Spydar05
Smash Rookie
Ever since Toph and Scar (I believe it was those two) talked about an event with Hax that later made him change his main to Fox, a lot of people have dubbed this... something... as 20XX. But what is 20XX? Is it a time in the future when everyone plays so perfectly that the only way to win is play fox? Nope. I think 20XX is nothing more than a mindset.
There's a lot of things I need to go over in this post to hit everything I want to so it may be a little choppy and I may or may not go back over it to fix it up.
First of all, no one will ever play this game perfectly. Players have certainly gotten close in some sets in some games, and Mew2King has studied it enough that he maybe SHOULD be able to be 20XX, but what you will notice is even he doesn't go fox in a lot of match ups, why is that? Humans aren't perfect, no one will ever play fox perfectly. And beyond this, think about all of the best players in the world really quick... done thinking? Have you noticed there hasn't been a real king since Ken? Why is that? And why did Ken eventually lose his reign? The documentary may have you believe that this was because a bunch of people became hungry enough for the game to take it from him. But really what happened is enough people were tired of him winning that they started to hate him so much that he didn't like playing the game and winning tournaments anymore. How does this relate to the "gods" of the game (and yes, I'm definitely including Leffen). They all have mindset weaknesses. Mango won't play anyone else's game and if he has to play a certain way to win, he will just give up or sac the match. Armada randomly takes breaks from the game. Do I REALLY need to go over M2k? Hungrybox has a wall, he can't beat foxes and he can't beat Mango. PPMD is amazing and my favorite of the Gods along with Hbox, but has admitted his depression gets in the way. See the pattern? And Leffen, oh wait. Leffen has the one thing that none of these players have. An amazing mind set. Watched his interviews? He doesn't care that people hate him, he kind of loves it.
Now what do I really mean by the "20XX Mindset"? What do Shroomed, Hax$, Armada, Plup, even Amsa (just kidding), and many more have in common? No, they did not all switch to Fox. They all switched to "better" characters. Now the best way for me to describe a "better" character is exactly how Armada describes why fox is so good. He has a ton of options. So people switch characters to someone who has more options (to put it in a simple way). Which means that the best of players, if they want to be the absolute best, have to switch until they eventually switch to the ultimate best character. And who is that? Falco. No wait, only M2k thinks that, oh yea its Fox. He has the most options.
A random point I feel like including: let's say 20XX happens and every single person mains Fox. Everyone becomes a nearly perfect fox. What happens when a guy from Japan comes in with an amazing Marth? About the same thing that happened to The Moon against a random good Link. You don't know a match up and any character becomes good.
Now let me hit another very important point. Captain Falcon. Why is he so important in this? Actually, for a lot of reasons. Hax changed from the best Captain Falcon in the world (along with S2J and Mango who could have also arguably have been considered the best) to one of the best foxes in the world. Although in my mind, his fox isn't that special other than being pretty technical. But Captain Falcon is important for much more than that. There is one character that a lot of people are arguing could win a national, and even more are arguing never has a chance. That's right, Captain Falcon. He's a good character, but just not good enough right? Well, without flat out disagreeing. Let me ask you this: If the top ten players all switched mains to Captain Falcon (and ONLY Captain Falcon) 6 months before a national tournament, who do you think would win? Anyone outside the top ten or a Captain Falcon of one of the top ten? I think if you honestly believe that anyone could beat Armada, ppmd, hax, axe, westballz, m2k, hungrybox, leffen, and Mango's Captain Falcon then you are crazy (and you have no idea how much game knowledge people like Armada, Hbox, m2k, and Mango have at this game because you haven't seen their streams and random videos of them playing lower tier characters amazingly).
So while I do believe in Tier Lists, but I believe in mindsets much much more. So if there ever becomes a day that Mango wants to prove to the world that Captain Falcon can win a major, I guarantee you he wins without a doubt in my mind. A determined Wizzrobe (with hopefully a little more flare in his play style while still playing smart), and some more knowledge under his belt, can definitely place first. I dare you to doubt me so I can site this post for being right later on. An Amsa that doesn't want to quit Melee anymore and wants to prove what him and Yoshi are made of, first place. You don't agree, what place did he get at Apex 2015 (an absolutely stacked tournament)? Oh yea... that's right. So before you really think that 20XX is more than a joke, or think that switching to Fox will make you better because he is a better character, think again. There will be people there with a bigger drive and a better mindset to prove you incredibly wrong, but they will have to go through Leffen first.
tl;dr Play who you like to play. But if you only have fun winning, play who you want to play who is also good. And if you think just switching to fox will make you better, chances are you won't ever be that good.
There's a lot of things I need to go over in this post to hit everything I want to so it may be a little choppy and I may or may not go back over it to fix it up.
First of all, no one will ever play this game perfectly. Players have certainly gotten close in some sets in some games, and Mew2King has studied it enough that he maybe SHOULD be able to be 20XX, but what you will notice is even he doesn't go fox in a lot of match ups, why is that? Humans aren't perfect, no one will ever play fox perfectly. And beyond this, think about all of the best players in the world really quick... done thinking? Have you noticed there hasn't been a real king since Ken? Why is that? And why did Ken eventually lose his reign? The documentary may have you believe that this was because a bunch of people became hungry enough for the game to take it from him. But really what happened is enough people were tired of him winning that they started to hate him so much that he didn't like playing the game and winning tournaments anymore. How does this relate to the "gods" of the game (and yes, I'm definitely including Leffen). They all have mindset weaknesses. Mango won't play anyone else's game and if he has to play a certain way to win, he will just give up or sac the match. Armada randomly takes breaks from the game. Do I REALLY need to go over M2k? Hungrybox has a wall, he can't beat foxes and he can't beat Mango. PPMD is amazing and my favorite of the Gods along with Hbox, but has admitted his depression gets in the way. See the pattern? And Leffen, oh wait. Leffen has the one thing that none of these players have. An amazing mind set. Watched his interviews? He doesn't care that people hate him, he kind of loves it.
Now what do I really mean by the "20XX Mindset"? What do Shroomed, Hax$, Armada, Plup, even Amsa (just kidding), and many more have in common? No, they did not all switch to Fox. They all switched to "better" characters. Now the best way for me to describe a "better" character is exactly how Armada describes why fox is so good. He has a ton of options. So people switch characters to someone who has more options (to put it in a simple way). Which means that the best of players, if they want to be the absolute best, have to switch until they eventually switch to the ultimate best character. And who is that? Falco. No wait, only M2k thinks that, oh yea its Fox. He has the most options.
A random point I feel like including: let's say 20XX happens and every single person mains Fox. Everyone becomes a nearly perfect fox. What happens when a guy from Japan comes in with an amazing Marth? About the same thing that happened to The Moon against a random good Link. You don't know a match up and any character becomes good.
Now let me hit another very important point. Captain Falcon. Why is he so important in this? Actually, for a lot of reasons. Hax changed from the best Captain Falcon in the world (along with S2J and Mango who could have also arguably have been considered the best) to one of the best foxes in the world. Although in my mind, his fox isn't that special other than being pretty technical. But Captain Falcon is important for much more than that. There is one character that a lot of people are arguing could win a national, and even more are arguing never has a chance. That's right, Captain Falcon. He's a good character, but just not good enough right? Well, without flat out disagreeing. Let me ask you this: If the top ten players all switched mains to Captain Falcon (and ONLY Captain Falcon) 6 months before a national tournament, who do you think would win? Anyone outside the top ten or a Captain Falcon of one of the top ten? I think if you honestly believe that anyone could beat Armada, ppmd, hax, axe, westballz, m2k, hungrybox, leffen, and Mango's Captain Falcon then you are crazy (and you have no idea how much game knowledge people like Armada, Hbox, m2k, and Mango have at this game because you haven't seen their streams and random videos of them playing lower tier characters amazingly).
So while I do believe in Tier Lists, but I believe in mindsets much much more. So if there ever becomes a day that Mango wants to prove to the world that Captain Falcon can win a major, I guarantee you he wins without a doubt in my mind. A determined Wizzrobe (with hopefully a little more flare in his play style while still playing smart), and some more knowledge under his belt, can definitely place first. I dare you to doubt me so I can site this post for being right later on. An Amsa that doesn't want to quit Melee anymore and wants to prove what him and Yoshi are made of, first place. You don't agree, what place did he get at Apex 2015 (an absolutely stacked tournament)? Oh yea... that's right. So before you really think that 20XX is more than a joke, or think that switching to Fox will make you better because he is a better character, think again. There will be people there with a bigger drive and a better mindset to prove you incredibly wrong, but they will have to go through Leffen first.
tl;dr Play who you like to play. But if you only have fun winning, play who you want to play who is also good. And if you think just switching to fox will make you better, chances are you won't ever be that good.
