ryujehong

Ryu's professional esports career began in 2010 when he participated in the CS Online "The Clan" Regular Season 1 2010, which he won. For this victory he was recruited into Lunatic-Hai's Counter Strike 1.6 team under the online alias ninja. The team participated in the WEG e-Stars Seoul tournament in 2011, where they failed to win a single match.[4]

Ryu soon moved onto Special Force II, another first-person shooter game. He joined the team STX SouL after winning a local PC cafe competition where he would meet Kim "EscA" In-Jae and Lee "LEETAEJUN" Tae-Jun. The team participated in the SK Telecom SF2 Proleague, going on to win Season 2 of the competition and being Ryu's first major title in any game. However, the STX SouL roster would part ways with the STX organisation shortly after on September 1, 2013.[4]

Ryu returned to Counter-Strike Online, rejoining Lunatic-Hai's team as their captain. This team participated in the CS Online “The Challenge” Tournament, where they would come second overall after losing to Project KR. Shortly afterwards, Ryu would leave to carry out his compulsory mandatory military service in 2014.[3]

Ryu returned from his military service on May 25, 2016, a day after the global release of Overwatch.[3] Remaining with Lunatic-Hai, he joined former teammates Kim "EscA" In-Jae and Lee "LEETAEJUN" Tae-Jun to form the organisation's Overwatch team. Together they participated in the Inven Overwatch Power League Preseason as their first tournament. Alongside other notable players such as Gong "Miro" Jin-Hyuk and Yang "tobi" Jin-mo, the team lost to LW Red, who would later go on to win the tournament.[5]

Ryu next participated in the APAC Premier 2016 tournament as the team expected to win. However, they were upset by the European super team Rogue in the finals, losing 1–4.[6]

Ryu returned to Korea to participate in the first season of the OGN Overwatch Apex tournament. The team left their group as the highest seed but were knocked out by Kongdoo Uncia in the first round of the playoffs.[7]

Ryu and his team participated in the Intel Extreme Masters Season XI Gyeonggi in Goyang, where he and his team only dropped one point on their way to the grand finals. However, they were defeated 3–1 in the finals by LuxuryWatch Red, denying Lunatic-Hai yet another first-place finish at a major event.[8]

Ryu and Lunatic-Hai came into 2017 being considered as "the best team in the world yet to win a major title", with Ryu maintaining his reputation as one of the strongest Ana players in Korea.[9] The team encountered an issue during the group stage of OGN Overwatch Apex Season 2 when two of their members, Geum "dean" Dong-Geun and Lee "LEETAEJUN" Tae-Jun, were banned from the tournament after they were accused of engaging in inappropriate relations with fans.[10] As a result, the team replaced them with the two new additions of the team; Kim "zunba" Joon-Hyuk and rookie Lee "Whoru" Seung-Joon. Commentator Christopher "MonteCristo" Kjell Mykles at the time noted that this may have benefitted the team in the long term, as it allowed Ryu to stay in the support role rather than be forced to move in between support and tank like he had been when Geum was on the roster.[11]

After completing their group stage while only dropping a single point in three games, the team earned the moniker of the "uncrowned kings", owing to their lack of a major title despite their individual players' reputations, such as Ryu's World Cup title.[12] The team would suffer its first loss of the tournament during the double elimination quarter finals to the new team RunAway, who they would later meet in the grand final. Ryu and the team came back from a 3–1 deficit to Runaway in the grand finals to win 4–3, awarding them their first major title as Lunatic-Hai and Ryu's second major title.[13] Ryu was voted as the Most Valuable Player for the season.[13]

Ryu and Lunatic-Hai followed this success into OGN Overwatch Apex Season 3, completing their group stage without a single loss once again.[14]

The team experienced another issue during OGN Overwatch Apex Season 3 when Lee Seung-Joon was announced to be benched for the rest of the season.[15] To replace him team to use Ryu's substitute, Moon "Gido" Gi-Do, in a damage role rather than the support role.[16] Though the immediate effect of this setback granted the team a loss to rivals KongDoo Panthera in the first round of the double elimination, the team managed to reach the finals for a rematch with KongDoo. Ryu and the team played a close match against KongDoo, with each team trading points until Lunatic-Hai managed to win 4–3 to defend their Apex title.[17] Ryu was also voted as the Most Valuable Player for this season.[18]

Ryu returned to Korea to participate in OGN Overwatch Apex Season 4 with Lunatic-Hai. The team qualified for the quarter-final stage, two consecutive losses to rookie team GC Busan, who would later win the tournament, had Ryu and the team exit during the quarterfinal stage.[19]

Ryu participated in the Seoul Cup - OGN Super Match with Lunatic-Hai and their new members, alongside invited Chinese teams Lucky Future and Miraculous Youngsters, as well as the KongDoo Panthera, who had been announced to represent the London franchise of the Overwatch League.[20] Ryu and the team defeated Miraculous Youngsters 3–2 in the semifinals, and defeated KongDoo Panthera in the finals 3–1. This would be the last time that Ryu and his teammates would play under the banner of Lunatic-Hai, as the team (with exceptions to Lee Seung-Joon and Lee Tae-Jun) would be collectively transferred to the Seoul Dynasty under ownership of Gen.G (formerly KSV esports) owned by Kevin Chou.

On August 21, 2017, Ryu and his teammates from Lunatic-Hai minus Lee Seung-Joon and Lee Tae-Jun were announced as the first six members to represent Seoul as a team in Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming Overwatch League.[21] Kevin Chou, the owner of the team which would later become the Seoul Dynasty, stated that he picked up the team owing to their strong recent performances and popularity.[22]

On December 6, 2017, Ryu played his first match as the Seoul Dynasty in the Overwatch League Inaugural Preseason. Living up to their reputation as a favourite to win the Inaugural Season, they won all three of their preseason matches against the Shanghai Dragons, Houston Outlaws and New York Excelsior.[23]

On January 10, 2018, Ryu and his teammates played their first regular season match of the Overwatch League Inaugural Season, being the highlight match of the first day of the league, against the Dallas Fuel.[24] The Dallas Fuel were formed from the core of Team Envy, who Lunatic-Hai had faced multiple times throughout their OGN Apex runs, resulting in a historical rivalry. Ryu and the Dynasty won a close 2–1 match. The team would finish the first stage of the league with a 7–3 record, placing them in 5th place and missing out on the stage playoffs. Ryu and the team performed just as well in stage 2 of the Overwatch League Inaugural Season with a record of 7–3, placing them in 4th place. Once again, this left them barely missing the stage 2 playoffs as well. Stage 3 of the Inaugural Season saw a dip in performance from the Dynasty, which went 5-5. It was during their game against the Houston Outlaws in this stage where the team made the controversial decision to move Ryu to a main tank position, replacing him with Moon on the support position.[25] Ryu would continue to play in this tank position until week 2 of stage 4 of the Inaugural Season where he was moved back to his original support position.[26] Seoul Dynasty would finish this stage with a 3–7 record, eliminating them from the season playoffs and ending their season in 8th place overall.[27]

Ryu was selected by a fan vote to participate in the Overwatch League All-Stars 2018 event, where he played in the Mystery Heroes and All Star Game events.[28]

Ryu and his team returned to Overwatch League Season 2 stronger than the previous season with a relatively strong performance in stage 1, going 4–3. Due to changes in the qualifying format for the new season, this earned them a place as the 7th seed in the stage 1 playoffs. Their first match was against the New York Excelsior whom Ryu had never defeated in the regular season of the league. Ryu and the team won in a 3–1 upset, against all analyst predictions.[29] However, they were knocked out in a 4–0 sweep in the next round, losing to the Vancouver Titans who would later win the stage 1 playoffs.[30]

Ryu and his team finished with a 3–4 record in stage 2, missing out on stage playoffs. This was mostly attributed to their strength of schedule, where they had the face the stage 1 champions, Vancouver Titans, twice during the stage.[31]

Ryu was selected by a fan vote to participate in the Overwatch League All Stars 2019 event, where he played in the All Star Arcade and All Star Game events.[32]

On November 27, 2019, Ryu was signed to the Vancouver Titans.[33] However, he, along with the rest of the Titans players and coaching staff, were released on May 6, 2020. The Titans organization cited the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for releasing its players and staff.[34][35]