Event - MLG Anaheim 2014 Brawl Will not be a Part of 2011 MLG Pro Circuit

[AlphaZealot]

It's official, as Sundance revealed in the podcast "The Losers Bracket" with vVv Gaming, Brawl will not be a part of the 2011 MLG Pro Circuit. This is due to many reasons, here are a few of them:

• No support from developers or sponsors
• M2K/ADHD bracket manipulation
• Support being split between the MLG tournaments and underground tournaments
• Unsteady attendance figures

It was a fun 2010 season and I hope everyone that came out to the events had a great time and enjoyed one of the most well run tournaments ever. It will be hard to forget some of the great moments over the last year, and though this may be the end of Brawl as a mainstay title at MLG, try to remain positive so that possible tournaments with MLG can still happen. The worst thing the community can do right now is be negative and whine about something that is a multi-faceted business decision for MLG. Remember the good times, and try to continue to support MLG because you never know what could happen in the future.

For reference, here are the attendance figures for the MLG events:

• MLG Orlando 2010 (183 Entrants)
• MLG Columbus 2010 (250 Entrants)
• MLG Raleigh 2010 (148 Entrants)
• MLG DC 2010 (174 Entrants)
• MLG Dallas 2010 National Championship (182 Entrants)

 

[Life]

So is this board getting locked? If so, when?

 

[DMG]

Well, unfortunately this is a moment where I don't want to say "I told you so" for being right.

But I told you so.

 

[ADHD]

Good game.

 

[PieDisliker]

If anything, I'd really want to know if it were an easy desicion or not to drop brawl. I knew I'd have absolutely no chance to make an MLG, so I'm very disapointed I'll never be able to visit MLG unless I picked up some other game just for MLG.

I'm sure there are quite a few people that feel the same way as myself. I'm at least glad the community got a chance to be on the circuit, instead of constantly begging to get on in the first place, so that really shows something successful and fulfilled.

 

[DMG]

Good game.

I dare say, amicable fellow, I had a rather sporty time this evening participating in hand to hand skirmishes. Shall you oblige me yet again, same time tomorrow? I await your fond reply good sir.


Welp folks, MLG is here and gone now. What does that mean? HOST MOAR TOURNAMENTS.

 

[Cloudfox]

If anything, I'd really want to know if it were an easy desicion or not to drop brawl. I knew I'd have absolutely no chance to make an MLG, so I'm very disapointed I'll never be able to visit MLG unless I picked up some other game just for MLG.

I'm sure there are quite a few people that feel the same way as myself. I'm at least glad the community got a chance to be on the circuit, instead of constantly begging to get on in the first place, so that really shows something successful and fulfilled.

In the podcast it's mentioned that both Sundance and his son really enjoy (or enjoyed...>.>) Smash, so it probably wasn't "an easy decision" at all, just one MLG felt they had to make to preserve integrity and financial viability.

 

[Enzo]

I dare say, amicable fellow, I had a rather sporty time this evening participating in hand to hand skirmishes. Shall you oblige me yet again, same time tomorrow? I await your fond reply good sir.


Welp folks, MLG is here and gone now. What does that mean? HOST MOAR TOURNAMENTS.

LOL WATT.



10lightbulbs

 

[Black Mantis]

Well it was fun while it lasted................................

 

[Iliad]

Well this isn't exactly unexpected, but I don't think it's terribly smart either.

Didn't they cap out attendance on the finals?

 

[Grey Belnades]

I guess I will never get to experience an MLG tournament. Oh well, this was fun while it lasted.

 

[Xyless]

It probably has more to do with the lack of support from Nintendo than anything. (but gg adhd)

 

[King~]

Well this isn't exactly unexpected, but I don't think it's terribly smart either.

Didn't they cap out attendance on the finals?

No, the only one close to capping after they raised the cap was columbus with 250 out of 256.

 

[Meru.]

[*]M2K/ADHD bracket manipulation

Omggg get over it already. There was no need to mention this :l

(@ MLG btw)

 

[Life]

So they raise the cap and then cite lack of attendance as a reason to remove Smash from the circuit?

Does not compute.

Also, M2K posted an apology thread.

 

[Xyless]

Omggg get over it already. There was no need to mention this :l

(@ MLG btw)

It got MLG some really bad press.

 

[da K.I.D.]

the 'no nintendo support' and the round about way of saying 'pound/genesis/apex crushed us in attendance' were probably, and pretty clearly the biggest reasons for this happening.

The 'variating attendance' and m2k/adhd' things seemed to be secondary to the 2 things in my first paragraph.

not that I didnt like MLG or dont want their support, quite the contrary actually, I loved my experience at columbus. But it doesnt seem to be a necessity that we be on their circuit when one of the reasons they dropped smash was 'you guys already have enough massive tourneys that are crushing our attendance.'

 

[KassandraNova]

I'm really sad that brawl won't be there next year. but hey, what can ya do?

:'(
/crybaby

 

[Tero.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVvRwtzHcWI

Oh I feel so sorry for you guys, this is horrible
how can such a good competitive game not be part of the MLG circuit, oh wow

I guess we all have to play Melee now...

 

[Albert.]

Reasons 2 and 3 are childish.

 

[P.C. Jona]

m2k/adhd bracket manipulation?

what the hell does that even mean, that theyre too good at the game?

lmao

mlg is trash

they bought this website for what?

screw them

 

[Cloudfox]

It's really all the reasons put together, some more weighty than others, that they couldn't keep Brawl if they wanted to make sure people still trust them and keep money coming in. The M2K/ADHD bracket thing may have been the biggest one, because the way it came out in the news, and the way MLG apparently still believes it to have happened, is that it was some truly malicious bracket rigging scheme, as opposed to them simply forgetting that this was a big name professional regional, where they have strict unmalleable rules and aren't going to be okay with you doing what you'd do in NJ/NY to take some of the stress out of a top-level Brawl match and enjoy it more.

 

[Life]

PC Jona: There was some sort of misunderstanding involving ADHD giving M2K money (or was it vice-versa?) and apparently to MLG that's splitting.

 

[P.C. Jona]

how is that braket manipulation?

thats player agreement

everyone knows player agreement>rules

like i said mlg is ********

 

[Jayford]

It's a Christmas miracle :D.

 

[Life]

Jona: I don't like it either, haha.

Our only chance now is to get Melee at the throwback events.

Also reminds me of something I wrote a while ago:

Spoiler

Greetings, Nintendo!

We are writing to you in regards to Major League Gaming's attempts to acquire the rights to stream video of their Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments.

While we understand that you prefer to market your products to a more casual audience--and there's nothing wrong with that--Nintendo in general, and Brawl in particular, has a notable tournament-going audience: MLG's tournaments each have had more than one hundred Brawl participants from all over the United States, and in addition, local "grassroots" tournaments see dozens of players every week.

Allowing MLG to stream video of their Brawl tournaments would be mutually beneficial to both companies as well as individual fans. MLG could generate more interest in their tournaments, because more people would be able to watch them; Nintendo could generate more interest in Brawl, as current players use the stream to get their friends interested; and fans of the game benefit as the size of the community grows.

As current players use the livestream to get more people to play Brawl, Brawl sales (which reached 1.4 million in the first week of the game's release) will see an increase. Not only that, but if and when a fourth Super Smash Bros. installment is released, those new Brawl fans will be far more likely to purchase it as well, causing what would already be massive sales to rise even higher. This, in turn, will increase the amount of viewers MLG's livestream will have once MLG adds the new game to its circuit (a near guarantee, as they have previously included Melee and currently include Brawl), causing the series to be hyped even further: a cycle that will be of great financial benefit to both MLG and Nintendo.

We, the Super Smash Bros. Brawl fandom, are highly appreciative of the excellent games you have designed, and want to see Nintendo and Major League Gaming come to an accord for the benefit of all involved. Please reconsider the merits of allowing MLG to stream their Brawl events, and meet with MLG representatives to discuss the terms by which this may be accomplished.

Best regards,
the Super Smash Bros. Brawl community
(not affiliated with Major League Gaming)

Anyone else remember that thread? If we'd just gone through with it...

 

[Tesh]

the 'no nintendo support' and the round about way of saying 'pound/genesis/apex crushed us in attendance' were probably, and pretty clearly the biggest reasons for this happening.

The 'variating attendance' and m2k/adhd' things seemed to be secondary to the 2 things in my first paragraph.

not that I didnt like MLG or dont want their support, quite the contrary actually, I loved my experience at columbus. But it doesnt seem to be a necessity that we be on their circuit when one of the reasons they dropped smash was 'you guys already have enough massive tourneys that are crushing our attendance.'

Yea kinda this. I don't see what the big deal is about MLG dropping Brawl. The massive events hosted by the community get higher attendance and more coverage. We'll have livestreams for the players that won't be attending, HIGH QUALITY videos for whatever doesn't make it onto the stream, commentary, more accessible locations for everyone (like west coast).

So Brawl and Melee are both alive and kicking with or without the circuit. No need to act like this is the end of Smash.

 

[_umbra_]

I would have liked to go to one and RL issues got in the way this past season buuuuuuuuut... meh, life goes on!

 

[Vega4]

They don't care about competitive gaming man, all they care about is little kids, old people and their money.
They want to keep competitive brawl locked in a closet, well at least Sakurai does in my opinion.

Yes, Nintendo don't care about competitive Brawl, that's one of the main reasons.
The other ones are the lack of sponsors, and the little attendance. Those 3 factors have one thing in common: MONEY.
MLG is a bussiness, so brawl needs to get more people if we want to be on MLG circuit again. In order to get this last thing, maybe it would be good to have in mind the idea that a big part of the community propose, and change somethings of the ruleset. For example, I don't think that having a MK winning a fight after running out time all the match would help to make Brawl tournaments more interesting for new players, so, we should have a rule againist that...
More ideas??

 

[da K.I.D.]

I think if MLG had one smash tourney every season as opposed to 4-5, it would do a lot for our attendance there. the people that want to go to big tourneys cant afford the travel cost of going to the entire mlg season, despite they meager stipends they were giving out, especially for the west coast players, seeing as every mlg was east coast.

smash could probably pull 300+ for something like that, but not 4 times a years, especially since theres apex, genesis and pound that people are going to as well.

 

[KageMurphy]

Real talk Nintendo sucks for not supporting competitive play, I'm pirating all their games, no more buying.

 

[Coney]

welp, that's that

 

[Hive]

The loss of brawl on mlg is sad news and a big blow to the brawl scene. It wasn't just m2k and adhd though, its how the community handled the situation, we needed to show that we do not tolerate the practice and our community can take charge of the situation, but instead we in large part put pressure on mlg for the decision, and criticized them for being unfair, and tried to justify the practice and the players because of "tournament pressure," etc... (which looked bad given no other scenes were having the same issues). It not only made it difficult for mlg to sympathize with us and support the scene without losing face (legally too) but it showed that our community structure didn't have the capacity to prevent the practice in the future. Its the community response that really made it hard for mlg to carry us.

I really think the loss of mlg shouldn't stop us from innovating though, we can still do a lot to increase our tournament scene, we should really focus on making nation wide rulesets for comparability and a more structured tournament scene and advertising the community more with more videos/podcasts/ etc.. We can learn a lot from how other successful leagues are structured at mlg. If we find a way to make fair and constantly updating national rankings it can go a long way, and split the year apart into seasonal leagues I think that would be good too it would allow players to gauge success at regular intervals instead of having to wait for the next large national to see how they place. A "best of" awards by an authoritative body after defined seasons or time intervals, regular videos/announcements/and podcasts from the main brawl authoritative body and announcements on large "official" tournaments would really boost our visibility and excitement for getting better and progressing in the league. There is a lot of stuff the community can do to make this work on its own, mlg doesn't need to be our crutch even though they will be missed, but it will require a group effort.

 

[Albert.]

One incident should not affect a national circuit at all.

A company like that doesn't make decisions that don't have to do with money. (Yes, it's a double negative, figure it out)

They could just ban m2k/adhd indefinitely if that was an actual factor.

 

[Tagxy]

Bittersweet. Certainly not good that MLG wont be around, but does most of the smash community really care that much? It doesnt really hit other aspects of the community that hard. I'm thankful to the specific people at MLG who took the time to get to know and promote smash (sundance, JV, etc.), but I certainly wont be disappointed that MLGs attempts at changing our rulesets, ethics, etc. are gone.

 

[GHNeko]

And so it begins.

 

[Djent]

Sucks, but can you really blame them? With that many things against us, it was the wise thing to do. Hell, I would have done the same were I in Sundance's position.

Spoiler

InB4MeleeTrolls (except Tero lolol)

 

[Albert.]

I don't think enough people realize that the MLG m2k drama was because of MLG and how they handled it.

They treated the situation like a gossip rag whistleblowing teenager

 

[-ShadowPhoenix-]

brawl will be fine...
they did this to melee and its still strong...
its up to the players now

 

[Baro]

Flawless victory