wizrad
Smash Journeyman
Hi, I'm wizrad. Today, I'm not here to argue in favor of giving Miis their moves in tournament. I'm here to show you what the severe restriction of three characters has done to the Smash community.
When a person finds that one perfect character for them, they're ecstatic. They learn all of the aspects of their moves, their combos, their setups, their neutral game, their technical tricks, their kill moves, and everything else they can learn about their character. They search for and read guides, they watch videos of their new main in action, they discuss and share knowledge with kindred spirits, and they work in the lab for hours on end to discover everything there is to know about this character. It's a lot like falling in love. Hopefully, they get married: they find themselves a tournament and finally join the community as a whole, representing their main for all to see.
Unless that special character they've found is a Mii.
There are some people out there, like myself, who find themselves head over heels in love with one of the characters that are new to Smash, one of the Miis. For me, it's Mii Brawler. He's fast, agile, combos like a mofo, and still hits like an eighteen wheeler! I had been searching for that in the other characters in the game for months since the release of the 3DS version, but they never really clicked with me. Zero Suit Samus, Luigi, Fox, Captain Falcon, Yoshi, and the likes were all close, but not quite exactly what I wanted. So, I expanded my search area to an unlikely place: the "custom" menu. There, I created a Mii Brawler with a Mii I made to look like a shark, put him in the biker gear with the spiked knuckles, checked out all of his specials, and went online with my friends to test him out. Sharky was the best character yet, but he still felt a little odd. So, I googled something like "Mii Brawler guide" to see if I could optimize him a bit. That brought me here, to the Brawler boards and the Evo moveset discussion thread. Minimum height and weight, 1122 was the verdict. I had been running max height, medium weight, and 1232. These changes took a little getting used to, but they came to be perfect for me. I love this character, as I'm sure all of you do with your mains. So it was time to take the final step. I was going to a tournament. I looked up my area on this same site and I was confounded. "1111, guest only". And with that phrase, I was turned away.
But this isn't about me. I haven't given up yet. There are others who are being shunned by the community for the character they love. And we've lost some of them. Dapuffster, who placed 13th at Evo, was the first one to go. After showing himself as a serious contender for top placements at a major tournament, he walked away because this community would not accept his character. Mew2King, whom I'm sure you all know very well from being among the best Melee and Brawl players of all time, favors Mii Brawler, too. But he's considering dropping Smash 4 as a whole because he can't play that character as the game says it can be played and no other character brings him the same satisfaction. I've heard that KP Joey, who made it to the finals of the round robin tournament at FC Return to put up a fight against ZeRo, is also planning on quitting if Corrin or Bayonetta don't appease him like Brawler does. San, noted as one of the best Ike mains, can't show us his ridiculous Mii Gunner (with whom he three stocked me repeatedly) because of the dominant Mii rules. A friend of mine from the Mii Fighter Skype group, Rhydstone, is in the same boat as KP Joey. And I've never been given the chance to go to a real tournament because, evidently, no one wants Mii there.
And yet, although we're losing players both high in status and without any status at all, nothing is changing. Our rules keep people away from our events. Our community is shrinking, not by much, but it is shrinking. I'm not here to tell you why you should switch to allowing Miis at your tournaments. I'm here to ask you this: is it worth it?
EDIT: M2K found Cloud, but the fact that he considered dropping a Smash game after mastering the previous three still says something.
When a person finds that one perfect character for them, they're ecstatic. They learn all of the aspects of their moves, their combos, their setups, their neutral game, their technical tricks, their kill moves, and everything else they can learn about their character. They search for and read guides, they watch videos of their new main in action, they discuss and share knowledge with kindred spirits, and they work in the lab for hours on end to discover everything there is to know about this character. It's a lot like falling in love. Hopefully, they get married: they find themselves a tournament and finally join the community as a whole, representing their main for all to see.
Unless that special character they've found is a Mii.
There are some people out there, like myself, who find themselves head over heels in love with one of the characters that are new to Smash, one of the Miis. For me, it's Mii Brawler. He's fast, agile, combos like a mofo, and still hits like an eighteen wheeler! I had been searching for that in the other characters in the game for months since the release of the 3DS version, but they never really clicked with me. Zero Suit Samus, Luigi, Fox, Captain Falcon, Yoshi, and the likes were all close, but not quite exactly what I wanted. So, I expanded my search area to an unlikely place: the "custom" menu. There, I created a Mii Brawler with a Mii I made to look like a shark, put him in the biker gear with the spiked knuckles, checked out all of his specials, and went online with my friends to test him out. Sharky was the best character yet, but he still felt a little odd. So, I googled something like "Mii Brawler guide" to see if I could optimize him a bit. That brought me here, to the Brawler boards and the Evo moveset discussion thread. Minimum height and weight, 1122 was the verdict. I had been running max height, medium weight, and 1232. These changes took a little getting used to, but they came to be perfect for me. I love this character, as I'm sure all of you do with your mains. So it was time to take the final step. I was going to a tournament. I looked up my area on this same site and I was confounded. "1111, guest only". And with that phrase, I was turned away.
But this isn't about me. I haven't given up yet. There are others who are being shunned by the community for the character they love. And we've lost some of them. Dapuffster, who placed 13th at Evo, was the first one to go. After showing himself as a serious contender for top placements at a major tournament, he walked away because this community would not accept his character. Mew2King, whom I'm sure you all know very well from being among the best Melee and Brawl players of all time, favors Mii Brawler, too. But he's considering dropping Smash 4 as a whole because he can't play that character as the game says it can be played and no other character brings him the same satisfaction. I've heard that KP Joey, who made it to the finals of the round robin tournament at FC Return to put up a fight against ZeRo, is also planning on quitting if Corrin or Bayonetta don't appease him like Brawler does. San, noted as one of the best Ike mains, can't show us his ridiculous Mii Gunner (with whom he three stocked me repeatedly) because of the dominant Mii rules. A friend of mine from the Mii Fighter Skype group, Rhydstone, is in the same boat as KP Joey. And I've never been given the chance to go to a real tournament because, evidently, no one wants Mii there.
And yet, although we're losing players both high in status and without any status at all, nothing is changing. Our rules keep people away from our events. Our community is shrinking, not by much, but it is shrinking. I'm not here to tell you why you should switch to allowing Miis at your tournaments. I'm here to ask you this: is it worth it?
EDIT: M2K found Cloud, but the fact that he considered dropping a Smash game after mastering the previous three still says something.
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