A very quick word on the tournament, commentary, etcetera, with more to come in the future when I sort myself out a bit:
With regard to the hype/info balance, I think we're all trying to figure out the best way to handle that. There's a responsibility, on the one hand, to be entertaining, but there's an equally important responsibility to make sure people know what the hell is going on in a somewhat deeper way. It's really difficult to figure that out, and we're all trying. Moreover, we're not formally trained professionals or anything like that. I'm not satisfied with how it turned out, but I'm a big believer in process--I'm definitely going to spend time thinking about what I could do better should I be called upon to bust out more commentary in the future.
As far as the sword lord stuff goes, specifically, that's a really touchy subject for me. I talked about this with Hawkeye and a few others last night, in fact, and I am deeply conflicted about the whole thing. Basically, not to put too fine a point on it, he clamored for a high-dollar match, refused repeated opportunities to bow out gracefully and with respect intact, and then at the last minute tried to back out entirely after I had already paid money and made arrangements to fly out to Dallas for the match. So yeah, that pissed me off on a personal level, particularly since there was no apology, no owning up to anything, and really no acknowledgment of it on his part afterward. He just vanished for a bit and then reappeared like nothing had happened.
So why am I airing personal dirty laundry? Because it's not strictly personal. I have a lot of great friends in the fighting game world, and I have even more people who I don't like, don't get along with, etcetera, but there is a level on which I respect every last one of 'em. They're (you're) all part of The Brotherhood. We're like a big dysfunctional family. One of the key elements of this family is having a specific sort of integrity when it comes to meeting one's obligations. There are no money match cops; nobody forces anyone to pay what they owe, in much the same manner as nobody forces anyone to respect other people's property, physical safety, etcetera, when they open up their homes for gatherings and tournaments. We do it, though, because this community needs that kind of honorable behavior. To my mind, sword lord forfeited his membership in this community when he betrayed the fundamental rule: you must be true to your word.
And that's why I'm conflicted...I didn't--nor would I ever--go beyond the bounds of what was specifically allowable on the stream. I play by the rules on things like that no matter what. If, in the future, I was told not to engage in that sort of talk, I'd choke that pill down and do my dead level best. Without that sort of prohibition, however, I felt an ethical obligation to put the dude on blast. I don't care about how well or how poorly he played. His placing speaks for itself. In my opinion, though, he undermined the fundamental principles of how our community operates without even a halfhearted apology, and I guess that's where my personal line is drawn. To those of you who found it off-putting, I'm sorry for that. I own everything I said, and I equally own the consequences. I did, however, feel the need to clarify. The only recourse we have for punishing that sort of behavior is airing the dirty laundry. It just sucks.
tl;dr--Commentary is fun, but hard, and we're all trying to get better as we go. Help us improve, and be patient! Additionally, sword lord didn't just screw me personally; in my opinion he gave our whole way of doing things a big middle finger, and I have a really difficult time ignoring that when nobody says I have to. No apologies for content here, but certainly some regrets.