Ryan Joseph Hart, also known as Prodigal Son, Tsuujin, Robotnik, The Terminator and NeriahSensei, is a British professional fighting game player. He specialises in 2D and 3D fighter games released by Capcom, Bandai Namco, Sega, Midway, NetherRealm Studios and SNK. Ryan holds numerous National, European and World titles and has won the Evolution Championships twice in Tekken and placed in the top eight multiple times in the same series. Hart also holds four world records within the Guinness World Record's for most international Street Fighter competition wins, most well-travelled fighting game champion, the longest winning streak on Street Fighter IV, and the most consecutive opponents on Street Fighter V. While Hart is predominantly known for his professional gaming career, he is also a commentator, tournament organiser, author, presenter, event host, model, translator and content creator.
Early life Hart was born and raised in South West London. At the age of 10 he visited his local arcade at a mini cab station, it was here that he was first introduced to his first arcade action game, Golden Axe. A year later he discovered the fighting games Street Fighter and Street Smart. When amusement arcades grew in popularity within the UK, Hart became a frequent visitor to the different arcades located around his local area, where he started to play Street Fighter and Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, among other games. For a portion of his teenage years, Hart was homeless. During his secondary school years, Hart's family relocated to Croydon in South London, where he frequently visited arcades and began to gain local reputation among classmates and arcade visitors.
Career Hart has worked in many different areas of the Esports industry, these include (but not limited to) professional player, tournament organiser, team manager, caster, interviewer, consultant, translator, model, coach and content creator.
Outside of Esports, Hart has also worked for many years in the video game industry, for companies such as Sammy Europe, Sega Europe and Nintendo of Europe.
Professional player Early career Hart's first tournament was for the game Street Fighter II Turbo, held in London Trocadero in 1994, the event was sponsored by Kiss FM. It was also during this time he began to play King of Fighter '94, a year later Hart entered the National King of Fighter '95 Championship hosted by Play 2 Win arcade on Oxford Street, London. Unsuccessful in both tournaments Hart began to visit central London to play with more experienced players, it was there that he was introduced to Tekken and Tekken 2. It was with Tekken 2 that Hart had his first success, entering the Tekken 2 UK National Tournament, where he placed 4th with the character King.
With the release of The King of Fighters '96, Hart entered the National King of Fighters 96' Championship on 22 December 1996. This was the first competition that Hart won, defeating the player Motohide Nishio in the grand finals thus cementing his name among the King of Fighters community. Hart began to explore other fighting games, having huge success with Sega's Virtua Fighter 3, winning nine championships in a row at the Namco Wonderpark on 6, 7 and 8 June 1997, which was located on Great Windmill Street in Central London. With the release of Tekken 3, Hart trained heavily with his Tekken 2 background and went back and forth in arcades with other top players including Sho Hiraki from Japan, who was living in the UK at the time. Hart became the UK national champion defeating Sho Hiraki along his path in September 1997, and even appeared in a four player exhibition on the UK's GameMaster TV show again competing against the player Sho from Japan within the final, which he ultimately lost.
In 1998, Hart won the Ehrgeiz UK championship and a flight to Japan to compete in the Ehrgeiz World Finals, he was defeated but during his time in Japan, he entered and won the King of Fighters '98 World Tournament held at the Amusement Machine Show in Tokyo Big Sight. While still in Japan, Hart placed first in three Tekken 3 tournaments held at Shinjuku Playmax arcade. Adding to Hart's success within Japan, he also placed second at the Virtua Fighter 3 tournament held in Ikebukuro Gigo arcade. After returning to the UK, Hart entered the 1999 Official Namco Tekken 3 World Championship, it was there where he managed to win his second world title and one of the last Sony/Namco collaborated events within the Namco Station arcade.
2000–2010 After the closure of the Namco Wonderpark, Hart began to frequently visit Play 2 Win and Casino arcade within the city of London, shifting his focus from Tekken 3 and The King of Fighters, he started to play Tekken Tag Tournament and the newly released Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. During the arcade decline within the UK, Hart began to organise tournaments within his own home, Casino arcade and London Trocadero, in an effort to support the competitive fighting game community and share knowledge. The success of these events lead to a weekly ranking battle held at the Casino arcade.
Hart competed at Fuce Championship on 15 October 2000, for the Tekken Tag Tournament console tournament held in Amsterdam, placing first by defeating Sandro Aousdji from Italy in the grand final.
In 2001, Hart competed at the Euro 3 tournament for Tekken Tag Tournament held in Birmingham, placing second. In the same year, Hart flew over to the United States for the first time to compete within the Electric Cancel 3 tournament; Hart placed third within the main tournament due to a faulty controller, but later in the event played against the American Tekken Tag Tournament champion JOP to a first to 26 exhibition, winning 26–21. Hart had great success at the Euro 4 arcade tournament held on 26 July within the Extraball Arcade, Rome, Italy, winning on Tekken Tag Tournament.
Hart came to more success in 2002, winning first place in Tekken Tag Tournament and third place in SoulCalibur II at Absolution UK 2002. 2002 is also the year where Hart won his first Capcom vs. SNK 2, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution and Tekken 4 tournaments.
Hart won multiple Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution and European Tekken Tag Tournament events within 2003 including Torneo di Napoli, Tekken Tag Tournament (solo) at Euro 5 (also winning Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament (pair play)) and Toreno di Ancona, thus cementing his name as the best European Tekken and Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution player at the time. This led to Hart entering the Tekken Tag Tournament event held at Evolution 2003 within California placing second, losing to Kim Bong Min in the grand finals. Before the events of Evolution 2003, Hart challenged the Korean and Evolution 2003 champion Kim Bong Min to first to 26, winning the set 26–21, with this win Hart became the first European player ever to defeat a Korean champion on a Tekken game. Hart also had success playing Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, winning the Warriors Unite Pre-Absolution 2004 event that took place in December 2003, defeating Japanese player Jun within the grand finals. Hart also entered Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution at Evolution 2003 tournament placing 3rd. Hart has gone on to say in an open Q&A interview that Evolution, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and The King of Fighters '98 are his favorite fighting games of all time.
In 2004, Hart continued to have success within Tekken Tag Tournament, placing first at Torneo di Napoli 2nd Edition and second at Absolution UK 2004. It was also within this year that Hart would have his largest tournament win to date at the famous Evolution 2004 Championship tournament, Hart defeated Unconkable in the grand finals thus taking his third world championship. While at the Evolution 2004 Championship Hart also placed 4th on Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution after he was defeated by the US champion, ShouTime, and placed 5th on Tekken 4 in the same event. The same year Hart took first place in Tekken 4 at Torneo di Fano. Hart also managed to place first within Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution at Absolution UK 2004 defeating Delune within the grand final.
2005 saw a new introduction to the Tekken franchise; Tekken 5. Hart continued to compete and place well within European tournaments, winning the Official Bandai Namco UK Championship then winning Ultimate Tournament Volume 4 within France and achieving 2nd at Torneo Olandese and Olanda 2005, while also still competing within Tekken Tag Tournament with the same placement. At Evolution 2005 Championship, Hart fought his way in Tekken Tag Tournament to the grand finals where he purposely forfeited his winner bracket match for an unknown reason, but still fought his way to the grand final, placing 2nd and claiming his second silver medal from the Evolution Championship Series. 2005 also saw Hart take on a new challenge, Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Hart took the community by storm, winning both the Southgate Showdown and Chasing Dragon tournaments.
In 2006, Hart displayed one of his most dominant years to date by going almost completely undefeated on seven different games and losing only a handful of events. Hart was successful multiple different tournaments for games such as Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Hyper Street Fighter II, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 5, The King of Fighters 2002 and Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. Hart continued to be a prominent figure within the Tekken 5 scene within 2006, with 1st place wins at Torneo Roma, Roma, Torneo Francia, Ultimate Tournament Volume 5, Euroslash Poland and a 3rd-place finish at Ultimate Tournament Volume 6. 2006 was also the same year that Hart and his teammates became the first ever Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike European players to qualify for the Tougeki Championship held in Japan, also known as Super Battle Opera, winning the 3 on 3 European SBO qualifier held in France. Unfortunately, one of Hart's teammates pulled out before the Super Battle Opera finals for personal reasons, and Hart's team was forced into a 2 vs 3 handicap match, which they lost. Hart also qualified for Tekken 5 at Super Battle Opera by winning the SBO qualifier held in Stuttgart.
Hart won Torneo Roma in 2007 defeating the player Liquid and also defeated Steve88 in Tekken 5 to win the event on both days. These were some of the last regular events before Namco introduced an update to Tekken 5 entitled Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, with this new entry, tournaments began to run the newer iteration of the game and Hart transitioned over to compete. He later managed to secure 4th place at Ultimate Tournament Volume 8 and 3rd place at Ultimate Tournament Volume 9. Hart had more success winning Iron Man 2, E-Games Festival and Super Battle Opera European Qualifiers, this also became the third time that Hart qualified for the Japanese fighting game event. Hart also won 1st place at Super VS Battle 2007 for Hyper Street Fighter II and 3rd place at Summer Showdown. Additionally at Summer Showdown, Hart placed 1st on Virtua Fighter 5 and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Hart continued to show winning strides on Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike as he took 1st place at Ranking Battles 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3. Winning E-Games Festival, Iron Man, Netko Finals, Rome Tournament and placing 2nd at CPTL Paris Fighting Festival, Brussels Tournament and Fighters Day 3 hosted by the production company Unequalled Media.