Gripe with Tournaments, Streams etc

The way tournaments have been ran in the past have been to compensate the players who are actually at the event.

I will just dive into what I am going to say instead of giving sarcastic statements and what not. This is more of a rant blog than it is an informative blog, but maybe it will give some on the outside a look on the inside of how tournaments are at least how they are in this day and age.

Alright so pretty much at every event there is SF4 then a bunch of side games. Now SF4 is obviously the main attraction due to the turnout of players. Well in this day and age we stream nearly every semi big to big event. Which is cool for the viewers at home and what not but honestly this doesn't do anything but cause the tournament to lag behind and make what could be a quick well ran event to a slow draining event. Honestly its becoming rather tedious.

Its ridiculous when you have what say 5 different games. When SSF4 gets to top 8 you decide to hold up the entire tournament for the rest of the games that the streamers could care less about just to wait to show them SSF4 at the end. While the players who are there probably aren't at their best state right now as far as physical fatigue and mental toughness and also rather go home because its usually about 1 AM. Now I am not saying cater to the streamers either however if you are specifically running a stream so people view then you might as well only show the game the vast majority is tuning in to watch. I mean if you go to the bar to watch a basketball game you don't sit through a baseball game first right? You show up only to see basketball.

I am pretty sure when a streams pops up for a tournament (minus evo) people aren't like OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO WATCH GENERIC FIGHTER 5 =\.

Anyway I feel like these events could be ran a lot smoother and faster without streaming or at least where we don't hold up the entire tournament to wait for other games to get played first and then back to SSF4.

I think which ever game gets to its top 8 first they should just go ahead and finish up their game seriously. Let everything just go at a steady pace instead of stopping everything.

Also top 8 isn't even a big deal anymore simply because only top 3 gets paid. You don't get diddly squat for being in top 8. The top 3 spots (the ones getting paid) should be the only matches streamed. A full top 8 being streamed is like 30 minutes to a hour of game play. I guess thats fine if you know we were all getting paid aka streamers paying to watch or what not but that is definitely not the case. Its cool to build up a fan base and all but not at the price of the players suffering.

Lol I have to laugh cause this doesn't help that not only do I not enjoy playing SSF4 but I don't enjoy the tournaments either. They take far too long. I would definitely have the same complaints if it were a game I enjoyed playing but it amplifies it even more of it being a chore.

By the way I am not going to go on a tangent of what I dislike about SSF4 but I will just highlight everything here.

- Game is too based around matchups instead of who is the better player as far as working the mechanics the best in the game.
- I was never a fan of reversals that are safe and lead to good damage. I think there should be risk for your reward. (bison ex psycho, honda's ex headbutt, any reversals to fadc to become safe)
- Too many invincibility frames on attacks. I really think they need to revert back to 3s as far as that goes.

In DOA shit even in Tekken if you do something that is like a reversal (well in 3D games a reversal is a crush attack) if you did a crush. If that shit gets blocked you get punished, or if that shit whiffs you die.

Also its a lot more complicated to apply a crush than it is to just hit a reversal in 2D cause in 2D reversals beat everything. in 3D no sir you better do a high or low crush depending on the attack. And mids stop all that shit anyway.
Can't make it safe in 3D. Only thing you can make safe are attacks with a lot of range and active frames and they have to be spaced properly.

Anyway like I said in the Fighters Fury interview. I am tired of playing 2D games. MvC3 and MK9 might be good but we'll see. MK9 might rip off SF4 and cause me to gouge my eyes out. (ok not really but I will probably go outside and throw the disc at a tree like a ninja star)

Its nice to see Harada opting for some Soul Calibur 5. Hopefully they get rid of that Hilde shit. Whats funny is I don't like Soul Calibur all like that because its not combo heavy.

Oh well might end up even jumping into a different genre or just taking a break altogether cause I am getting bored fighters well 2D fighters.

No longer holding back

I think I am just going to speak my mind on this one.

I have come to a realization that I just really don't like playing SF4 at all. I guess kudos to it for "reviving" the fighting game scene, but I very much rather be playing something else. The only other thing is Tekken and BB but Tekken 6 is honestly really old so getting into it now is harder than ever especially with no competition and a shitty online mode (thank you Namco =\ ) and 3D games take way more time than 2D games to learn because of the amount of variety in the game. BB I might give it a show but who knows.

My biggest gripes with SF4 is how mash friendly it is. Mash out reversals. The so called "hard" combos can be simplified with shortcuts. Multiple characters who have a very straight forward not too much thinking involved game plan. Rufus, Bison, Abel etc then you have chars like Viper who doesn't really have to block with all of her escape options. Oh and I forgot to mention how safe all of these get out of jail free cards are.

I really really hate using an arcade stick. I hate carrying it around. Its nice to look at though but to me honestly that is about it. Its the biggest waste of money I have wasted in a while. Definitely will be selling all 3 of my sticks soon including the one that is dual modded.

Tired of tournaments running forever because the TO's want to make you wait once you get to winners finals for the losers bracket to finish just to play out winners, losers and grand finals in order instead of just having the winner finals play it out then finish up the losers bracket like whatever man. Tired of TO's being lazy and running tournaments on poor latency tv/monitors. Seriously do you not look up how and what you should run a tournament on? At least fucking change the resolution to 720p. This shit irks the hell out of me.

Also hella annoyed with switching systems every tournament. Either PS3 or X360 dude choose one seriously and Ps3 is crap so use Xbox360 k thnx.

I hate to say this but there is absolutely no reason for there to be "teams" in a fighting game genre this shit isn't a team effort. Fighting game = 1v1 not 2v2 or 3v3 or 4v4. Its really pointless only thing there should be is a coach or manager.

Moving on. People keep asking me am I looking forward to the new fighting games next year and I keep giving (I could careless answers or it will be the same as any other fighter and no I am not hyped) I will give a straight up answer:

The only game that I am looking forward to that is supposed to be releasing next year is Mortal Kombat.

Yes this means I could careless about MVC3 even if Magneto is in it, I could give a shit about Tekken vs SF and vice versa. The only games I am looking forward to right now are MK or a new DOA game which hasn't even been show yet. Other than that I am looking forward to Devil's Third the game being produced by Itagaki's new company.

Anyway I am thinking about taking a break from competing for a while I can't really find any real motivation. Like there isn't a player I just hate seeing win. I don't feel like there is anything to prove, I also don't like the game(s) so that is a big factor as well.