Ryu is typically designed to be as simple and basic as possible in the Street Fighter series. While this makes him a popular pick for newer players, he should also theoretically have enough depth so that the professional level players have reasons enough to want to use him.
This is often true at first, but Ryu has a tendency to become less relevant as more characters are added to a Street Fighter entry. Unfortunately, Ryu is sometimes just bad right from the get go. Needless to say, MC MuraFGC recently released a video that reviews Ryu’s history with Capcom’s Capcom Pro Tour series throughout the years and Street Fighter titles.
The first Capcom Cup took place in 2014. Back then, Ryu was still relevant as Ryan Hart was able to finish at fifth place that year with Ryu. Of course, it’s worth noting that Ryan Hart had originally qualified for Capcom Cup with Sagat in a previous version of Street Fighter 4 before Ultra Street Fighter 4 was released.
Following this, Ryu quickly became overshadowed by better characters such as Evil Ryu throughout the remainder of Street Fighter 4’s lifespan. Even though Evil Ryu had less life than Ryu, he was generally perceived as just a better version of Ryu due to his explosive combo damage.
2016, however, would mark a new year and new game for Ryu. In Street Fighter 5, Ryu actually started off being very strong in Season 1. Back then, some characters like Ryu still had access to meterless invincible reversals.
Though three players were able to get into the Capcom Cup using Ryu, BST|Daigo’s placement of 13th was the best any of them could achieve at that event. Unfortunately, this would be the last time we’d see Ryu at Capcom Cup as he was then completely obliterated by nerfs in Season 2. Though Capcom attempted to buff Ryu in later seasons, Ryu never was able to recover in the Street Fighter 5 meta.
Capcom Cup X hasn’t happened just yet for Street Fighter 6, but it’s looking like Ryu will end up being absent from that event as well. As things stand, there are only five possible qualification slots remaining for Capcom Cup X and a Ryu player has yet to qualify due to his mid-to-low tier status.
Check out MC MuraFGC’s video below to hear about all of this and more: