Monday, September 21, 2015

HTC Throwdown and Smash Society

Sorry I haven't posted in forever... I keep meaning to, but I can't seem to find a topic I really want to talk about. With HTC just finishing I have a lot to say, even if it's not about the game itself. So I want to take some time to talk about that as honestly as I can. A lot of my thoughts might seem arrogant or might not make sense to a viewer, but they're my honest interpretation of the events. This will be a pretty long post, the first part focusing on various social aspects, and the second part focusing on the actual gameplay. I'll label them, so feel free to skip around.

EDIT: On second thought, I'm just going to make this into two posts. I'll make this the social one, and make a separate one just about how I felt about my gameplay later on.

Social Stuff


First of all, what a crazy event! Props to the staff for efficiently running a huge (500?) man tournament in a single day; definitely unheard of in the tournament scene and that's absolutely amazing. Even though what I am about to say is a lot of negative stuff, let me be clear that what the TOs/staff accomplished here was nothing short of a miracle. Honestly, I did have a few personal complaints though, some about the tournament but more about the smash scene in general. First of all, I didn't get a VIP wristband despite HTC flying me out to the tournament .____. I mean I would totally understand if at some other tournament I didn't get one...I mean, who the fuck is druggedfox, right guys??? But when the ones throwing the tournament specifically paid for me to come, I feel like that's an inherent recognition of player skill. You could say it was an accident, but based on how I'm generally treated in the smash community it's unsurprising to me that this happened.

There's a ridiculous bias towards "top players" as well as an unfortunate social dynamic related to it. I talked to Jon (eBay, pgood falcon from Washington) about this a bit while at the tournament and he was so glad I pointed it out, wholeheartedly agreeing. People have known about me for years, but they have never acknowledged me. I don't mean acknowledged any sort of skill I may or may not have, I mean as a person. Prior to my performance at evo, do you think Leffen ever said hi to me as I passed by him? Do you think Shroomed ever stopped to have a conversation with me? I am *not* trying to put those specific players on blast; I was just giving examples to illustrate the concept. Note that these are situations where it would be considered fairly normal/expected for there to be some sort of social interaction; I'm not suggesting that they should arbitrarily go out of their way to do these things. I wouldn't mind this so much, if it wasn't for the fact that immediately following my evo performance...suddenly top level players *did* stop to talk to me. Even players I had never met would wave, say hello, strike up a conversation with me, etc. Obviously this is only a generalization and not true in every case by any means. A great example is s2j, who met me at Apex 2012 and talked to me a lot before ever playing me and knowing how good or not I was; I didn't see him again until we played at CEO 2015, and he acknowledged me and noted that he hadn't seen me in years, etc. Alternatively take Mango, who didn't talk to me before evo OR after evo LOOOL. But when we're both on stage, he'll take initiative to ask me questions or talk to me in a personable fashion.

Ignoring how smasher's treat each other and the VIP nonsense, let's look at seeding. The actual seeding used for the tournament, in my estimation, looked roughly like this:

1. Mango
2. Mew2king
3. Hungrybox
4. Leffen
5. Plup
6. Axe
7. PewPewU
8. Shroomed
9. Silent Wolf
10. Lucky
11. SFAT
12. MacD
13. S2j
14. Hugs
15. Colbol/Zhu
16. Wizzrobe
17. Druggedfox
18. Zhu/Colbol

I was told that Wizzy and I were supposed to be 15/16 (which means we wouldn't have to play round 1), and regardless of whether or not this was an honest mistake it really sucked. I'm good friends with Wizzy and teach him a lot of smash stuff, not to mention we are from Florida and Georgia and already play at some florida locals and various regionals. I can say with high certainty that such a regional/seeding consideration would not have been overlooked for someone in the top 8 seeds, for example.

This isn't the first negative experience I've had related (at least, imo) to my player skill. When I went to I'm Not Yelling there were various expectations of me as a player by the TOs/stream, but without any of the communication on their end that should have come along with it. I don't like being treated like less of a person because I'm perceived to be less of a player, but it's a consistent experience I have had in general.

Alright now let's talk about the crowd. I was so disappointed by the crowd at HTC, since the audience at a tournament is a huge part of the experience (for both the players and the audience). Never before have I seen so much emphasis on favoritism and regional bias, and so little love for GOOD GAMEPLAY. The crowd didn't make me play worse at HTC, it just made me sad (and it's not the first time I've experienced this, but it was the biggest offender for sure). Okay, I get it, I'm not from norcal, or even california. But when me vs colin happens and literally NOBODY cares even though it was one of the most insane sets of the tournament...it just makes me so sad. He almost 4 stocked me. One game I read his attempt to gimp me and killed him with a needle at 0%. We just absolutely fucked each other up. Crazy comebacks were made, there were ridiculous suicides/risky attempts off stage on both ends. In any other context, this would be the shit that gets people hype. People WANT to see the crazy stuff. Nobody cared and it was just so depressing. I could do the sickest sheik shit, never seen before, everyone's quiet. I got waveshine upsmashed by silent wolf/sfat? Crowd goes nuts. It's just so fucking lame, and it's not even a sheik problem. I saw colin do tons of hype shit and nobody cared. Nobody cares about good gameplay, they just want to see their guy win. It just disappoints me so much, because part of what makes me love this game so much is being able to share it with thousands of people who all experience the same thing I am. When I witness crowds like that, it just makes me question that experience entirely, and it's disgusting.

That pretty much wraps up everything I want to comment on. As far as my personal behavior, I sincerely regret not giving silent wolf a better handshake after losing to him to get 4th. I tried to remedy it at the time by giving him a real handshake, but that was still really bad of me and I hope he didn't take it badly. I didn't mean to be disrespectful with the first handshake...I just literally didn't have the heart/energy to give him a real handshake. I tried, and my hands just couldn't do it. Losing the way I did was a huge mix of emotions for me, ranging from disbelief to being upset that my tournament was over, combined with the all the pent up hype/adrenaline from playing 3 sets in a row that all went to game 5. I just couldn't handle it, and I hope that with more experience that doesn't happen to me anymore. Something I *don't* regret at all was popping off at the crowd after beating SFAT. It was 100% unrelated to SFAT and I think he knows that, but I sure was wondering where all the norcal chants went after I killed their hopes and dreams for the tourney. Seriously, I hated that crowd with a passion. Shoutouts to anyone in that crowd that cared more about good melee than they did about seeing me choke so their favorite player could win.

This article was honestly pretty negative, and I didn't start writing it with that intention. I wanted to make a couple side comments spawning from my conversation with Jon, and then focus on HTC from a gameplay perspective...but all the thoughts I didn't really realize I was having came out. Most smashers that I've met and hung out with are honestly awesome people, but there are a lot of social factors that create the issues I mentioned. I don't necessarily expect anything to change from anyone reading this, but if anyone cares about my thoughts then they'll find them here.

I'll hopefully bring you guys a much different post with my discussion of the gameplay at HTC! If not, then I'll at least make a post about something melee related ^__^

51 comments:

  1. Shoutouts to you Sami, you played amazing and I was cheering for you from the back of the venue. Congrats on 4th place even though I'm sure you wanted to do better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. YO DUDE! You did great this tournament, I was rooting for you from home! Nice job on the 4th place!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, really sorry you didn't get a badge, do you remember who on staff you talked to about it? It was clearly an oversight, really surprised it wasn't fixed after you brought it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's alright, it's honestly not a big deal. I didn't talk to anyone on staff about it, because I didn't want one even if they'd offer it at that point to be totally honest.

      Delete
  4. Hey man, I doubt you remember me at all, but we talked occasionally on AIM back in like 2009 when I was pretty into competitive pokemon on smashboards. I just wanted to say that I've been rooting for you every time I see you stream and I'm super happy for you and your incredible recent results and recognition.

    Everything you've had to say on this blog is super interesting and I've been checking it every couple of weeks hoping you'd written something new, so I was really glad to see this post. Looking forward to the HTC gameplay discussion!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do remember you riddle, thanks dude! I'll hopefully keep updating it

      Delete
  5. With Melee getting as big as it has, and good players getting more visible, the crowd begins to act more like that of a crowd at a sports game, with the home crowd cheering for their team when they score, and maybe thinking "damn that was a good catch, but I still want my team to win" if the other team makes a good play. I'm sure some people in the crowd were impressed with both you and Colin's play, but they all wanted to see their west coast homies win.

    Imagine if Shroomed and SFAT played at Tipped Off. I wouldn't really care who wins, but I would still enjoy the high level gameplay without making too much commotion. Maybe a muttering of "holy shit" every once and a while, but not much else. Clapping after a good set should be expected though.

    Godlike cc grab to techchase last stock game 5 vs Colbol btw.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right, I just wish it didn't become like this. If I see shroomed and SFAT play at tipped off, I will definitely clap for any impressive plays!

      It's sort of inevitable, but that's how it is. Thanks haha, CC is op

      Delete
  6. People will always cheer for the flashier player. Let's face it, techchase regrabs are as interesting to watch as wobbling. Some people think its amazing and see the finesse in how the punish was set up and like to see great execution. Most people just want to see fat combos though.

    The social interaction you are getting (and not getting) from other players probably stems from the fact that they know of you but don't know you personally. At least, that's the assumption I'm going on here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For the first part, that's clearly true and inevitable. I do lots of cool stuff that isn't tech chasing though xD. People get hype for m2ks sheik, so I don't think that's *all* there is to it. I feel like I could have played falcon on the WC and nobody would have cared...ofc I could be wrong!!

      That's normally the case, yes, but I'm in a bit of a different scenario. Before evo, most top players still knew of me! I am in the unique scenario of being a player that most top players recognized before evo, did not acknowledge, and then did acknowledge *after* evo.

      Delete
  7. I'm sorry you felt this way :/. (I was the guy who tried to buy you Dinner/Discussed tech chasing on reaction with you/laudandus) I was mostly playing friendlies with mew2king during top 8 but we to make other people hype about good things you did. I tried to yell EH! every time you hit a techchase, but I'm sad you couldn't hear it :(. One issue was that everyone who would have been watching the tournament for good gameplay was playing friendlies instead. I agree that west coast crowd bias is incredibly big and didn't really make sense, but at the same time it's really hard to create change in that dynamic. One other issue is that players who respect good gameplay are silently taking notes about said gameplay to execute it later. Also mew2kings commentary in your match was glorious but only like 3 people heard it.

    I think there is this weird social dynamic of top players,

    There are top top players like leffen who get fangirls and want to be left alone. (understandably). This is an issue, burnout on social interaction is painful and for some people (one notable example was Jason but there are others). I think the grind for most players is that they see 200 Sami's and can't talk to each one of them. Mew2king definitely hid with me in a corner while we played friendlies in the middle of nowhere. Heck I barely knew who mew2king was until today, I just talked to him a bunch because he is easy to talk to.

    There are players like you/colbol/SFAT who are approachable but not at the super top level and play friendlies/money matches, I think my discussions with you were all purely gameplay related and enjoyable. But often players of this caliber will ignore you entirely until you are in the tier below

    There are players like Gar/Laudandus/Fat Goku/Mike haze who will be noticed by top players but will also talk to randoms.

    It's weird that the divide seems strictly by skill, it's like melee is this old boy's club and you become a member of the club by being a top player. You don't get noticed unless you are a member of the secret club and join the inner circle. The outer circle of people like laudandus/gar are able to be with the inner circle but aren't themselves a member of the circle. Cliquy high school nonsense was well high school, why are people playing politics in a smash tournament anyway? I suspect it's unconcious and not actually intentional. Until you are someone they know you are one of the faceless masses (at least that's what I felt like a faceless blob)

    IMO everyone who makes it out of pools should have access to the VIP area, it's one of the perks of making it out of pools. That way if you are a wave 2 of round 2 pools player in a wave 3 pool (which everyone in a wave 3 pool should be) then you can practice while wave 1 happens. Everyone who makes it out of pools deserves the VIP area as much as everyone else. I don't know how I would put people in the VIP area before Pools but after pools it's clear. (perhaps you can Pay extra to be given access into the VIP area even if you don't make it out of pools or something)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha yea I remember you dude. I think your analysis/comment on it is pretty accurate, but its always hard to call.

      What was Jason saying during my match lmao

      Delete
    2. (from memory)

      "Oooh this is good"

      Why did you miss that edgeguard fox's illusion is easy to hit

      What he hits the hard to get one but whiffs the easy ones! (on a tech in place )

      Forward smash!

      Good regrabs

      Up air UP air NOOO

      NOO NOO NOO

      Druggedfox why




      Delete
  8. Now I feel bad for cheering against you/for HugS at Paragon. I mean, HugS is a good friend of mine and he's been one of my favorite players since '07 - I may have good johns in that sense, but doesn't really justify me not cheering when you did something good/cool.

    Anyways, to the point I want to make:
    As far as I can tell throughout my life, athletic sports are no different when it comes to audience mentality. Boos and cheers at very predictable times. I don't think competitive gaming is any different. The home-crowd is going to cheer for their home players. They just simply have way more invested into those people than everyone else. (Though I do think the severity of the problem is dependent on the region)
    Also, in sports, it's pretty rare for honest, good gameplay to be cheered for by the opposing team - it's rare moments where it's a player's first game, or the player is a veteran of the game, where this really happens.

    I really wish I could think of good ways to mitigate the problem, but I really do think people just have so much emotion invested into watching the game that they fail to be good 'watchers' lol (I think this is a big reason why most people aren't that great at commentating)

    This is the first time seeing your blog, and the first post I've read. I'd like to thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
    And I think we need more people like you speaking up about this kind of stuff. So keep the thoughts coming!

    - Cameron Garcia (thespymachine)
    Vegas Melee

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I appreciate this response a lot.

      I understand the reality of the situation, and I think you addressed it very well. I wish more people could take a step back and see it like this.

      Delete
  9. the crowd has always been pretty annoying in this regard lol. the smash audience has always been a bit like sports in the sense that spectator interest is mainly focused on wanting one's favorite player to win, rather than a love for the game and wanting to see good smash...and that sentiment is only getting stronger i think (especially with the new generation smashers and all)

    i think youll get used to it over time. you already know this but players prioritize very different things when it comes to watching smash

    with that said...there was a newish player from berkeley who apparently cheered you on a lot during tourney, and wanted to see you take the whole shebang - he somehow recognized that i was dkuo and we talked about smash on the way back home with his other smash friend (unfortunately early so i couldnt watch the rest of htc live u_u)

    he said he felt like people around him would hate on him for cheering you on but he did it anyways. just thought youd like to know that :P

    good stuff at htc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOOL <3 that dude

      thanks dkuo, it was good seeing you honestly but we sholda hung out more

      yea the different ways people prioritize is just sad to me i guess since i thought we all cared about the game ._.

      Delete
  10. It was absurd to me that people ignored your numerous 0-deaths _from the middle of the stage_! I lost my shit at home. Keep it up dude, I'll be cheering for you at TBH5.

    Who the fuck is Mew2King?? (jk but I like your play better)

    ReplyDelete
  11. So I just wrote like a 5 paragraph thing but decided to delete it because it sounded stupid. Basically, I just wanted to say that I am a relatively new fan of melee since around March of this year. I noticed horrible cheering habits in other games and I made it a pointed effort to understand the technical skill involved in melee so that I would know why I was cheering for a play instead of the play-er, if that makes sense. That being said, there is a definite sick amount of hype for me as a melee neophyte to see someone who I've never heard about almost beat a more famous player like Leffen and recently Mango (although I know much more about the scene now than I did at EVO). Melee has grown considerably in the past year and there are a LOT of new fans, and it's kind of understandable that they would root for people who are already well established because they don't know better. A lot of them also have other esports in mind so they treat melee as a side interest and don't take the time to understand or look up any player that's not insanely famous. Anyways, my point is that there is definitely a very cancerous side to biased crowds but at the same time it does increase hype to insane levels at certain points, yet the highs might not outweigh the lows. You have found a new fan in me mainly because I admire the intense concentration and focus you have while playing on stream and then I read these great posts you make online and realize that there is a lot more depth to you, your play and your input into the community than what I could imagine. I hope your posts reach out to more people and you keep doing well in future tournies!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the response dude, and I'm glad you've taken that approach to it! I just think that we're all playing/competing/watching because we love the game, and it's regrettable that it's not always expressed that way.

      I'll try my best in the future :)

      Delete
  12. So I just wrote like a 5 paragraph thing but decided to delete it because it sounded stupid. Basically, I just wanted to say that I am a relatively new fan of melee since around March of this year. I noticed horrible cheering habits in other games and I made it a pointed effort to understand the technical skill involved in melee so that I would know why I was cheering for a play instead of the play-er, if that makes sense. That being said, there is a definite sick amount of hype for me as a melee neophyte to see someone who I've never heard about almost beat a more famous player like Leffen and recently Mango (although I know much more about the scene now than I did at EVO). Melee has grown considerably in the past year and there are a LOT of new fans, and it's kind of understandable that they would root for people who are already well established because they don't know better. A lot of them also have other esports in mind so they treat melee as a side interest and don't take the time to understand or look up any player that's not insanely famous. Anyways, my point is that there is definitely a very cancerous side to biased crowds but at the same time it does increase hype to insane levels at certain points, yet the highs might not outweigh the lows. You have found a new fan in me mainly because I admire the intense concentration and focus you have while playing on stream and then I read these great posts you make online and realize that there is a lot more depth to you, your play and your input into the community than what I could imagine. I hope your posts reach out to more people and you keep doing well in future tournies!

    ReplyDelete
  13. So happy to see this blogs still going. I've recommended it to every sheik player I know. If we ever end up at the same national I'll be your hype man :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks ^__^

      Hoepfully my next posts will be helpful to sheik/melee players in terms of actual gameplay!

      Delete
  14. glad this was well received despite my concerns

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 10 hours later, check miom/reddit LOOOL

      I think all in all people understand me, but there's a lot of people who think its "just whining"

      Delete
  15. Hey Sami, grats on your recent performances lately, ever since you went Captain Falcon at one of Jim's tournaments and won with relative ease, I can definitely say I've been a fan.

    I must say though, I have a slight problem with this post. Mainly because every single problem you seem to be having at majors, is something that's happening in your own backyard. Now, considering you're extremely well known in GA, it's a given that it may have gone unnoticed, it's almost like ants to an ant hill, so I'm not pointing any fingers here.... I just wanted to make aware that you're most certainly not alone when it comes to shit like this. It's kinda like high school all over again with certain cliques and what not.

    But, I could literally count on one hand, the amount of times a "notable" smasher has decided to actually act like a human being at local tourneys, as opposed to someone with an elevated rank in status due to their success within a certain community. Stand offish, pretentious, and being flat out rude, I feel are becoming common characteristics among top Smashers.

    I'll give you an example:

    Close friend of mine, great player. vs Top GA Smasher on Netplay.

    At one point, this Top GA Smasher, decided that any time my buddy doesn't punish properly out of shield, he's going to just SD because it's simply "not even worth it to play anymore if you're not gonna learn from your mistakes?" This is a friendly on Netplay may I remind you.

    On a second account, this Top GA smasher, warned another friend of mine they will be playing campy intentionally because "no one seems to do anything about it anyways, so I'm just gonna play lame until someone can counter it" This was a Falco vs Puff match on PS, where this top GA smasher, literally proceeded to ledge camp, for the entire 8 min duration. Not a single percentage was given.

    Mind you, this isn't 2 very good friends just being shitty to each other. This is someone looking to better their game, challenging a known Smasher on netplay, looking to learn and progress their game, only to have that piece of shit encounter occur?

    Shit like this happens in the Smash community all the time. It's fucking disgusting. I'm not saying that YOU should do something about it. I just want you to know that you're not alone when it comes to petty bullshit like this, even when it's happening right under your nose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. people have different ways of teachin tho but yea haha

      Delete
  16. Hey man great article, super informative and interesting. I love watching you play on stream (go Georgia!). Hey did you ever come to Georgia Tech smash on Friday nights while it was still happening? I think I remember seeing you there but I don't remember. Would love to play some friendlies with you if you're ever in the Marrietta/KSU/ area.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nobody cheers for you because you are a lame ass sheik main.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I was at HTC (my first tournament) and I was, in fact, going bananas. You made me want to main Sheik! I said while watching your game with Wizzrobe that you are the only Sheik that I find fun to watch. I really wanted to come talk to you, but after getting a frosty response from several other top players, I figured you guys as a group didn't want to be bothered.

    But don't worry. You definitely have fans! We'll be sure to cheer louder next time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would have been very open to talking, and I'm glad you enjoyed my set with Wizzy :)

      Delete
  19. Great to see another post from you, and it's always good to see how players were handling their emotions during their games! With that said, I do have one thing to say about the crowd. There may not be as many unbiased people who want to see good melee above all else at the venue, but there were a ton watching live. Many people were and still are cheering for you, even if you don't hear it. Ultimately though, is the short lasting cheer of the crowd what you really want, or is it to push the limits of the melee meta? Think very carefully about this as I know for many people the admiration of their peers out weights their desire to work exceptionally hard to try and advance the meta. My gut feeling tells me that deep down it's the later for you, and if it is the later, then I'd say all that really matters is the quality of your play. I'm already seeing more sheik mains trying to implement and learn the reaction tech chase (albeit with varying degrees of success), and I have no doubt that many of the top players are analyzing what you are doing far more in depth to try to implement some of it. Ultimately, even if no one cheers for you, they still respect your play a lot, and understand that you're trying to play on the cutting edge. Your play may not be immediately fawned over like landing a Ganon uptilt off of a hard read, but, unlike the aforementioned uptilt, it will be studied seriously for a while to come.

    -Myiasis

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I appreciate it, and you're right. Look forward to more content :)

      Delete
  20. I'm sure you already know this, but the "crowd" is (in general) a fairly stupid and easily swung force of nature. Don't worry about people appreciating your high level melee presentation, there were thousands watching who did - including myself.
    This is sort of an extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation thing, so like people above me in comments have said just do it for yourself m8

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do know, but it's nice to hear anyway. I play for myself, but it still makes me sad that we can't all appreciate the game the way we used to!

      Delete
  21. I'm sure you already know this, but the "crowd" is (in general) a fairly stupid and easily swung force of nature. Don't worry about people appreciating your high level melee presentation, there were thousands watching who did - including myself.
    This is sort of an extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation thing, so like people above me in comments have said just do it for yourself m8

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely tried to reply to this, I'm sorry dude. My internet might have gone out. I honestly appreciate each and every comment, so thanks and you're right :)

      Delete
  22. Idk if anyone mentioned this yet but it's possible maybe some of the reason the crowd reactions were bizarre (esp during the SFAT match) was because there were two games going on at once. If you watch the video you'll see that people have trouble figuring out what to watch. It's possible when you did some pretty cool stuff nobody was actually watching, they may have been just glancing at the screen to see how SFAT was doing. Just a thought.

    -Fizzi

    ReplyDelete
  23. That's a very real possibility, and you're the first person to bring that up! That could totally be the case, but I drew my conclusions based on several factors. That said, its very likely this was a part of the explanation/reason.

    Also your hardware is godlike LOL

    ReplyDelete
  24. FIrst of all don't feel bad about the handshake thing with silent wolf. Im pretty sure he took it exactly as you meant it, which was like "Hey sorry that wasn't a real handshake, here's a more respectful one, cause that was a sick match." Ya know I was just watching a video but that was my interpretation. I can see how you wanted to share that moment with him now after reading your blog, because apparently the crowd wasn't appreciating how sick the matches were. It was a little harder to notice on video but it was very apparent they were acting weird.
    So I totally feel you on the "top players get treated differently" angle of a lot of social interactions within the community. Im not a top player or anywhere near it so I can only imagine. So that being said, I kind of read parts of this article wondering, what did you expect? Like you're beating all these top top players and performing among the best in the world, which is astounding. I realize that now people are stopping you and acknowledging you more of a person now, but I think that's just a natural tendency that happens among talented people.
    Im not trying to say shut up DF, be happy, cause I don't know what it's like to fly out to California and compete under pressure of crowd/players and so on. But I've been playing instruments for 12 years and consider myself pretty talented with the hobby. And so I tend to meet people that are only interested in talking to me because I am of a certain skill level. Maybe it's because they want to gig with me, or play with me to get better, or maybe just to be talking to "the drummer" after the show. The point is I tend to get into a lot of conversations that wouldn't have happened if I was just an ok musician. People giving you attention because of your ability is a good thing, or at least you can look at it like that if you want.
    Of course all of this is in reference to how other top players treat you and random people acknowledging your presence now more that before. The crowd being uninterested in watching tense, competitive, high risk, high skill, game 5 last stock melee matches must have really sucked. On video it was a little less noticeable, but even HMW commented many times on how the crowd looked beat. So yeah fuck that, just hope for better in the future. As long as you play for love of the game maybe it will rub off on the crowd. Hell if you keep playing like this people might always cheer for you and then you'll be looking at them like what the fuck guys, you weren't on my side before?
    I guess I'm just trying to say if you always hold "the crowd" or "the community" to their hypocrisies, you're just gonna be sour all the time cause mob mentality is retarded and there's no explaining it. TLDR: be happy, you deserve it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get what you're saying, and I appreciate it dude. I'll keep at it. Ofc I expect to be treated differently at some level, but not by the same people that knew me before. I'll try to be more positive moving forward, and I hope I can bring my love of the game to everyone else ^_^

      I hope you keep watching/enjoying my play, and I can bring even more hype sets to future tournaments!

      Delete
  25. I know I'm commenting a little late, but I have to say, I kind of object to what you've written about the HTC crowd in this post. It seems that you think that watching something because of "love of the game" is better than watching in hopes of certain players winning, and I disagree.
    I'll admit, I'm not the most knowledgable about Smash. However, I've played tennis for a long time and understand the sport very well. When I'm watching a tennis tournament, I like very "objectively" good matches that are close, but I enjoy matches much more that involve one player I am rooting for, and one player I am rooting against. When a tournament gets down to a few players that I am not invested in, regardless of how amazing the matches are, I am not going to be particularly interested, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's natural. To kind of shame the HTC crowd, as you did in this article, for watching a tournament in this way is very unfair, in my opinion. Watching a match that involves very good gameplay versus watching a match that has a player (or two) that you have followed for a long time and love are two very different things, and liking the latter more is perfectly acceptable.
    I realize that this must be frustrating for a player like you, who is coming up and playing amazing but not getting much crowd interest. However, the way that all crowd favorites now became that way is by consistently placing very well for a long time, all the while gaining fans. I'm confident that if you keep playing as amazingly as you have, you could end up being one of those people who gets cheered for regardless of the match or tournament.
    Good luck in the future. I hope this wasn't too confrontational.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Thanks for the reply, and of course it wasn't too confrontational.

    I can understand what you are saying about tennis, but that's sort of the beauty of the smash community (or...it was, until now). You're right, it *is* totally natural for what you described to occur in most cases. In melee though, there was a point in time where I could bet money that every single player at the event was there because of their love and passion for melee; a love and passion so strong that even if their favorite player wasn't playing, they *would* still show interest.

    Melee and smash in general is unique, in that respect. It is historically a game played by a fan base so passionate that its nearly unrivaled in anything else. Smashers are fiends for the game, they play it nonstop, it is often their entire life at times.

    Maybe "shaming" wasn't the right approach to take, but it is honestly heart breaking to me to realize that the community isn't what it used to be in that respect. Melee means so much to me, and above all else I care about respect for the game and good gameplay.

    I can agree that I probably didn't take a good approach to this, but as acceptable as it is to prefer watching your favorite player...to the point of ignoring good gameplay... it should be equally acceptable for me to lament a lack of passion for gameplay and smash in general that *did* used to exist.

    I have experienced many crowds, and this one honestly made me sad and upset. I don't think that is unreasonable on my end! I think I simply need to accept the change in crowd culture as smash changes. Emotional investment which you described is totally natural and okay! But on the flip side, people seem to forget that my love of good gameplay is an equally emotional investment!

    ReplyDelete
  27. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort Hotel - JT Hub
    Discover our travel options and get details for Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort Hotel in Cherokee. 당진 출장안마 Book your hotel reservation 보령 출장샵 today. Rating: 공주 출장마사지 4.3 · ‎44 reviews · ‎Price range: $$ (Based on Average Nightly Rates for a Standard Room from our Partners)What are some of the property amenities at Harrah's Cherokee Casino 진주 출장샵 Resort?Which room amenities are available at Harrah's Cherokee 구미 출장안마 Casino Resort?

    ReplyDelete