Evolution 2010 Season Wrap Up - Part 2

Part 2 - Putting On a Show

A key moment occurred for me at this past year's Evolution Fighting Game Tournament during the screening of "Bang the Machine," the documentary about the Street Fighter scene circa 2000 that was produced by Peter Kang and directed by Tamara Katepoo. It was the first time it was shown at an Evo post Street Fighter IV's release and, in the film, there is a scene where Alex Valle and a bunch of his friends are watching footage from a Japanese tournament. And they all marvel that the tournaments in Japan are these big events held in city halls and such.

I've seen Bang the Machine, now, maybe 7 or 8 times and that moment never resonated as ironically as it did this past year. Here is Alex Valle commenting on how big these tournaments in Japan are, and we're watching it at Evolution 2010 where, that weekend, we had just whittled down well over 1000 entrants to the top 8 players in one weekend, making it the single biggest non-qualifier tournament ever run in the history of Fighting Games... probably even in the history of video games period.

And the next day, after Bang the Machine, thousands of people populated a room and tens of thousands of people had their browsers pointed at the live stream of Evolution 2010 and they all watched every move made by the top 8 qualifiers, cheering every victory from GamerBee of Taiwan, rooting for the People's Champ Mike Ross, going nuts over Korea's Infiltration locking people down in Akuma's "vortex," watching intently as America's top hope, Ricky Ortiz, took out opponents one by one, and, of course, rooting for Japan's very own Daigo Umehara as he took the crown. And it was then that I really started to think about how mesmerizing Fighting Games actually are to watch.


And that's when it hit me: Fighting Games could be the greatest eSport for this very reason.

Now don't get me wrong, here. FPS's (First-Person Shooter like Quake, Modern Warfare, and Counter Strike) and RTS's (Real-Time Strategy games like StarCraft, StarCraft II, and League of Legends) have been dominating the eSports scene for years. So it's rather ostentatious of me to call Fighting Games the greatest eSport when other genres have already obtained huge popularity and Fighting Games are currently playing catch up. So no, I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you Fighting Games are the greatest eSport around. It's simply not true.

Not yet.

What I AM going to sit here and tell you, however, is that Fighting Games may take that spot very soon. It doesn't seem long before Fighting Games become the most popular eSport in competitive video games.

There are always two sides of competitive sports, in both athletic ones like football and virtual ones like Street Fighter. There are those who play and, in order for a scene to prosper, there must always be the players who play. That's what I talked about last time: how to grow the scene by taking advantage of the recent influx of players and make sure we continue to craft new players for the scene.


But then there's the other half of competitive sports: the viewers. The spectators. The fans. And this aspect is just as important, if not more, to the continued growth of a competitive sport. You could have the greatest sport in the world, but if no one watches, it will never go anywhere. Yes, if you are an expert of your game, it is always fun to watch high level play no matter what because you are aware of things that are going on. But for a competitive game to prosper from a mainstream standpoint, it must be enjoyable for the casual viewer. And it's this area that Fighting Games truly shine. They are, by far, the best game to watch for spectators. And the reason for this comes from three main factors: Viewer Information, Tangible Action, and Balanced Pacing.

Viewer Information

The nice thing about competitive sports on TV is that the viewer has MORE information than the actual players themselves at almost every point. It's hard to realize, when you're watching a full view of the basketball court, how hard it is for a player like Steve Nash to slip one of those no-look lead passes through defenders to his intended target. In football, as a defender, when you try to block the receiver from getting himself open for a pass, it's hard to keep track of where you are in relation to the receiver to make sure he doesn't double-back on you to sprint down the field for a long pass. In both cases, the viewer at home watching on TV has a bird's eye view of everything so they are aware of so much more than the players themselves, who can only see what's in front of them. And even in non athletic sports, like poker, the actual players have no idea what cards their competitors have, but thanks to the hole cams during poker broadcasts, viewers not only know what each hand is but the percentages of how often each hand wins.

FPS's and RTS's suffer from a very distinct lack of viewer knowledge. These games suffer from a problem where each player involved has their own screen and, thus, their own viewpoint that intentionally hides information from that player. What this causes is what I like to call "viewer blind periods" because these games usually are broadcast by displaying only one player's view at a time. So what ends up happening is that the viewers experience the same lack of knowledge that the player they happen to be watching at the time has.


Now, lots of things have been done to try and fix this problem. There are split screen views for FPS's that allow for multiple views being shown at once. There are also overhead map views which show where all players are as icons. There are even "spectator" modes where a cameraman can control a camera view around the entire playfield. That same concept exists for RTS's where a cameraman can view any area of the map without any "fog of war" (the term used to describe the blacked out areas you have not visited yet in RTS's).

However, all of these come with problems by default. Split Screen views are nice, but a viewer can't process all the action at once, especially if you show three or more views at the same time. It's simply information overload. Overscreen "summary" maps are good for knowing where all players are in relation to each other, but you have no clue what they are actually doing nor what they are seeing. The free moving spectator view is probably the best option for FPS's, provided some advancements are made (such as highlighting where every player is at all times so it's easier for the cameraman to find people). But for the most part, FPS's are broadcast watching one view at a time and that simply won't suffice. I was watching one FPS tournament on YouTube involving a team 5-on-5 battle and, while the view happened to be of one particular player's screen, I think 2 or 3 players were killed in a sudden crossfire... but it all occurred off screen! So there could have been the most epic kill ever, but we just happened to miss it. This feeling of "missing out" on something is really bad for viewers.


For RTS's, the free camera works very well but it still requires the commentator controlling the camera to know when to go back and forth and which player to focus on. He/she can still miss some vital action due to no fault of their own. Obviously, the skill of the commentator makes a huge difference in this department, and most of the top commentators are pro at what they do so, from a viewer standpoint, RTS's usually do not have as bad of a problem when it comes to viewer blind periods, especially since the action in RTS's is a lot easier to follow. But every once in a while, there can easily be three or four critical action points going on in the map at one given moment, especially in games like League of Legends where the gameplay just naturally leans towards three areas of conflict at once (due to the three paths players almost always follow), and you can only really watch one of them at a time. No matter how skilled a commentator is at controlling the camera, they can still only focus on one area of action at once, and jumping back and forth between areas too often can make for a dizzying experience for viewers.


The beauty of Fighting Games is that everything you need to know is confined exactly to one screen. In fact, there is almost nothing the players themselves know that the audience doesn't know in terms of information. Everyone can see who is winning in life. Everyone knows how much time there is left on the round's clock. Everyone knows how much Super Meter you have or if you have one, two, or no Barrier Bursts left or which Super Art you've chosen or which Assist Type was selected. And, most importantly, both characters that are being used by the players are always on the screen at all times and they are always doing exactly what the players are controlling them to do. There will never be a moment where you miss anything. It allows viewers to focus on the match in its entirety at all times, so there is never a feeling as if you're missing something. And that is key to the enjoyment factor of a casual viewer.

Tangible Action

Let's face it: what people like to see are slam dunks, hard tackles, home runs, and amazing goals that slip through the fingers of the goalie. In other words, people want to see action. Even though there are purists who think dunks are meaningless and leagues that try to cut down on the hard hits, it's still what the people want. It's these things that I like to call "tangible action." People enjoy these things because something is not only happening, but happening in an extremely standout and exciting fashion.

That is not to say there is no appreciation for the subtle skills needed to play a game. Those who know the games well enough don't marvel at the actual alley-oop dunk, but marvel at how the player lost his defender off a fake screen and back cut. They enjoy the sacking of the quarterback as much as they enjoy the way the player slipped through the defensive line into the pocket to catch the QB. And landing the wicked combo against the opponent is awesome, but the top players know that it was in the previous round that the player figured out his opponent's tendency that allowed him to set up the combo opportunity in the first place.

But it takes a long time to get there as a viewer. And once you are there, you've definitely graduated from being a casual viewer to a hardcore viewer. But in the meantime, you need the "big plays" and the SportsCenter highlights to get the casual people interested and excited. Fighting Games provide plenty of "SportsCenter highlights." Many, many trailers for Fighting Game events and their respective DVD collections of matches, including ones I have personally made for Evo DVDs, take advantage of this.

These highlights are the "Tangible Action" for virtual competitive sports. They are very important for spectators and Fighting Games are full of these. FPS's actually contain a lot of these as well, so that is one of the biggest selling points for FPS's. However, RTS's definitely fall short in this area. The problem with RTS's is that a large majority of the action is what I like to call "Implied Action" in that you can't really highlight specific moments. I watched a match of StarCraft on YouTube and the audience got really excited over something that was implied: one player had managed to generate particularly powerful units so quickly that when the audience saw them deployed, there was a collective gasp and build up of excitement. However, the actual battle, which was won decisively by this player, was not the event that got everyone excited.

What this results in is a distinct lack of "moments" that can be focused on. I can't ever imagine an RTS game ever producing something even remotely close to the "Daigo Parry" moment that is so famous now in gaming circles. You don't even have to know the general details of what is happening in the Daigo Parry video, but you can tell something spectacular is happening. I've had many non-gaming people tell me they've seen the video and were amazed by it, even though they didn't really know what was going on. It's this Tangible Action that allows Fighting Games to appeal to a wider audience. I've also heard many stories of people watching the Evo stream and their significant others and non-gaming friends were able to be hooked by the matches as well. These types of moments are key to producing something that can become more enjoyed by the mainstream.

Balanced Pacing

In the previous section, I spoke about a StarCraft match that I watched where one player won a decisive confrontation at one key moment. And although the audience was excited and I'm sure the match was a good match, that decisive battle was probably a good 5% of the entire video I watched. In actuality, the video was about 80% watching players build their resources, units, and bases. The next 10% of the match was the audience getting hyped about seeing the units about to collide. The next 5% was the actual face-off, and the last 5% was the defeated opponent giving up and conceding victory.

I know this is not particularly indicative of what a StarCraft match can go like at high levels, but the pacing is always an issue with me. Matches start very slow, and the viewer, if not already familiar with the game, needs to be very patient before anything really happens. So much of RTS's is the initial build-up, and the two players very rarely interact with each other for a good portion of the game. If you don't play RTS's at all, this initial phase of the match can be very tedious and boring.

(Scroll to 2:45 for match start)

And then add to that the fact that, after that one confrontation was won by the one player, his opponent almost immediately conceded the match! There was essentially no reason to continue fighting, and so the victory was pretty anti-climactic from a viewer standpoint. In fact, with many of these types of games, be it StarCraft or League of Legends, the victor is usually determined much earlier than the actual end of the match, so much of the final moments of a match are meaningless. Comebacks, therefore, are virtually non-existent, and comebacks are huge for spectators. Without huge potential for comebacks, there's little reason for players to remain invested in the match during late stages.

FPS's also suffer from rare comebacks. Because it's very hard to maintain momentum in an FPS, the player who gets a sizeable lead in kills usually wins thanks to the whole nature of spawning after being killed (being brought back to life in a random location or at a spawn point on the map). Once you kill an opponent, you have to start searching for them again and who finds the other first is usually a crapshoot. And in free-for-alls involving more than 2 players, it's very easy to just be caught off guard and killed by someone you didn't see. Momentum is the key factor in comebacks, and it's just too hard to keep up momentum in an FPS.

Another small problem that FPS's seem to suffer from is that the majority of the matches are spent looking for each other -- that is, the actual confrontation between two-players is almost always quick and brief with a kill resulting in a matter of seconds. Then, it's back to searching for the other player again. This means that viewers spend a lot of their time waiting for things to happen. Granted, the benefit of this is the tension: FPS's excel in the department of mounting tension and the release of said tension in these quick shoot outs (thus, successfully having those "moments" I mentioned in the previous section).

One of my absolute favorite things about Fighting Games is that, right when the round begins, there is potential action. And that potential never dies until the round is actually over. Yes, there are moments of turtling and long periods of players feeling each other out, both remaining at opposite sides of the playing field. I'm not saying that Fighting Games have constant action, but there is nothing inherently built into the game that causes lulls. Lulls are a result of the player's choices and decisions, but not an inherent part of the game.

In FPS's, you automatically have lulls when one player dies. In RTS's, you cannot choose to rush down and attack the opponent instantly (you can, but usually that will result in you losing). So these points of "non-action" cannot be prevented. Whereas, in many Fighting Games, you can have rounds where one player literally rushes down and defeats the opponent without ever letting up from start to finish. There are no forced mechanics that inherently generate lulls during a match.

And the best thing about Fighting Games is that they are never over. Ridiculous comebacks are practically synonymous with Fighting Games. Everyone's favorite and most memorable matches usually stem from this. This is a direct result of momentum, and Fighting Games live off of momentum. That's why you can never feel like you've won a round in a Fighting Game until you've actually won and, thus, must always remain on your toes. This allows the viewers to always maintain that hope of a comeback regardless of how bleak it may seem, which gives these spectators a vested interest in the match up until the very last moment. So there's rarely a point where it feels like you're viewing "filler" footage.

So what's the deal then? If I'm so insistent that Fighting Games are so great to watch, why are they less popular than FPS's and RTS's? Why are there more gaming leagues for those other genres than Fighting Games? Well, there are two main reasons. The first important reason is that there are more players for the other genres. And thus, naturally, that means they have a bigger audience to be spectators. If you had 100 people and 80 of them love playing football and 40 of them love playing hockey, naturally you have a better chance of having more people who love to watch the football event over the hockey event.

The second reason is that the concept of eSports is only JUST making its way to something accepted by the general public. Even a simple 5 years ago, I think people would scoff at the concept of video games being a huge competitive gaming market. But thanks to the improvement of technology and the awareness of game companies to provide things such as the controllable cameras or alternate views for spectators, we've seen huge strides in the production value of eSports and, thusly, the viewership. With this improvement in production value, it allows for eSports to obtain a level of professionalism and credibility that wasn't possible before. And the games themselves just look so much better. I don't think casual people would sit around a stadium watching Mario Kart on the SNES. But with how good games like Call of Duty and StarCraft and such look these days, it's easy to see why people can find themselves watching it.

So eSports are definitely still new. And as long as it continues to grow, more and more people will be drawn to it. And that is when, I believe, Fighting Games will take over as the most popular eSport. As more and more people become curious to see what the rage is all about and as more and more people start to watch games at events like Evo or WCG, I truly believe that Fighting Games will stand out immediately. They are a joy to watch.

And each year, as I see the crowds at Evo get larger and larger (and the streams for Fighting Games get bigger and bigger -- recent tournaments such as Seasons Beatings V, Southern California Regionals, and the Canada Cup all reached over 10,000 viewers at their highest viewer points), I can't help but think that Fighting Games will become the most popular eSport of them all.

Evolution 2010 Season Wrap Up

For a period of time, I would write up a summary of Evolution each and every year right after Evolution finished. However, I skipped writing anything after last year's Evolution (2009). This year, after the epicness that was Evolution 2010, I really wanted to write an article. I had a lot to say about the Fighting Game Community, but it took me some time to formulate my thoughts into words. So though I'm about two-and-a-half months late, I think it's finally time for me to write my first blog post in over two years. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

The Evolution 2010 Season Wrap-up

Part 1 - The Fighting Game Boom

Except this year, I'm doing things differently. Normally, what I did in the past wrap ups, as mentioned earlier, was discuss each community individually and talk about the strengths and weaknesses of each individual community from what I observed. This year, however, I think it would be a mistake to do such a thing. And the reason for this is because, this year above all other years, we need to focus not on the individual communities, but the Fighting Game Community as a whole. And that's because this year, the Fighting Game Community may have taken its first steps into becoming something much bigger.

Let's just cut to the chase, first and foremost. Street Fighter IV has changed everything. What this game and Super Street Fighter IV have done to the Fighting Game Community cannot be denied. One main reason that it's not proper to focus on the communities of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, Melty Blood, Tekken, and Super Street Fighter II: HD Remix is because, quite simply put, these communities are overshadowed by the sheer size and power of the Street Fighter IV community. And while this may make some of these other communities upset to hear me say this, especially because some members of these communities look down on Street Fighter IV, I think communities need to look at the positives that Street Fighter IV has been bringing the Fighting Game Community as a whole.

Whenever I talk about the Fighting Game Community to friends and where it needs to go and how it needs to grow, the topic of poker always comes up. Of any mainstream gaming communities that exist today, the Poker Community is the one that I feel as though the Fighting Game Community needs to follow and emulate as much as possible. There are many facets that can provide similarities between the communities, but the reason I bring this up today is because I feel as though the way Chris Moneymaker's win in 2003 initiated the Poker Boom, Evolution 2010 may have been the closest thing we've yet seen to achieving a similar boom. And it's all a direct result of Street Fighter IV's immense popularity.

You see, Chris Moneymaker was an unknown player. He was what we would refer to, in the Fighting Game Community, as a "newb." But he got entry into the World Series of Poker by winning a satellite tournament and proceeded to not only win the Main Event as the World Series of Poker, but to do so by taking down veteran professional player Sam Farha heads-up at the final table. After Chris won, everyone believed they could also win. And thus: the Poker Boom. Though a similar situation where a "newb" has taken down a pro hasn't happened in the Fighting Game Community, the huge increase of players at events like Evolution from one year to the next upon Street Fighter IV's release was very similar to the increase of players at the World Series of Poker the following year after Moneymaker won.

Now, I dunno about most of you people, but before the Poker Boom, poker was one thing to me: people sitting in a smoke-filled room asking for more cards and trying to bluff each other. Whenever you saw poker on TV shows or in movies, it was always the same format: each player is dealt 5 card hands and they are allowed a maximum of 3 cards for redraw. Texas Hold-Em was a version of the game I had never heard of even though it had been the Main Event at the World Series of Poker since forever.

After the Poker Boom, Texas Hold-Em was the main form of poker played. Even TV and movies began to reflect that. Casino Royale -- the recent James Bond film -- for example, had a plot that revolved around Texas Hold-Em. Without the Poker Boom, they probably would have played the same 5 card style of poker that we had seen in TV shows and movies for forever. Hell, they might have even just played Baccarat, the game that was originally played in the book.

Since Moneymaker's win in 2003, Texas Hold-Em has exploded. Everyone plays that version in home games, and when you hear "poker," Texas Hold-Em is now the first game you think of. Even your average joe pictures Texas Hold-Em as what poker is now. But here's the question: are there other versions of poker? Are there even more skilled versions of poker out there, that rely less on luck and require more knowlege and skill?

The answer to both of those questions is "Yes." There are tons of poker versions out there, and many of them do require stronger knowledge and take away some of the luck. There's Omaha High-Low, Stud Eight or Better, Razz, and on and on. Heck, there's even huge differences between tournament play and cash game play. Some formats are more skilled, some are less skilled, but none are as popular as tournament Texas Hold-Em. But here's the question: do you think fans of these other versions are frustrated that Texas Hold-Em is the most popularly played poker format out there?

Maybe. But most of them more than likely have accepted Texas Hold-Em as the main format in the poker world. In the mid 2000's, when ESPN showed the World Series of Poker, they used to televise many different games. They showed the Omaha games, the Stud Eight or Better games, and so on and so forth. But recently, in the past couple of years, ESPN has moved away from showing these games. They only show Texas Hold-Em events now. Why? Because the other formats simply didn't get as many viewers.

So by now I'm sure many fans of the other games like BlazBlue and King of the Fighters and Tekken are either sad or outright angry with me because they think they know where I'm going with this poker analogy. Am I really sitting here, telling you all to declare Street Fighter IV as king all-mighty of the Fighting Game community and to just accept it, like many poker players have just accepted Texas Hold-Em as the top-most played poker format? Am I saying that everyone should drop their games and go learn Street Fighter IV? Well... no. Not at all.

What I'm telling you is this: use the exposure of Fighting Games to the general public through Street Fighter IV to help your own community grow. Look at the influx of potential players and, instead of looking down upon the casual Street Fighter IV fan, nuture them and introduce them, slowly, to your game of choice.

Everyone nowadays goes into poker learning Texas Hold-Em. But it's almost a guarantee that, through the natural course of exposure to Texas Hold-Em, players who become serious about the game eventually move on to learn the other formats. They start learning how to play the other games due to general curiosity and the need for variety.

Is Street Fighter IV a simple game? Yes. But it's approachable and it's easy to learn. People who don't understand poker at all can watch poker on TV, see the percentages written on the screen, and recognize when someone catches a miracle card to win a hand and understand the elation or devastation experienced by the players. What they don't see is the slow-plays and the fake over-betting with a strong hand to feign weakness by appearing to try and buy a pot. People watching Street Fighter IV can tell everything that's going on and see who's winning thanks to the life bars and get excited by Ultra Combos and their pretty animations and recognize big comebacks and narrow victories and understand the elation or devastation experienced by the players. They don't see a lot of the subtle strategies that go on with Footsies and Option Selects and finger dexterity, but they don't need to: the game looks fun to them and they can understand it.

So the same thing starts to happen with Street Fighter IV that happens with poker: people who spectate start to get interested in playing because the game is so fun to watch. And they step into it and learn the subtleties little by little and their appreciation of the game grows. You start to understand why poker cannot be played without chips and why Street Fighter cannot be played without Throws. And then they start to understand the idea of why slow playing the set of kings is so effective and why baiting Wake-Ups becomes a fundamental tactic. And then they slowly but surely become good at a game that is actually friendly enough to allow them to get to a point where they are truly competitive. Yes, they are still going to lose to Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson and Johnny Chan 99 out of 100 times at the poker table, but they can at least play. And yes, they are still going to lose to Alex Valle and John Choi and Arturo Sanchez and Justin Wong 99 out of 100 times, but at least they can play!

And then what happens? They go to events like the World Series of Poker or Evolution and they start watching. They start seeing other games like Omaha or Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 or Seven Card Stud or Tekken and they become intrigued. And it's really up to those other communities, now, to bring those players in and introduce them to a different game. And who knows? Some of those people coming in as Texas Hold-Em fans may become one of the best Omaha players ever. A few of those Street Fighter IV kids may become pro BlazBlue players. You never know.

And this is bringing me to my main point: the Fighting Game Community needs to act as a whole from this point forward. This is why I do not want to discuss each community individually anymore. The Fighting Game Community is one entity, and it will only become successful and mainstream if it acts like one entity. The separate games of the Fighting Game Community need not ostricize and fight against other games. They need to start learning how to bring in other players and take advantage of the other communities.

Tekken players need to write up articles such as, "If you like using a Rush Down character like Cammy in Super Street Fighter IV, well then you should look at these characters to play in Tekken because they have similar sensibilities." BlazBlue experts need to write how strategies you've learned in Street Fighter IV apply to BlazBlue, such as Option Selects and BnB's and safe Block Strings and such. Heck, why stop at Street Fighter? They should even write articles that say "If you appreciate the Okizeme games of Tekken, here's how BlazBlue implements their Oki game in similar fashion."

The Fighting Game Community can only benefit from the influx of players that Street Fighter IV has brought in, and it's time for people to start realizing this and taking advantage of it. Only by doing so will the Fighting Game Community not only continue to grow, but to thrive and become truly a mainstream form of competitive entertainment.

Next up: Evolution 2010 Season Wrap Up Part 2 - Are Fighting Games the Best eSport?

Evo 2008 Addendum

In my last post, as user "trobb" pointed out, I didn't address the communities of each game as much as I have in the previous years. So as an addendum to the previous post, I'm just going to talk about each game more from the perspective of the communities, as opposed to just commenting on the game itself.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo - I don't really have much to add from the last post I wrote. The Super Street FIghter II Turbo community is actually on the rise. GGPO and HD Remix have spurred on a rebirth of the game, and I've seen a lot more people interested in playing ST that started off playing other games. In other words, ST doesn't seem to be only for old-timers anymore, which is exciting.

Super Turbo is on its way to prove itself to be THE greatest Fighting Game of all time. The players who loved the game never stopped playing it (as evidenced by the fact that old-schoolers still come back to play it at every Evo despite it being super old) unlike many other games which have even the experts stop playing after a while. And the game is so good that all the new players who pick it up cannot help but enjoy it as well, as evidenced by its recent surge in popularity.

As a result, the Super Turbo community only needs to do one thing: continue spread knowledge. For some reason, Super Turbo seems to be the one game that people love to spread knowledge about. When you need to find information, you have stalwarts like NKI who have a wealth of information on his web page translated from T.Akiba's web page (so it took two monster efforts: T.Akiba for getting all that info and NKI for actually translating it to English!). And on the SRK Forums, people love to give help on Super Turbo and spread knowledge (see sites like Nohoho's Super Turbo blog). Super Turbo is a game of knowledge, so it is one of the easiest to teach and learn. And in the end, I think, its ability to be taught so simply is what makes it so strong because, despite how simple it is to teach, it's still very fun and challenging to play.

Capcom Vs. SNK 2 - As I hinted at in my last post, I do believe this game has no more growth left in it. I do believe, as surprising as this may sound to some people, that this game has a lot of untapped potential left in it. As I mentioned in 2007, Kim a.k.a. "Ohayo1234" pointed me to some videos of a tournament they played in Japan where the Japanese players were using really oddball teams that included characters such as Maki and Dhalsim... and winning 1st place at hardcore tournament. And it was because some of these characters actually had some good characteristics that counter the fairly dominant A-Groove characters like Bison and Blanka.

The problem is that there just isn't anyone left to tap into these unexplored areas. These unexplored regions may end up in a dead end (turning out that Maki and Dhalsim and such actually just aren't good enough), but I don't think we'll ever find out. We've ended up with the same top 8 players yet again (it really boils down to a total of about 12 players) and I really don't see anyone else going to make any run at that group. Frankly, there just aren't any hotbeds of CvS2 anymore. Northern California is the only one, thanks to Keystone II and the fact that all of the good players of the game play there a lot, like Ricky Ortiz and Campbell Tran and John Choi.

But otherwise, I just don't think any other location has a strong enough CvS2 community that cares anymore. We have a lot of good players out and about. For example, one player by the name of SmoothCat has always been doing well in CvS2. But last I spoke to him, it seemed he was moving on to other games. It doesn't even feel worth it for the CvS2 fans to continue pushing the game to its limits because there isn't a significant enough of a reward. And there just isn't anyone left to push you to be better. Everyone is playing Third Strike and Super Turbo these days.

Don't get me wrong. The existing community for this game is a good community. I just don't see anyone joining their ranks. No one new seems to be getting sucked into the game, and I just don't see any chance of the game growing anymore. I think CvS2 has reached its peak, and it simply won't go anywhere from here... which is a shame.

Street Fighter III: Third Strike - Street FIghter III: Third Strike, oddly enough, has the exact opposite problem of CvS2. Instead of having no players to tap into the unknown, Third Strike has a ton of players with nothing left to discover. In this case, there is definitely not a shortage of people in the community. New people still get pulled into this game even today. But the funny thing is... well, there's nowhere left for the game itself to go!

The game itself is the limiting factor. Despite having the largest fanbase of players for any of the Fighting Games played at Evo, nothing new is being discovered. The dominant characters in that game are so dominant, that there just isn't anything that can be done about it. In fact, I feel like it has gotten worse. Whereas before, there used to be the trinity of top-tier characters in Ken, Chun Li, and Yun, I don't even feel like Ken is a factor anymore. If you recall from my previous post, I noted that 24 of the 32 possible Top 8 spots from the last 4 years have all been Chun and Yun players. I think there may have been a total of 3 Kens of the 8 players left.

The thing is... it may not matter. The community for Third Strike hasn't gone anywhere. And it's not struggling. The game does not have any lack of interest. So... what's the problem? Well, the problem is that the game has simply grown stale. And not because no one is trying new things, it's because there is absolutely nothing new left in this game to try. I think the game is literally at a point where nothing new can be discovered at all.

So what can the community do to freshen the game up? Probably nothing. But again, why bother when the game is still as hot as ever?

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 - The MvC2 community has me torn. I always say there is no community like the MvC2 community, and I mean it. You cannot get a community with better hype and excitement and rivalries and such. But at the same time, I feel like the MvC2 community is flawed. And part of the reason that I feel it is flawed IS this level of hype and rivalry and passion. Simply put, in the MvC2 community, winning means TOO much. There is so much shit talking going on and so many money matches being played that no one is willing to lose. So people will win at any cost... and one of those costs is not giving away any of your secrets. As a result, there are so few players who can even come close to being the quality of player that Justin Wong is. I do not believe Justin Wong is at a level so far above everyone that no one can reach him. I just don't think the community has the ability to get as good as him because no one is willing to lose.

Remember how I mentioned in the Super Turbo section above that the community is really good at teaching others? The MvC2 community seems to be the opposite. There is very little education of the game going on. There's a wealth of knowledge amongst the experts of the game but, for some reason, they never seem to want to spread the knowledge. I've heard this complaint from members of the community itself. It's just tough to find information about this game. There's no MvC2 equivalent of the T.Akiba information NKI translated or the detailed character information you can find about Guilty Gear at Dustloop. And as a result, I think the MvC2 community has trouble growing. One of the interesting things about a community like the ST community is that experts are willing to teach other players to be good enough to beat them. But in the MvC2 community, giving others the power to defeat you seems to be taboo. So no one ever wants to help others get better (unless they are a part of your crew). So many players get good, but end up reaching a plateau where they can no longer improve. It seems the only way to get to the top echelon of players is to just be in the same area as Justin Wong. There's no coincidence that all the best players (Sanford, Smoothviper, Yipes, Demon Hyo, etc.) live around New York.

So I think until the MvC2 community learns to lower their pride (I didn't say ignore it, I just mean tone it down a bit), I do not think anyone will ever get good enough to beat Justin Wong nor even challenge him unless you live near him and have to get better simply because you are playing him a lot. I think it would benefit the community a lot if all of the experts began helping each other more and working together to bring up the overall quality of play, rather than just trying to make sure your particular crew is better than everyone else.

A couple of side notes: this is my impression. I'm not very involved in the MvC2 community, so my impressions can be completely false and I'd be glad to proven wrong that knowledge isn't shared. Also, keep in mind that I don't mind Justin Wong winning. In fact, I think it's awesome that we have someone so dominant. I mean, look at Roger Federer as a perfect example. During his streak of domination, it was a joy to watch him. He was one of my favorite tennis players and I always rooted for him. But it's really hard to argue that it hasn't become a lot more interesting since Rafael Nadal entered the scene to start spoiling Federer's reign. So while it's awesome to see Justin Wong and how soundly he can pummel his opponents, and no matter how much I root for him, I'd love to see him really have a good challenge, especially if he wins it after gutting it out.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Hmm. I'm still scared to talk about this community. I've criticized the Guilty Gear community in the past, I've just criticized the MvC2 community, and I'm about to criticize the Tekken community a bit. And I'm sure all three communities will not like it, but I somehow feel like if I criticize the Smash community here, it's gonna start some huge, gigantic shit storm of Smash players coming here and totally bashing me over the head. So keep in mind, I'm an equal-opportunity "critiquer" here. I'm not out for anyone in particular. And, yes, I do have an issue with the Smash community.

Last year, I was so complimentary of them. But this year, after all of the controversy revolving around the choice of having Items at Evo, my feelings have been slightly tainted. Keep in mind, I still love their community. Their dedication and passion for the game is admirable. But if I had to point out one flaw in their community, it's this: they have a real serious God Complex.

And this has come from the fact that they have so much control over their game. Too much control, if you will. By being able to tweak and adjust so many aspects of their game, the community has grown to become perfectionists, ones that are unwilling to accept anything that is less than what they want. Whereas most of the other Fighting Game communities have had to learn to deal with B.S. their whole lives (Hoyokusen / Genei-Jin, Valle CC's, Roll Canceling, Alpha Counters, Easy Mode Ken, Infinite Combos, Custom Combos, Unblockables, and on and on and on), the Smash Community hasn't. They have been lucky enough to be able to tweak their game so much that they can get it to a point where they deem it perfect. And anything different is unacceptable.

Case in point: when presented with something they disagree with heavily that they can't change, they actually still go and try to change it. Some members of the community have gone so far as to create an altered version of Smash Bros. Brawl that removed Tripping. Now, the majority of the community doesn't agree with this new version of the game, but regardless: it was done! It's fairly unprecedented in the Fighting Game community for people to go and make your own altered version of the game to fix flaws you perceive as a problem. Again, most of the Smash community doesn't agree with this, but it's a good indication of how much control they desire and how far they will go to achieve it.

And please, don't read this as telling the community they are being ridiculous for not wanting Items at Evo. I'm not arguing for or against Items here. I'm not saying they erred on their part not wanting Items. In fact, I largely agree with them that playing without items makes for a better game. And, if Smash returns next year, I'm betting there will be no items (I, for one, will push for it). The part that got to me was that they insisted that we were wrong and they were right, even to the point where they wanted an apology from Evo Staff (they had very particular reasons for wanting one, but it's still a weird thing to ask for on something that really comes down to opinion). To me, no one was right or wrong.

I still love their community because of how passionate and dedicated they are to their game. In fact, I think debating with them has given me a new level of respect for them (last year, it felt like they were this really nice, friendly casual community that had a fascinating history. This year, it feels more like there is a large amount of weight behind this community, with leaders and educaters and experts and everything). But I do hope that they can reach a more tolerant level. There are so many factors you cannot control (one being, for example, Sakurai himself and what he wants out of the game... SAKURAI!!!!!!!!!). I'm not saying they should learn to play with Items on, but if someone chooses to do so, there shouldn't be as intense of a backlash. Frankly, it was shocking for me to see the level of hatred directed towards Evo just because of that. Disappointment? That I can understand. But the level of pure, deep hatred that we received was quite something.

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - My letter to the Tekken community: "Where were you?!? Why didn't you show up? I know Tekken 6 is coming out but... it's not even out yet! Is Dark Resurrection so bad that it warranted being completely ignored? Was there no motivation to come out and play at Evo at all? Can someone please explain to me why the Tekken community bailed? I'm actually really disappointed by that, especially since I talked them up so much last year about how dedicated they were to their game and such. Is there something I just don't know? -- James"

Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core - Bravo. I think you guys already know how I feel after the last post, so I won't bother saying much more here. But let's just say all the shit I gave you guys last year has been taken back. I've eaten my words and am happy to see myself proved wrong. Bravo.