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, 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. 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 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. 2008 was a great achievement within Harts's career, it was this year that Hart would go on to win
Evolution 2007 for the game
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, defeating Paco "Gandido" Vilaró within the grand final 2008 also marks an interesting moment in Hart's career, during the Battle of Destiny event, Hart played the
American Justin Wong in what ended up being possibly the most memorable match of all time in European
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike history. At an even score of 1-1, Wong playing
Chun-Li had Hart cornered on the ground with no health. As Hart was getting up, Wong attempted to low forward into super resulting in Hart's
Yun being defeated via chip-damage, however Hart parried every single hit and won the round in a similar fashion to the infamous
Daigo Umehara Evolution #37 moment. Hart continued to have success In 2009 for
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection winning Torneo Spagnolo in
Vigo,
Spain. Within the same year
Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion would be introduced to the console market, Hart would go on to place 3rd at
DreamHack Sweden 2009. 2009 would also be the year that
Street Fighter IV was finally released on home consoles, with this release Hart was quick to compete and win multiple tournament such as
DreamHack Sweden 2009 and Capcom SFIV European Championship. He also managed to secure 3rd place at Super VS Battle 2009. Hart also placed 1st on
Street Fighter III: Third Strike at Max Damagermany and Super VS Battle 2009.
2010 – present With the release of
Super Street Fighter IV in 2010, Hart was already considered one of the best players in
Europe, continuing to increase his reputation by winning ECL 1 - Liverpool 2010, Beat By Contest Qualifier, Ultimate Clash, Ultimate Clash 2, Winner Stays On League and
VSFighting. Placing 2nd at Super VS Battle 20X and 360Gaming twice, 3rd at
DreamHack Summer 2010, Even with the success of his placements within
Super Street Fighter IV, Hart would continue to compete within other games such as
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix placing 2nd at
VSFighting World Game Cup 2011 (3rd), He also competed and won European Gaming League 4 (
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike), the Winner Stays On League and 360 Gaming twice (
Super Street Fighter IV). Hart also managed to secure 2nd at Red Fight District 2011 (
Super Street Fighter II Turbo). In June 2011,
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition was released to home consoles and along with it, a new game for Hart to continue his gaming success. Hart managed to win
DreamHack Summer 2011 and Super VS Battle 20XI while placing 2nd at
DreamHack Winter 2011 and the European Gaming League 4. Hart also managed to place 7th and 9th respectively at Red Fight District 2011 and
Canada Cup 2011. Hart would also continue to play
Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, finishing 1st at 360 Gaming twice again, 2nd at
Canada Cup 2011, 5th and 7th at Max Damagermany 2011 and
Evolution Championship 2011, while also placing 2nd at Shadowloo Showdown 2011 for
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown. This would also be the year that Hart got his first
Guinness World Record for defeating 169 people in a row. Hart accomplished this using the character
Sagat, with his fastest victory being just a mere 7 seconds. This led to Hart being featured within the
Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2011. 2012 was a very busy year for Hart within
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, he managed to win multiple events; Berlin Campus Party, Ultimate Clash 13, Bushido Impact International 2v2, Proving Grounds 4, EGL 8 2v2, Hypespotting and WinnerStaysOn Xmas Special, while also placing 2nd in four tournaments; Bushido Impact International II, European Gaming League 8, Kuwait Battle Royale 2012 and
DreamHack Winter 2012. This would also be the same year that Hart supported the creation of the
Esports team Western Wolves, under his Low Land Lion manager, team Western Wolves would become a
subsidiary of Low Land Lions, this was due to the manager of Low Land Lion wanting to separate his international players with
Benelux based players thus Low Land Lions then became a strictly Benelux based team. Hart who created the name for the new team Western Wolves would also lead the team and was responsible for bringing in new players such as
Seon Woo "Infiltration" Lee, Ryan "Laugh" Ahn from
South Korea, Femi "F-Word" Adeboye and Andreas Demetriou from the
UK.
Demetriou would go on to win
DreamHack Valencia, with
Adeboye winning World Game Cup team tournaments and Winner Stays On singles events. Hart's other results would see him placing 17th at
Evolution Championship 2012 and Shadowloo Showdown 2012, 3rd at
Street Fighter 25th Anniversary UK, 9th
Capcom Cup Tokyo Game Show, 4th at
Stunfest 2012,
DreamHack Energizer, and 5th World Game Cup 2012. Hart would continue to compete and place well within other
Capcom games such as
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike placing 2nd at Hypespotting,
Street Fighter X Tekken placing 1st at
Stunfest 2012, Max Damagermany Europe and Cross Up tournament which Hart won three times in a row. He managed place 2nd at Hypespotting,
DreamHack Summer and 9th at Shadowloo Showdown 2012.This was the same year that a new introduction to the
Tekken franchise would take place, with the release of
Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Hart would continue his dominance within the new title, winning 1st place at Proving Grounds 4, European Gaming League 8, Kuwait Battle Royale 2012 and Insomnia i46 - Madcatz UK Championship, not contempt with competing in so many games Hart won Hypespotting's
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown event and came 2nd at Shadowloo Showdown 2012. while also placing 2nd at Hypespotting. Hart would apologise minutes later for the incident with the tweet "''I know everyone likes a bit of drama, but I'm sorry Mad Catz. I just said that out of frustration to my loss. Everyone knows Mad Catz rock!''". Hart was reinstated back into Western Wolves – who were sponsored by
Madcatz, after only a month of suspension. His first event back under the Western Wolves banner was the
Alienware Championship in January 2013, where he won both the qualifier and the finals itself. Hart continued to be very active within 2013, as well as winning the
Alienware Championships Hart also scored wins at
DreamHack Valencia 2013, Ludus Magnus Gaming, Paris World Warriors, World Game Cup 3v3,
Stunfest 2v2 and
Razer Fighting Championships for
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. Along with these victories, Hart placed 2nd at a number of different events such as Da Ultimate Crushing,
Final Round 16, Treta Aftermath, Wednesday Night Fights,
DreamHack Valencia and
VSFighting 3. His other results would be
DreamHack Winter 2013 (5th),
Capcom Cup UK Play Expo (3rd),
Community Effort Orlando 2013 (12th),
VXG 2013 (5th),
Evolution Championship 2013 (33rd),
DreamHack Summer 2013 (3rd), Paris World Warriors - 2v2 (3rd),
Stunfest 2013 (4th) and World Game Cup 2013 (7th). This year would also see Hart continuing with his victories within
Tekken Tag Tournament 2, winning
VSFighting 3,
IGN Con Bahrain and Treta Aftermath,
Super Street Fighter II Turbo winning
VSFighting 3, and placing 2nd in Super Turbo Sunday V 2014 was the last year of
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition before
Ultra Street Fighter IV was released on 3 June 2014, but this did not stop Hart from being proactive within the game. He managed to secure victories at a number of events including but not limited to Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 10, Warriors Return 3, Republic of Fighter 3 (3v3), International Video Game Cup 2014 (5v5),
Final Round XV, Winner Stays On Invitational, Super Vs Battle 2014, Road To Ultra 2014 and Next Level Battle Circuit #71, along with multiple 2nd places at International Video Game Cup 2014, International Video Game Cup 2014 (3v3), Next Level Battle Circuit #72 and Republic of Fighters 3. Hart still maintained great results in other
Capcom fighter such as
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix with 1st place at Triple Threat Volume 10,
IGN Con Dubai Arcade Cafe Tournament and International Video Game Cup 2014, 2nd-place finish at Gigacon and 4th place at
VSFighting 4, and Triple Threat Volume 10, he then placed 2nd at Proving Grounds 4 and 3rd at
Stunfest 2014. June 2014 also saw the introduction of a new sponsor for Hart, with
Team Dignitas picking him up which he would only stay with until December 2014 when
Team Dignitas left the fighting game scene. In the six months Hart was with
Dignitas, he won 20 medals across four continents for the team, leading to speculation of this being the most championships any
Dignitas player has ever won within a six-month period. With the eventual release of
Ultra Street Fighter IV later within the year, Hart took 1st place at Warriors Return 3, Bracket Reset, Gigacon (2v2), Keep It Classy and Triple Threat Volume 10, while placing 2nd at Street Grand Battle 2014,
DreamHack Valencia 2014, ROF, Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 10, Hypespotting 3 and The Luffy Beatdown Special. Hart still managed to compete within different titles at events winning
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 at IGN Con Dubai, International Video Game Cup 2014 and Hypespotting 3 while obtaining 3rd-place finishes at Wednesday Night Fights on both
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and
Ultra Street Fighter IV. Hart also had a 4th-place finish at
VSFighting 4,
IGN Con Qatar finishing 3rd place within Topanga Charity Cup
EGX 2015,
Stunfest 2015 (2v2) and Kakutop League II, along with 4th-place finishes at
DreamHack Summer 2015, Milan Games Week, Hypespotting 4, Ouka Ranbu Cup and Kakutop League I. Hart also took 3rd place at
Stunfest 2015 Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament. 2015 would also be Hart's last event for
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 taking 1st place at
Canada Cup. 2016 welcomed the new release of
Street Fighter V and a lot of fresh new competition with it. Hart was very active during the first year of the new games release, winning Bracket Reset 59, Take TV Take's Dojo, Fight Club NRW and placing 2nd at Lockdown 2016,
EGX 2016 and
Paris Games Week Invitational. Along with these results Hart secured 3rd and 4th place victories at events such as Kuwait Battle Royale 2016, Celtic Throwdown 2016,
VSFighting 2016, and Cannes Winter Clash 2016. Hart started to focus more on his private life and this led him competing a lot less than he had previously at this point, but also allowed him to be more active within different areas of the
Esports industry. In 2017 he only entered a handful of events for
Street Fighter V with his best result being 1st at Take TV Weekly, Meltdown Weekly and Greek Empire Tournament, additionally Hart placed 3rd at TakeDojo X-Mas 2017. within this same year, Hart casually picked up the new
Bandai Namco game;
Tekken 7, where he placed 9th at Hypespotting 6. Hart continues to compete within fighting game events but to a lesser extent as he continues to grow his career within other areas, he still enters events for
Street Fighter V and
Tekken 7 with his best results of 7th (
Tekken 7) and 9th (
Street Fighter V) at Brussels Challenge Major 2018, Headstomper 2018 and Fight Club NRW 2018.
Team manager Hart has managed Western Wolves as a team leader during the team's run. Western Wolves closed its doors on 20 December making Hart and all team members free agents. Black Label ESports Masters,
World Cyber Games,
Capcom Pro Tour,
GamesCom Dragonball Fighter Z Tournament, and the Tekken World Tour.
Presenter Hart works as a host and presenter for variety of gaming events, shows and TV such as
ESL Content creator Hart works as a content creator for
ESL's main products, such as
ESL One, IEM and
ESL Pro League. Among Ryan's long career within the
Esports industry he has had the opportunity to co-author a book and write articles for his own blog and
Ars Technica Tournament organiser Since 2001 Hart has also setup and ran many tournaments during his time within the competitive fighting game scene including but not limited to TTT 1 Crackdown, SBO Netko, Chasing Dragon 3s Tournament, VF4 Feet Bribe, 50 Man Trocadeo KO Showdown, 3S Neko RB Season, Prodigal Summit, Namco Station Tekken 5 Bi-Weeklies, USA vs Europe SF4 Showdown and the Venezuela Tour 2012. Hart currently hosts the community initiative Silent V Trigger within
Germany to help local players improve. == Some achievements ==