HugS
Smash Champion
So here is the situation.
Palmdale is ******, LA is ******, OC is doing pretty well. So why the hell does the 818 suck so much right now?
We started off with the best DDD in Romeo, we had nestor, morb, larry, mike haze, and a few others placing pretty well. Then we had Futile almost solidifying himself as the best in Socal.
Now we have Futile losing more consistently, Romeo not placing top 4 anymore, Me losing to character match ups I'm clueless on. I mean, what is the problem? The 818 was easily one of the most dominating regions in Melee.
I have a theory. The bulk of the talent decided to stick to melee. Because of that, we have a few sub-par/decent melee players, and a bunch of ****ty Brawl players. It's not so much that the majority of players are on Melee now, it's that the Melee community actively tries to discourage Brawlers from competing. If they aren't trying to get people to play melee, they are constantly bashing the game of Brawl.
It's understandable though. Melee is amazing, brawl is not nearly as good. However, I have a list of priorities I adhere to.
I love samus. I love Brawl more. I love melee even more. I love tournaments even more. I love the smash community even more. I love winning for the sake of accomplishment even more. All in that order.
With that in mind, you can see why, for example, I can't stick to Samus in brawl. My love for samus is overpowered by my love of winning. Samus can't win in Brawl, so I have to quit samus. Likewise, my love for Melee is overpowered because I would get no sense of accomplishment from winning a 20 man, low competition melee tournament that serves as a side event. So I have to play brawl to get my fix.
So what's my beef with the 818 then? They are sticking to a game that I love in Melee, but are hurting my chances of winning, which I love more than melee. I have a lot of 818 pride, and it's sad to see us sucking so much.
I can't attend tournaments on a regular basis so the majority of my skill comes from smashfests and experience. But the local talent is lacking, therefore our smashfests are lacking. Futile is by far the best player in our area, but even he can't keep up with the tournament scene without support from his region. And by support I mean, skillful competition. As our players get worse, we'll become a less desired region for the rest of Socal. There will be no reason for say DSF, or Aero, or anyone else that's good, to come to our area to smash because our talent is so lackluster.
So how can we achieve better results from the 818? Attend more tournaments if you can. Try having more smashfests if you can. Play other regions if you can. If you love melee and refuse to play brawl, that's cool. Just don't try to convert the entire region to it. I would hate to end up a part of a ****ty region that I tried making a name for in Melee. I don't mean that in a "i own the 818" kind of way. I mean that in a "I worked **** hard to represent this region and to gain respect for it" kind of way. Now I see it sucking, and I can't do much about it since I'm not too amazing myself anymore. I'd like to improve, but I need help.
The only reason I became good in Melee was because I could attend tournaments non stop. I would then go to smashfests, or hosts smashfests with the Superfriends, in order to create improvement in myself and in the community. We didn't have DSF coming to play here at first, or Ken stopping by to give us lessons. We attended tournaments, held smashfests, and improved to the point where the big name players would later come to us for practice. We got to the point where tavo would come to smash at my house, DSF/edrees/MikeY(When he was good)/Knives would drive all the way to wolf's house to play, Mango and roundtable would go to Romeo's house to practice, and people would go to Haze's house to play/check out his mom. We got to the point where the best from the EC and the US all over would talk to the 818 for housing and practicing purposes.
I don't have the luxury of free weekends anymore. Tournaments are a rare occasion for me. I'd like to practice against a variety of good players, with different characters and styles. Even if we have the 1st/2nd best player in Socal, such a small amount of excellent talent will improve us in very specific and situational ways, as opposed to having a better overall ability to win against styles and characters of many different kinds.
So let's try to step it up, 818.
Palmdale is ******, LA is ******, OC is doing pretty well. So why the hell does the 818 suck so much right now?
We started off with the best DDD in Romeo, we had nestor, morb, larry, mike haze, and a few others placing pretty well. Then we had Futile almost solidifying himself as the best in Socal.
Now we have Futile losing more consistently, Romeo not placing top 4 anymore, Me losing to character match ups I'm clueless on. I mean, what is the problem? The 818 was easily one of the most dominating regions in Melee.
I have a theory. The bulk of the talent decided to stick to melee. Because of that, we have a few sub-par/decent melee players, and a bunch of ****ty Brawl players. It's not so much that the majority of players are on Melee now, it's that the Melee community actively tries to discourage Brawlers from competing. If they aren't trying to get people to play melee, they are constantly bashing the game of Brawl.
It's understandable though. Melee is amazing, brawl is not nearly as good. However, I have a list of priorities I adhere to.
I love samus. I love Brawl more. I love melee even more. I love tournaments even more. I love the smash community even more. I love winning for the sake of accomplishment even more. All in that order.
With that in mind, you can see why, for example, I can't stick to Samus in brawl. My love for samus is overpowered by my love of winning. Samus can't win in Brawl, so I have to quit samus. Likewise, my love for Melee is overpowered because I would get no sense of accomplishment from winning a 20 man, low competition melee tournament that serves as a side event. So I have to play brawl to get my fix.
So what's my beef with the 818 then? They are sticking to a game that I love in Melee, but are hurting my chances of winning, which I love more than melee. I have a lot of 818 pride, and it's sad to see us sucking so much.
I can't attend tournaments on a regular basis so the majority of my skill comes from smashfests and experience. But the local talent is lacking, therefore our smashfests are lacking. Futile is by far the best player in our area, but even he can't keep up with the tournament scene without support from his region. And by support I mean, skillful competition. As our players get worse, we'll become a less desired region for the rest of Socal. There will be no reason for say DSF, or Aero, or anyone else that's good, to come to our area to smash because our talent is so lackluster.
So how can we achieve better results from the 818? Attend more tournaments if you can. Try having more smashfests if you can. Play other regions if you can. If you love melee and refuse to play brawl, that's cool. Just don't try to convert the entire region to it. I would hate to end up a part of a ****ty region that I tried making a name for in Melee. I don't mean that in a "i own the 818" kind of way. I mean that in a "I worked **** hard to represent this region and to gain respect for it" kind of way. Now I see it sucking, and I can't do much about it since I'm not too amazing myself anymore. I'd like to improve, but I need help.
The only reason I became good in Melee was because I could attend tournaments non stop. I would then go to smashfests, or hosts smashfests with the Superfriends, in order to create improvement in myself and in the community. We didn't have DSF coming to play here at first, or Ken stopping by to give us lessons. We attended tournaments, held smashfests, and improved to the point where the big name players would later come to us for practice. We got to the point where tavo would come to smash at my house, DSF/edrees/MikeY(When he was good)/Knives would drive all the way to wolf's house to play, Mango and roundtable would go to Romeo's house to practice, and people would go to Haze's house to play/check out his mom. We got to the point where the best from the EC and the US all over would talk to the 818 for housing and practicing purposes.
I don't have the luxury of free weekends anymore. Tournaments are a rare occasion for me. I'd like to practice against a variety of good players, with different characters and styles. Even if we have the 1st/2nd best player in Socal, such a small amount of excellent talent will improve us in very specific and situational ways, as opposed to having a better overall ability to win against styles and characters of many different kinds.
So let's try to step it up, 818.
GG
