Ryu's Contest History

Who is Ryu?
Main character of a game called Street Fighter, which revolutionized fighting games.

He was born in Japan. He uses a toned down version of Ansatsuken, Called Shotoken (Ansatsuken is a fighting style used for killing, while Shotoken isn't). He can sleep almost anywhere and apparently he's a good hitch hiker....

When he was a baby, his mother left him in the dojo of Gouken. Gouken raised him as his own and started training him because he saw potential in him. Ryu looked up to Gouken as his father and respected him, and the Martial Arts very much. Around his teen years, Gouken brought in another student, Ken Masters, to train along side Ryu. They became best friends, as well as rivals. They competed in many things, but Ryu was always one step ahead of him. One day, Ryu hears of a Street Fighter Tournament, and decides he wants to prove himself and enters while Ken entered the US Martial Arts tournament. With his skill, he quickly advances to the finals where the Muay Thai God, Sagat, was ready for battle. Ryu was out of his league however, and was pummeled by Sagat. It seemed he had lost and as a gesture, Sagat held out his hand to help Ryu up. Something happened at that moment. Ryu's ambition to win COMSUMED him. The Satsu no Hadou took over for a brief second and he let off a Shouryuken on Sagat, Scarring him, both physically and emotionally, for life. Ryu didn't recall what had happened, but all he knew is that he wad won and was crowned as the Street Fighter champion. Still confused on what had happened, He went back to the Dojo to ask Gouken what had happened. But upon his Arrival, he found out Gouken was murdered by his brother, Akuma. Ken had come back from the tournament before Ryu did (Ken won the US martial arts tournament FYI) and witnessed the killing blow to their Master. Sensing Akuma's Chi, he set out to look for him.

Ryu finally finds Akuma in Akuma's Island, called Goukento and Challenges him. Ryu was fighting seriously but Akuma was only toying with him. Then about halfway during the battle, Akuma sees that Ryu wields the same power he does! Akuma wants him to become consumed by the Satsu no Hadou, so he can finally have a challenge. He tells Ryu that if he lets it consume him, he'll become the strongest, and only then he'll let Ryu have a rematch with him. With that being said, Akuma Punches the ground and destroys his Island. Ryu, barely escaping, Sees that Akuma disappeared and now is very angry and confused. Some time after that, Ken finally tracks him down (that's what Ken was trying to do the entire time in SFA2). Ryu, still being upset, brushes him off and ignores him. They get into a fight and Ken beats him. He tells Ryu that he has something clouding over his mind and that he needs to get focused again. Ken gives Ryu his red bandana was reminder of this. He thanks Ken for this and he realizes he still has a long way to go before becoming a true warrior, by fighting with him self and the Satsu no Hadou. They went their separate ways again. Some time after that, he is confronted by a girl named Sakura. She proclaims that she is his #1 fan (she probably saw him in the SF tournament, a year before all of this) and told him she had been training and wanted to spar. He went easy on her, since there was more to fighting than winning. She won the match and then asked Ryu if she could be his student. He told her that he couldn't be a teacher because he was still in training himself. Sakura took a picture of him (probably when he wasn't looking) and Ryu walked away....

Still trying to decide whether he should give in to the Satsu No Hadou, He is encountered by a woman named Rose. She warns him that a man named M. Bison is searching for him and he'll lose if all he concentrates on is Physical Power. Bison finally finds Ryu and claims even if he manages to destroy his body, his soul will live on (he wants to use Ryu's body as his next host if it ever happened). They begin to fight and Bison catches him off guard and begins taking control over him. Ryu feels evil energy dwelling up inside of him, and he begins to think that its the same as the Satsu No Hadou. He Finally Gives in and Bison fully controls him. Sagat, After his defeat with Ryu, was looking for Ryu for revenge on what he had done to him. But when he lost to Adon, he realized fighting in anger was not the way. It's not until after he met Dan, he changed his ways. Sagat showed up and had seen what Bison had done to Ryu. Ken and Sakura showed up as well (both of them were looking for Ryu as well) and The 3 of them teamed up to rescue Ryu. Sagat took on the psycho-controlled Ryu while Ken and Sakura held off Bison. Sagat managed to beat Ryu, and Ryu Broke out of the Psycho Control, and Join Ken and Sakura to fight Bison. Bison, being very surprised that he broke out of this control, retreated to his headquarters (where later, Cammy and the Dolls betray him, and ultimately, dies from an explosion caused by Chun-Li, Guile, and Charlie). Ryu thanks everyone for helping him and apologizes to everyone for being weak. Sagat tells him that he was training hard for his rematch with Ryu, but sees now isn't the time. They promise each other a rematch. They went from mortal enemies to friendly rivals. He tells Sakura that he's happy that she had come a long way and improved vastly, but he's not ready for a rematch because the brainwashing showed his weakness. They promise a rematch to each other was well. He told Ken that the experience made him realize a new awareness, and that martial arts are more vast than he could have ever dreamed. Their friendly rivalry continues. He finally managed to rid himself of the Satsu No Hadou, and with that done, all four of them go their separate ways.....

Quite some time later, Ryu got a invitation to the second Street Fighter Tournament. He joined to test and hone his skills. Though it's not official on how far he got in the tournament, it's believed he DID fight Ken and Ken won. (it's been stated that Ken wanted to marry his girlfriend, Eliza, after he got a victory over Ryu). Ultimately Akuma killed M. Bison at the end of the Tournament with his Shun Gokusatsu (Raging Demon).

Years Later, he entered the third Street Fighter Tournament to again, test and train himself (Capcom kinda gave up on his story I guess). It's believed that he did fight Hugo (Hugo withstood the Shin-Shouryuken, which is supposed to be one of the strongest attacks in the SF Universe) and won. Then he fought a mysterious old man named Oro, who was looking for a new student to train. This old man had incredible Chi and even had sealed off one of his arms magically so his opponents could stand a chance! Ryu lost to him. Afterwards, Oro Dropped out of the tournament (he was scheduled to fight Alex, and Alex ended up winning the tournament).

You know Ryu... he probably uses his defeat to motivate himself. As long as there are strong(er) opponents, he'll keep fighting and traveling his path. He goes to America afterwards and looks for Ken. He finds him in New York (after winning the US Martial Arts for the third time) and they have their Rematch. Ryu ends up winning again. They go their separate ways again (Ken has a family at this point). While in New York, Ryu is encountered by the Street Fighter Champion, Alex. They fight and Ryu wins. He encourages Alex to keep fighting. Alex, now with weight of vengeance off of his back (Gill badly injured his friend, Tom, and Alex avenged him) he is almost as eager as Ryu to find new opponents and travel the world.... Ryu is always a balanced fighter in the games. More defensive than his counterpart, Ken, he manages to stay a high tier. Ryu IS human though, for he has a fear of spiders (a spider went inside his mouth when he was hiking one time, and no, Spider Man doesn't count). Ryu was even Capcom's mascot for awhile (replacing Mega Man and Captain Commando) but as far as I know, not so much anymore. The Satsu No Hadou is the "Killing Intent" that takes over Ryu when he wants to achieve victory, even if it means killing his opponents. But he only had that transformed state only once during his fight with Sagat. He's mostly a what if character. By many, Ryu is considered the father of fighting games, and will always have a place in history.

"Seek an opponent who is your equal. Only then can you improve." - Ryu

(Writeup courtesy of BIGPUN9999)

Ryu's Contest History
Win-Loss Record: 9-6

Summer 2002 Contest - West Division - 4 Seed
 * Western Round 1 --- Defeated (13) CATS, 46869 [80.79%] - 11145 [19.21%]
 * Western Quarterfinal --- Lost to (5) Samus, 28630 [42.15%] - 39293 [57.85%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 10th Place [34.62%]

Summer 2003 Contest - West Division - 5 Seed
 * Western Round 1 --- Defeated (12) Duke Nukem, 67413 [69.92%] - 28995 [30.08%]
 * Western Quarterfinal --- Defeated (4) Dante, 51258 [54.01%] - 43649 [45.99%]
 * Western Semifinal --- Lost to (1) Solid Snake, 45915 [42.74%] - 61510 [57.26%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 18th Place [29.70%]

Summer 2004 Contest - Chaos Division - 9 Seed
 * Chaos Round 1 --- Defeated (8) KOS-MOS, 52425 [62.13%] - 31954 [37.87%]
 * Chaos Quarterfinal --- Lost to (1) Sonic the Hedgehog, 35057 [44.46%] - 43795 [55.54%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 16th Place [29.84%]

Ryu's games are amazing, but as a character, he is horribly boring to predict in contests. The one and only match involving Ryu that has ever created any stir is his match against Dante, and even then, most people weren't all that surprised that Ryu managed to win. Ryu is the paradigm of unlucky seeding in that he always faces character either clearly worse than or clearly better than he is, and it's usually very easy to predict how far he'll go. Granted, even if he were to be involved in an exciting bracket, his odds of ever getting into any round past the Sweet 16 are next to zero. Ryu, despite being the most popular pure fighting character in the contests, simply isn't strong enough to take down an elite character.

Summer 2005 Contest - Dream Division - 2 Seed
 * Dream Round 1 --- Defeated (7) Rikku, 59210 [55.72%] - 47054 [44.28%]
 * Dream Semifinal --- Lost to (3) Bowser, 37536 [41.02%] - 53964 [58.98%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 25th Place [27.47%]

What in the world happened to Ryu? He went from being about the most consistent character in these contests to... whatever he was in 2005. And not only did he get completely killed by Bowser in a match in which he was the statistical favorite to win (Lol, X-Stats), but he barely managed to break 55% on Rikku.

Not Yuna. Not Tidus. Not Auron. Rikku. The only people who care about Rikku are the idiots who get off on cartoon porn, and God help anyone who actually likes her for her personality (or lack thereof).

But on a more serious note, I personally find it inexplicable that one of the rocks of contest consistency just fell apart like this. I'd like to think that this was a simply fluke, but we all called Mega Man/Tidus a fluke back in 2004 and look what happened. Tidus went on to validate that it was no fluke after all.

Could Ryu, odd as it may seem to even ask this question, be in the same boat as Tidus?

Summer 2006 Contest - Destiny Division - 6 Seed
 * Destiny Round 1 --- Defeated (6) Kratos, 66198 [57.11%] - 49713 [42.89%]
 * Destiny Semifinal --- Lost to (2) Mega Man, 50342 [41.96%] - 69626 [58.04%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 19th Place [35.16%]

After one odd year, Ryu returned to form in having his path end early by breaking 40% on a Noble Nine character. Only the Big Three, Mario and Crono left to go! =p

Summer 2007 Contest - Division 2 - Fourth Group
 * Division 2 Round 1 --- 1st place, 49754 [36.30%] - Bowser, 39225 [28.62%] - Mewtwo, 34197 [24.95%] - Toad, 13895 [10.14%]
 * Division 2 Round 2 --- 2nd place, 35350 [26.16%] - Auron, 48423 [35.83%] - Bowser, 32529 [24.07%] - Shadow the Hedgehog, 18842 [13.94%]
 * Division 2 Finals --- 2nd place, 29007 [20.25%] - Cloud Strife, 71041 [49.59%] - Auron, 26021 [18.16%] - Marcus Fenix, 17188 [12.00%]
 * Contest Quarterfinals --- 4th place, 16682 [11.54%] - Cloud Strife, 59587 [41.23%] - Samus Aran, 41623 [28.80%] - Mega Man, 26641 [18.43%]

This year, Ryu found himself in a fourpack with the foe who gave him the worst loss of his career, Bowser. Many people expected him to win that first rematch because there were two other Nintendo characters in the match to leech votes from the Koopa King, but they figured it would end there. However, the legendary Street Fighter wanted his revenge. He proved his first win was no fluke, as he beat Bowser outright to advance to the divisional finals. He got a bit of luck when Cloud joined their fourpack and SFF'd Auron just enough for Ryu to squeak through. He got demolished in the quarterfinals, but he was facing three Noble Niners. What'd you expect? That didn't prevent this from being Ryu's most successful contest to date.