The End
I was talking to my friend Rich today (he goes by The Dragon on the boards), and we were discussing what has been going on in the CT thread the last few days: the talks about power rankings and tier lists and all the other fun stuff that we do from time to time between our usual spasms of spam. But while I was talking to him, I came to a disturbing but unavoidable conclusion. I believe that competitive Smash in CT is dead. That's a pretty bold statement, and not one that I take any pleasure in making, but I will try to outline my reasoning for believing this.
To understand the death of competitive Smash in CT, one must first understand its life. CT Smash is a unique creature. Unlike the more competitive tournament communities in New York and New Jersey, CT Smash has always been more about friends getting together to play a game together that they enjoy. This is evidenced by the lack of any formal competitive structure. Both NY and NJ have weekly or bi-weekly events where money is paid and brackets are created. CT's closest analogous events (both Vernon, Capital and other attempts) have neither charged money nor produced brackets, and attendance to both has been underwhelming.
This is because of the nature of the CT Smasher. While everyone in CT wants to win, we're not necessarily competitive enough to charge money for what could easily be a free event. Our biggest meet-ups occur in each other's homes, as opposed to some third-party venue. We are all friends, but our friendship often transcends our competitive nature, and sandbagging in friendlies is almost expected. Smash itself tends to lend itself to a friendlier, more easy-going community, and this attitude is magnified in CT. We all know that there are several CT Smashers who could easily attain prominence on a regional, if not national, level, if only they'd "take the game more seriously". Well, they just don't want to. We compete because it's fun, not necessarily to be able to point at power rankings or tournament result and say that Player A is better than Player B. In my opinion, that decision to put friendship over competition has led to the best Smash community in the entire country (as evidenced by the involvement of people far and wide in our thread), but it has cost us in the competitive sense of the game.
Speaking of our thread, just look at it. The discussion over the last few days has been an anomaly, not the norm. We have over 1000 pages, and I'd say it's fair to say that less than 10% of it is actually dedicated to Smash tactics and strategy. While New York and New Jersey are planning a crew battle against Maryland and Virginia, we CTers pore over the daily happenings of each other's lives. That's what makes CT so great, but just not in Smash.
It's no wonder that in the last few pages of discussion, the power rankings that have been suggested are dominated by those that are willing to travel out of state. The CT competitive Smash scene is in limbo right now. Melee tournaments are non-existent, and Brawl tournaments suffer from fitful attendance. In the last four Brawl tournaments listed on SWF, the five best Brawl players have not been at the same tournament at the same time (for argument's sake, I'd consider Cort, Catfight, Noodles, Prince of Fire and Solid Jake the best). In fact, OmegaBlackMage, a player from Massachusetts, has entered more of the last four Brawl tournaments in CT than all of these people combined (OBM has been to all four, the five people I listed combine for only three). There wasn't a single person from CT that placed in the top 25 at XIIesticle. This is not my opinion, these are facts.
So what conclusion can we draw from this data? It's pretty simple. As far as Melee is concerned, there cannot be a tournament scene where no tournaments exist. And for Brawl, the best people aren't attending tournaments; in fact, almost no one from CT is attending CT tournaments on a regular basis. Smash is alive and well in CT, as evidenced by the spirited discussion in the last few pages. Smash competitively, on the other hand, is looking pretty grim.
The trend is not limited to only CT though, although I think it's most prevalent here. OBM made the comment that the Northeast in general is lagging far behind the rest of the country in Smash, and I think he's right. Take a look at NE tournaments lately. Mass Madness had average attendance. Participation in CT Brawl tournaments has been sporadic. The Northeast has two tournaments on the East Coast Regional Circuit, while Maryland and Virginia have three between them. Our best and brightest Smashers are either in semi-retirement, are boycotting Brawl or just don't care. Part of this is due to the awkward transition from Melee to Brawl, but that doesn't account for all of it. We're also all growing up, taking on greater challenges and responsibilities in our lives, and don't particularly have the motivation to spend an entire day at a tournament, or to drive for hours to reach one. There's nothing wrong with that, but of course, it leads to the decline of the tournament aspect of the community.
So what do we do about this? Frankly, who says we have to do anything? Part of the conclusion I came to today is that Smash is different than it was in 2007. I now believe that year was not only the peak for Melee, but the peak for the entire Smash community, at least in the Northeast. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Some would argue that the center of Smash has always been either the West Coast or MD/VA, but I don't buy that. I do think that they are becoming so, as tournaments shift south, such as Critical Hit, FAST 1 and The Greatest Melee Tournament Since Brawl. It may be gravity, it may be a dedication to Smash down there that doesn't exist here anymore, it may be the warmer weather. Who knows? All I know is that there are no Melee tournaments in CT anymore.
And that's not necessarily bad, just different. I'm not going to try to fight the tides, or try to convince people to spend their day in a stinky, smelly, overcrowded lan center, because I'm sure that everyone has their reasons for not attending or hosting tournaments anymore, just as I do. This is not only the evolution of the community, but the people within it as well. I'll always love Smash, but I already have my eye on another game that I'm much more interested in pursuing competitively. As long as cool people want to get together and play Smash and have a good time, I'll be there.
Which, ironically, is how we got where we are today.
