Since the release of Street Fighter 6, Ryu has been regarded as being the worst of the Shoto characters, which is a problem that only escalated after Akuma was added as a DLC fighter. This has been a constant problem for Ryu since Street Fighter 5 Season 2.
However, 2G|Blaz was able to surprise everyone at Capcom Cup 11 with the performance of his Ryu. Though he also had Ken and Akuma ready as secondaries to fall back on, he was able to achieve a second place finish relying primarily on Ryu, only losing to Zeta|Kakeru’s JP in the end.
Was Ryu actually underrated or was this merely a fluke? Perhaps the players that faced off against Blaz’s Ryu simply lacked the match up experience since characters like Ken and Akuma had become more prevalent in the meta.
This past weekend, another major Street Fighter 6 tournament unfolded with Red Bull Kumite 2025. There were some many big names present at the event such as Zeta|Kakeru, WBG|MenaRD, KSG|Xiaohai, G8S|Gachikun, BST|Daigo, TM|NoahTheProdigy, Mouz|EndingWalker, Reject|BigBird, KC|Kilzyou, RB|Bonchan, Mouz|Problem X, and more.
In the end, it was BigBird who was able to take the entire tournament with his amazing Rashid plays. Of course, making this sort of prediction doesn’t feel too outlandish as Rashid is generally perceived to be a top tier in Street Fighter 6 while BigBird is known to be one of the best competitors in the scene right now.
EndingWalker came in second place while only using a single character — Ryu. What’s interesting is that EndingWalker was even able to eliminate Kakeru’s JP with a 5-3 set victory. Indeed, this is quite the accomplishment seeing as how JP is observed to be one of Ryu’s worst match ups.
He was even able to take out Bonchan during the event. Notably, Bonchan was using Akuma, a combatant that’s generally viewed as being the superior choice to Ryu, though at the cost of lower stamina.
What an EXPLOSIVE first game from @EndingWalker pic.twitter.com/gTTEnxEBnK
— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) April 6, 2025
ENDINGWALKER ELIMINATED KAKERU!!!!#RedBullKumite2025 pic.twitter.com/nwLXPK8fXt
— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) April 6, 2025
ENDINGWALKER
ENDINGWALKER
ENDINGWALKER pic.twitter.com/HpWdJafnJ4— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) April 6, 2025
Is Ryu just that underrated or is the balance of Street Fighter 6 so tight that even a character regarded as being on the lower end of the tier lists competitively viable?
Regardless, we’re eagerly awaiting for the reveal of Elena’s gameplay trailer. Additionally, we’re expecting the Season 3 balance patch to also drop alongside Elena, though this has yet to be confirmed by Capcom.
If Ryu ends up getting some major buffs in the Season 3 patch (whenever it goes live), he could end up becoming a major threat in the new meta. It really does feel like just a few adjustments in the right areas could do a lot for Ryu considering how he’s managed to surprise everyone with these sort of results.
Ryu mains may be rising up soon. We’ll just have to see if things actually play out that way.
Source: Event Hubs