Riku's Contest History

Who is Riku?
In the beginning of Kingdom Hearts, Riku and Sora are the best of friends. Unfortunately, this friendship is soon put to the test as Riku decides that life on Destiny Island isn't enough for him. Riku and Sora, despite being friends were always having friendly little competitions with each other, be it fighting with wooden swords or simply having footraces. It's hinted that both characters are in love with and are in competition, but not a whole lot is made of this early on.

The crew eventually decides to build a raft and leave Destiny Island, though they don't leave the island on the best of terms. The Heartless attack and swallow the island the night before they're all to leave, and Sora, Riku and Kairi all get split up in an entirely new world unknown to them.

Riku's desire and ambition make him an easy target for Maleficent's manipulation tactics, and it isn't long before she has Riku using the power of darkness for his own and turning on Sora. The two have a very symbolic, nasty rivalry all throughout Kingdom Hearts that features some of the best fights in the game (and Riku's voice actor in battle is amazing), and it isn't until the very end of the game that we figure out how the relationship between Riku and Sora turns out. And it's worth noting that Riku's love of Kairi truly comes out when he has the darkness on his side, and that Kairi's fate isn't decided until the tail end of the game, either.

Riku's character archetype isn't the most original out there (conflicted, badassed anti-hero), but it always seems to work well in Square titles. Kingdom Hearts is no exception.

"What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?" - Riku

Riku's Contest History
Win-Loss Record: 2-3

Summer 2005 Contest - Zebes Division - 4 Seed
 * Zebes Round 1 --- Lost to (5) Frog, 45455 [48.33%] - 48604 [51.67%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 36th Place [22.12%]

One has to wonder if Riku's match goes any differently if both he and Frog are new characters to the contest field. Frog was the massive favorite going into his match with Riku, yet Riku managed to go from being doubled to cutting Frog's percentage all the way down to less than 52% through the course of the match. Not only did this help to expose Frog long before samus could, but it gave us an ultra-rare close SFF match. Riku was never really close to actually beating Frog, but he did win several updates throughout the match.

And even with Frog's total annihilation at the hands of Samus, Riku's X-Stat strength is still pretty decent. It's tough to say whether or not Riku rSFFd Frog or what have you, but his match in Summer 2005 was one of the very rare examples of an impressive one and done performance. It would be nice to see Riku return to a future contest to see how he does.

Summer 2006 Contest - Patriot Division - 3 Seed
 * Patriot Round 1 --- Lost to (6) Yoshi, 56325 [44.80%] - 69394 [55.20%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 17th Place [36.00%]

One of these days, Riku won't get stuck behind some green animal and will end up winning a match. He's too popular not to.

Summer 2007 Contest - Division 7 - Fourth Group
 * Division 7 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 34243 [27.25%] - Ryu Hayabusa, 57670 [45.80%] - Roxas, 22253 [17.67%] - Haseo, 11695 [9.29%]
 * Division 7 Round 2 --- 2nd place, 24596 [19.43%] - Solid Snake, 60407 [47.72%] - Ryu Hayabusa, 23942 [18.91%] - Nightmare, 17654 [13.94%]
 * Division 7 Finals --- 4th place, 25656 [18.02%] - Solid Snake, 46201 [32.44%] - L-Block, 40774 [28.63%] - Kratos, 29772 [20.91%]

This was supposed to be the year that Riku broke through and finally won a match. While he made it all the way to the third round, he has still yet to win a match outright. The board was shocked in the first round when Ryu Hayabusa destroyed their group, although Roxas was in the group. Many people thought that dropping Roxas from the poll wouldn't be enough, but Riku somehow managed to pull off a comeback over Hayabusa and advance. He finished last in the division finals, but that's not too shameful considering the competition.