Critical Edge: Cut Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face?

[RedDjinn]

sitting in a chair at home or in a hotel ballroom, amped up on four loko and talking about titties and hot wings is not a sport. period.

LoL this is quite possibly the funniest thing Ive seen you write!

I am LOL'ing still after reading it like 6 times because I can remember several situations of exactly what you are saying.

I say it is a sport though... Maybe not an athletic sport but a sport of the mind.

Its like boxing but with your mind... It would be alot more interesting if people understood just how hard some of the shit is the top players do under all that pressure.

 

[AkumaKaze]

While I agree that strides SHOULD be taken to see fighting games (not the FGC, let's not get the two confused) reach out to "esports" leagues there has to be a balance put in place by the pro-esports members of the community to allow for this to happen while our voices and concerns are heard. The only way I can see this working is if a major league approached the community as a whole and said "We want you included. How do we make this happen?" I am not going to repeat all of the arguments and comments about how well this will or will not work. Everyone here has done that for the most part. Will there have to be give and take from both sides to make this happen? Absolutely. These major events did not get to be the size they are without trial and error and have found the formulas that work for their particular events; hence the reason they pull in the money and sponsorship that they do.

One of the big concerns that would pop up in the discussions that most have not addressed is how the bottom line will be reached. The main obstacle coming from our community being the entertainment value of our events.

Now before people start trying to hunt down where I live to burn down my house and threaten my family let me explain my reasoning behind this. I will use the example of martial arts. On a personal level I have been practicing and teaching for years and can pull off what most would consider (as one of my friends put it) "fancy, jumping, spinning things". While entertaining and cool these moves are not practical in a real fight. I will revert to the basics and do what I know works. It is the same as comparing movie martial arts to real life. Movies cater to what the audience wants. That is how they make their money and protect their bottom line to keep making entertainment for us. The masses want to see high-flying kicks and dramatic battles, not a fight that ends in a matter of seconds without any "wow factor".

How does this rant apply to our events? Simple. We do what works in matches. Yes there are times when sick combos and techniques are pulled off that "wow" but for the most part every person that competes sticks to the basics most of the time. Major leagues want to do what will profit the most much like any form of the entertainment industry. They will do everything they can to draw in a wider audience which means they want entertainment and flair. Hell even reality television is scripted to keep it entertaining.

Nobody on ANY FGC site would dispute that fighting games, especially on a competitive level, are for a niche audience. They do not have that flair of the "more accessible" games to reach Call of Duty or Halo level of sales and fan base. Mix in a lot of the terminology that is attached to what we do and a wider audience would be VERY confused as to what in the hell any of us would be talking about. It is entertaining to us as a community because we have taken the time to practice, improve, and learn the lingo. We know what is going on because we did the research and live the life. How many times have you tried having a conversation with someone who is not involved in the FGC about who we are and what we do and they look at you like you have three heads? Imagine those same people trying to tune into a major event. How many would be entertained and keep watching?

To me this seems to be another major issue of getting into a major esports league. We may be ready as a community to make the transition but is the fighting game genre itself ready to make that transition?

 

[Grey.Wolf]

You do realize that FPS's are largely a online community. It needs to pay its players to get out and play because online is not as much of a problem for FPS's where as with Fighting Games cannot thrive on online due to latency. Fighting game players are more willing to go out to get competition because of this and is not at risk for the community to die such away.

and @Boudha no one is saying we shouldn't take interest in E-sports......what is so hard to understand.

I don't understand how the two are connected. I already know that. My point was that any game will die if the rulesets aren't properly established or they're going against competitive atmosphere, such as, elements in randomness. Also that gaining sponsors and going into professional tournaments would help the fighting community. Now, I've read the other posts so I understand that the relationship hasn't been that good, but it's probably because of management from MLG. They really don't know their stuff in any game and it was only through the former pro Starcraft players that Starcraft 2 even got ablaze in the U.S. combined with nostalgia for Starcraft 1.

Your post doesn't really refute any of my points.

 

[MikeBreezy92]

I don't understand how the two are connected. I already know that. My point was that any game will die if the rulesets aren't properly established or they're going against competitive atmosphere, such as, elements in randomness. Also that gaining sponsors and going into professional tournaments would help the fighting community. Now, I've read the other posts so I understand that the relationship hasn't been that good, but it's probably because of management from MLG. They really don't know their stuff in any game and it was only through the former pro Starcraft players that Starcraft 2 even got ablaze in the U.S. combined with nostalgia for Starcraft 1.

Your post doesn't really refute any of my points.

Lol I see that now guess I was raging a little too hard lol