World Champ Dragon Shares Some Injustice 2 Wisdom

Ryan “Dragon” Walker took home the win during the recent Injustice 2 World Championships that were hosted in Atlanta, GA by ELEAGUE. Ryan, at 19 years old, is an incredibly accomplished Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat X/XL player. He has been playing fighting games a total of eight years, but only has been playing professionally for two and a half years. I had a chance to ask him a few questions following his recent win, where he brought home $150,000 as the champion.

“To be honest, I didn’t think that I would be doing all that I’m doing at this age,” Walker started. “As far as a champion goes, with the amount of work that I put in, it’s not surprising to me. At the same time, it’s crazy that I won.”

I asked him a little more on his past and wanted to know what the closest match he had ever been in was. “It was against Jivan “Theo” Karapetian at Viennality. The match came down to the last round of the last game. We both had about two percent of our life bars left, so that definitely takes the cake as the closest match I’ve ever played.”

"Only one of you remains..."

Ryan is known for his loyalty to Black Adam, a popular villain (and occasional anti hero) in DC Comics that was a member of the roster on the recent Injustice 2. Knowing he was a loyalist that tends to lean in specific directions, I was curious on his thoughts about advantages he may have using a single character. “People who are character loyalists have an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that they can practice matches and know everything about their character and what to do in every situation. The disadvantage is that if they face a character who their character does not play well against, they won’t fare well. My advice for those with character loyalties: try to figure out your best options against the characters you know you’re going to face.”

I asked him if he had any tips for someone that wants to learn Black Adam. “You need to know how to instant-air dive kick. The other must-know is the ranges of your back-two and forward-one [combos] because those are your primary footsie tools and you need to know them well [to be successful with Black Adam].”

Ryan explained that his loyalty doesn’t lie with only Black Adam. The first character he ever played as was Aquaman, and he uses Wonder Woman frequently. “I’ve used both in tournaments. I’ve also played as Superman and Supergirl, so I have a deep character pool.”

In Mortal Kombat X, however, he loves to play as Shinnok. I asked him if he had any tips for players wanting to try out the character. “You need to use Hellsparks -  it’s Shinnok’s main tool. Also, you need to be able to know your back-three combos and your forward-four combos.”

As the last comment during our conversation, outside of Mortal Kombat X and Injustice 2, he told me he just loves games in general. “I play a bunch of games. I’m just a gamer at heart, I play MMOs, MOBAs, and shooters. My favorite titles include Call of Duty, Overwatch, the Batman Arkham series… I’m open to any big new game that’s coming out.”