Welcome to the latest in this “what if” series, in which we delve into our theory-crafting toolkit to see what it would be like if our favourite characters ended up in Riot Games’ League of Legends. Today’s candidate is the biggest star in Capcom’s Street Fighter Series, Ryu. As always, any of the LoL-specific jargon will be explained as we go.

In the Street Fighter games, Ryu has used melee attacks as part of combos, as well as special moves such as the fireball or uppercut. The Street Fighter games have rewarded mechanical, highly skilled play, often featuring extended high-damage combos which require a lot of dexterity. While it would be important to preserve this aspect, it would also be a good idea to keep the barrier for entry reasonable. Ryu would be perfect as a top-lane fighter, who could build either full damage and assassinate squishy targets, or go for more of a bruiser build.

[Bruiser: A playstyle in which a melee champion builds a mix of tankiness and damage in order to deal some damage in fights while remaining durable].

So, without further ado, let’s break down Ryu’s League-ified skills.

Passive: Super Turbo

Basic attacks and abilities build up Ryu’s Super Meter. The Super meter can be used to power up Ryu’s skills or to unleash a Super Combo.

Once the Street Fighter games introduced a Super Meter into the mix, the game opened up dramatically, adding resource management to the already tactical one-on-one fighter. This would mean that Ryu is a mana-less champion, so his cooldowns would need to be kept reasonable and his damage numbers would need to take into account his ability to spam his skills.  Double-tapping the button will give Ryu the EX version of that skill.

Q: Hadoken (Fireball)

Ryu launches a fireball in a line, dealing physical damage to a single target. Recasting the ability before its cast time is complete activates EX Hadoken.

EX Hadoken deals greater damage and slows the opponent (costs 25% of Ryu’s Super Meter)

Just like in Street Fighter, this low cooldown, highly spammable move will harass, annoy, and control space. Crucially, this ability does low damage as there is nothing really stopping Ryu from spamming this constantly, just like in Street Fighter. The EX version would provide peel from ganks in the early levels as well as deal extra damage. The jury’s out, however, on whether or not enemy players should hear him shout “hadoken” every time he does one.

[Peel:  A crowd-control skill used defensively in order to save yourself or an ally, usually a knockback or other displacement skill but any cc will generally do].

W: Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (Hurricane Kick)

Ryu launches himself in the target direction, delivering a spinning kick which deals physical AOE damage as he flies. If he collides with an enemy unit, they are knocked up a small amount. Recasting the ability before its cast time is complete activates EX Tastumaki Senpukyaku.

EX Tatsumaki Senpukyaku deals greater damage but doesn’t move Ryu (costs 25% of Ryu’s Super Meter)

This ability allows Ryu to move quickly toward his opponent, allowing him to close the gap when going for high-priority targets. If he lands the move, the enemy is knocked up a small amount, giving Ryu just enough time to land a basic attack or a skill. Ryu would also be able to use this move as an escape, bringing some depth and rewarding gameplay to him. The EX version allows Ryu to deal even greater damage in an area but trades off by not allowing Ryu to move during the skill.

Ryu wouldn’t be Ryu without this move.

E: Shoryuken (Uppercut)

Ryu performs an uppercut on his opponent, dealing physical damage and knocking them into the air. Recasting the ability before its cast time is complete activates EX Shoryuken.

EX Shoryuken deals greater damage and gives Ryu a shield.

The classic move. Shoryuken is a force to be reckoned with in the Street Fighter games because it’s quick and usually does tons of damage. Just as in Capcom’s fighter, this move will knock enemies into the air, but has to be in melee range for it to work. The EX version gives Ryu a shield for a little bit, to try and mimic the way  the Street Fighter games handle EX Shoryuken. In Street Fighter IV for example, Ryu is invincible during the EX Shoryuken and is often used when Ryu is at low health. In our hypothetical League scenario, the shield on EX Shoryuken would provide the same potential for clutch plays to come back from low health.

R: Super Combo

Ryu unleashes a devastating super powered version of the last ability he used. Costs 100% of Ryu’s Super Meter.

Shinkuu Hadoken: Deals greater damage and is no longer a skillshot.

Shinkuu Tatsumaki: Like the EX version, but lasts longer and holds enemy champions in place during the channel.

Shin Shoryuken: Deals massively increased damage.

While this does look like Ryu actually has 3 ultimates (which by any stretch of the imagination is totally broken), the numbers could all be adjusted into a nice equilibrium, and when you take into consideration the idea that doing one takes up the entire Super Meter and denies Ryu the option of using his powered up “EX” abilities, having the choice between the three becomes an interesting system. Allowing players to adapt and giving them a wide breadth of choices and options is the key to keeping characters and gameplay interesting, as well as to allow different playstyles.

These choices adhere to the moves made famous by Street Fighter, whilst hopefully translating them into something more MOBA friendly. Street Fighter has always rewarded dexterity, so Ryu’s EX moves and their requiring of another mechanical movement to do should help to achieve this. While not unlike other champions in the game at the moment, Ryu would definitely be a cool and rewarding to champ to play in League of Legends. Also, who doesn’t want to Shoryuken a Teemo?

What other famous characters would you like to see put on the theory-crafting table? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for our next article in the series.