the upcoming Norcal Regionals and Canada Cup.
As for the counter pick bit, that seems to be more of a US mentallity than anything else. Watch the matches and you will see that players like Daigo, Gamerbee, Sako, YHC Mochi, Uryo etc. all stick to their guns no matter what but US players often tend to pick an alternate character when they can't break through. Like at SB5 Gamerbee went with Adon no matter what but Justin switched between Rufus, Makoto and Rog.