In most mainstream fighting games, every character is viable.

That is to say, in the span of a single match, it’s possible to achieve victory no matter who you select. Of course, some characters are stronger than others, which translates to an easier or harder fight depending on who you and your opponent select. But the possibility of coming out on top always exists.

For those seeking consistent results, especially within a tournament setting or an annual circuit, picking characters with a stable toolkit become a heavier decision. And for that reason, many competitive Ken players in Street Fighter V are brushing him aside for the Capcom Pro Tour season.

I spoke with NASR|BigBird on why the fiery rival of Ryu is considered inconsistent, and what the character would need for him to appear back in tournament play.

Ryan “Saint Cola” Collins: It’s been a few weeks since Season 4 dropped. How much time have you spent playing Ken trying to figuring out just how good or bad the changes are?

NASR|BigBird: I actually haven’t touched Ken at all since Season 4 dropped. I remember doing the same when Season 3 dropped. I haven’t been playing the game much since it’s offseason.

All these changes that I have read about with Ken don’t really require much exploring. The changes, in my opinion, are not good. Yes, there were V-Trigger 2 buffs and everything, but let’s be real, I’m never using V Trigger 2, and I doubt any other Ken in the competitive circuit will either.

The heavy kick tatsu nerf, overhead nerf, and standing heavy kick hurtbox nerf (although not very significant, but still) kind of hurt him a little with no compensation. They buffed his corner damage, but let’s be real — does his corner damage really need buffing?

R: What would Ken need to be consistent to be considered for tournament play?

BB: I think I’ve accepted that Ken will probably never be consistent again, the reason he was consistent in Season 1 is because of the damage he and everyone else had, as well as the different air approaches. Season 2 was because of throw loops. In Season 3 he lost throw loops (well, everyone did), so the only thing he had left was the random factor.

I’d decrease the pushback of his standing medium kick > heavy kick in order to make it a more reliable whiff punish tool, crouching medium kick > ex fireball to connect from max range, and make standing jab +3 on block instead of +2.

R: It seems there are some players who are okay with how Ken turned out, and maybe that comes from having a different goal with the character (like not being fully competitive in a circuit-based system), or outsiders who don’t use the character often. How do you address these people and their rebuttals?

BB: I think everyone has their standard in their competitive lifetime — for me, I’m representing NASR and Red Bull, so I’m always aiming to win or at least place consistently high most of the time. I’ve concluded that Ken alone doesn’t really achieve that for me. I’d have to resort to a sub character, which was originally Rashid.

But then I thought to myself, “there’s no matchup that Ken does better than Rashid on”, and that’s how I mained Rashid and only used Ken a few times.

I know my results last year don’t indicate consistency, but learning a new character and going in with him into the competitive circuit, being in a region that doesn’t prove much match-up knowledge while trying to stay consistent isn’t very easy.

I was literally learning all my matchups while I’m in majors playing, sometimes during the tournament (laughs).

R: Do you plan to play Ken at all this season, or is he on the bench until Capcom implements some changes?

BB: I’m more focused on perfecting Rashid this season since he looks very strong relatively, but who knows, there might come a time where my mind just goes blank with Rashid and Ken will be the answer. Until then, stay tuned (laughs).

Oh, and Ken isn’t a bad character. He’s still annoying to fight against because of his randomness and burst damage, but I’d like to eliminate randomness as much as I can and stick to consistency, which is why I picked up Rashid.

You can catch BigBird’s incomprehensible love of McDonalds on his Twitter.