The stereotype of gamers is that we spend all our time gaming to the detriment of all else. Learn about Richard “ijneB” Huynh, a stellar student and high-achieving gamer at OU, and hear his thoughts on the matter.
Huynh graduated from the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, a prestigious boarding school in Oklahoma, in 2022.
“[B]ecause of Covid,… It was really rough, but I got through it, and honestly, it was a pretty good learning experience,” Huynh said.
Huynh started at OU in the fall of 2022 and will graduate this May with Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Finance with a 4.0 GPA.
Huynh is the in-game leader of the OU Esports “Counter-Strike 2” team. He started playing in 2016, when the game was called “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.” In addition to OU Esports, Huynh plays through a match-making system called “Face-it,” where he peaked in the top 600 players in North America. Huynh also plays “Valorant,” where he peaked in the top 250.
“My goal was to just get to Radiant. I had started at Platinum and within four years… I guess I just got good enough to get it,” Huynh said.
In “Valorant,” each region of the world is split into several categories, or “ranks,” to quantify their skill level. The Platinum category defines players in about the top 10-15% of their region, and Radiant is reserved for about the top 500 players of the region.
In addition to academics and Esports, Huynh is also part of an indie Pop-Rock band he formed with three of his friends, where he performs as the pianist and the second lead singer.
“That was definitely what took up a lot of my time [last semester], because we would try to attend and perform for organizations like the [Asian Student Association] or at events like K-Night,” Huynh said. “We mostly do covers of other artists. It was just a thing we wanted to do before we graduated, [to] mark it off the bucket list.” K-Night was an event hosted by the Korean Student Association where several student groups performed covers of popular K-pop songs.
On the topic of the “Lazy Gamer” stereotype, Huynh feels that games are made to be addictive, highlighting the pay structure of free-to-play games with additional paid content.
“I think it’s kind of a leisurely thing… [gaming] can make it to where you do less responsibilities, but [the stereotype] is obviously not going to fit everyone,” Huynh said. “I think nowadays, video games are becoming more mainstream… There [are] some times where the stereotype is blown out of proportion, but overall I think it’s coming to a point where it won’t fit, eventually.”
For the Fall 2025 semester, OU Esports and Co-Curricular Innovation had a collective average student GPA of 3.2, with the “Counter-Strike 2” team having a 3.51 average. As an organization, that average has never dropped below a 3.0, and Huynh is a premier example of the kind of work our gamers put in to achieve that reputation.
“I think the overarching message is just play responsibly,” Huynh said. “There’s so many more opportunities out there, and sometimes when you free up your entire schedule just to play video games, you kind of forget that there are a lot of things out there you can also enjoy.”
Interested in reading another opinion on this stereotype? Check outPart I of this mini-series and hear Jacob “rSaved” Rapp’s thoughts.
