Ken Masters (Street Fighter series)
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Ryu's eternal rival, Ken Masters. Ken was born
from a rich family, and was a very wild and uncontrollable child. Ken's father
disliked this, but wanted to take advantage of his son's energy and wild
spirit. Being friends with a skilled Martial Artist named Gouken, and knowing
of his strict teachings, he decided to send Ken there to grow into a martial artist
and teach Ken discipline. Growing up in the same dojo as Ryu and both being
private pupils under Master Gouken's watchful eye, these two became Gouken's
brightest and most skilled pupils. Having fought countless times, Ryu, however
proved to be the strongest of the two with his better win record. Ken and Ryu
learned a lot from each other, Ken taught Ryu English so that Ryu would be able
to travel to other countries someday and Ryu taught Ken to be more focused and
become able to control his wild energy that lead to Ken's ability to engulf his
fist in flame for a Fire Shoryuken. Ken's often known for his constant wins in
the American Martial arts tournament, rivaled only by Charlie. Ken is often
brash, arrogant and constantly flexes his ego, but with his powerful flaming
Shoryuken techniques, he's a man that can back up his words.
Ken's rivalry with Ryu is the defines a friendly rivalry. Unlike Sagat who
hates Ryu for giving him that scar with a cheap blow in the first World Warrior
tournament and Akuma who sees Ryu only as potential opponent, Ken fights with
Ryu just for fun, exercise and to see how they've progressed over the years.
Ken's main fault for being weaker than Ryu is that he's a married man and has
to take of his family, while Ryu trains all his life. Ken most likely would
have retired from fighting in Street Fighter III if a diehard fan didn't
constantly bother him to train him. That fan, being Sean, reminded Ken of how
he was when he was young, being brash and wild. However Sean was undisciplined
and very weak (weaker than even Dan and R. Mika storywise). However Ken's not
much of a teacher himself, and finds Sean rather annoying, and often sends Sean
to look for Ryu while Ken fights or stays with family. Ken after this returned
to the American martial arts tournaments and even broke the record for straight
championships in a row, while his pupil Sean can't even pass the qualifying
rounds.
Ken is known for being THE Ryu clone. Despite them both appearing in Street
Fighter 1, Ken was pretty much there just for the two player mode. Ken also
reappeared in Street Fighter 2 as a Ryu clone, with no differences besides
their throws. In Champion Edition, there was the choice to have a Mirror Match
and have two players fight each other with same character. Ken's purpose was
done as a complete Ryu clone, he began to gain differences from Ryu. His
fireball was slower, but his Shoryuken was now multi hit and went in a
different arc, and while Ryu's Hurricane Kick hit only once, Ken's hit multiple
times, but didn't knock down. Ken focused more on being aggressive while Ryu
focused on being more defensive. However the tier lists have never been too
kind to Ken until the late nineties. Ken was always under Ryu in every Street
Fighter game, and even was the weakest character in Marvel Super Heroes vs
Street Fighter (He's worse than DAN in that game.) It wasn't until
Street Fighter 3 Third Strike and Capcom vs SNK 2 Ken was finally above Ryu.
And Ken wasn't even in Capcom Fighting Evolution despite Red Earth characters
getting in, most of who where never heard of until this game.
Ken's still a popular character today, and isn't just a Street Fighter icon,
but a fighting game icon and arguably the second most popular Street Fighter
character.
"Focus the mind. Cleanse the soul. Keep sight on my target." -Ken Masters
(Writeup courtesy of Heroic Dr Wily)
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Ken Masters' Contest History
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Win-Loss Record
0-2
Summer 2002 Contest
West Division - 12 Seed
Western Round 1 --- Lost to (5) Samus, 21698 [34.69%] - 40857 [65.31%]
Extrapolated Strength --- 14th Place [28.49%]
Summer 2003 Contest
East Division - 15 Seed
Eastern Round 1 --- Lost to (2) Sonic the Hedgehog, 33146 [31.09%] - 73484 [68.91%]
Extrapolated Strength --- 40th Place [21.71%]
Being given a low seed in two consecutive years and getting slapped against two Noble Nine characters isn't a good way to make a living, and Ken has been rewarded for his efforts with not being given a spot in the field since despite it being somewhat plausible that he would be a decent midcarder if given a proper seed.
Will he ever get one? Who knows.
-Ulti
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