Ryu won the "Street Fighter II" tournament

Media Outlet Fan Fiction Library
1

On the Capcom forum, people don’t seem to be interested in talking about this topic, so maybe I have more luck here:

Why do people always say that Capcom never stated who won the “Street Fighter II” tournament? That’s not correct. There is an old official artwork:

And this is the caption:

According to the plot guide, this text says:
“After Ryu’s magnificent battle, news of Vega ceased. However the guy will surely return. Becoming a revenging demon…”

Now, how can people still think that the tournament winner has never been officially stated and that Guile or Chun Li are most likely the winner when this artwork clearly states that it was Ryu who defeated M. Bison?

(By the way, that artwork is from the time before “Street Fighter Alpha” (or even “Super Street Fighter II”) came out. So, claiming that this scene refers to a battle between Ryu and Bison from before “Street Fighter II” would make no sense since there’s not a single indication in “Street Fighter II”, “Champion Edition” or “Turbo” that Ryu ever fought M. Bison before and that the game itself is already Bison’s revenge. Nobody would have understood such an allusion. But as a recapitulation of “Street Fighter II” and as a possible sequel-hook, this would make absolute sense.)

2

I think the pic was published in a book where the texts where presumably written by someone external to Capcom. As an example of the incorrect info that may be derived from those books, we at Warrior’s Fate were recently commenting about the latest SSF4 art book, which said things like Sakura still being at high school.

3

Is there any way to check the validity of the quote?

4

Probably Vasili knows better what kind of book it was, how it was redacted and whatnot.

5

I asked him and he said that the picture and the caption are both official. But of course he doesn’t agree with my interpretation. And he also said that the picture is not canon.
But that wasn’t a problem to me anyway. I don’t want to prove that it’s canon, I just want to prove that there exists something where official Capcom sources once mentioned Ryu as the tournament winner.