Have we lost our way?

[EnigmaticScarecrow]

I will probably miss the grassroots in a way, but we still have a lot of personality. Just look at the Mango vs Leffen set where we sang the national anthem. We can also have other events, and it's overall worth it if we do lose our way. I also have a feeling that catering more to the viewer is more about becoming a popular eSport, as we're so close, and I'm fine with that. It's actually kinda funny though, that when we have so many more people involved with our scene, we are more conscience of losing people, but if this is something we have to sacrifice (which we aren't even completely) I think it's worth it.

 

[HappyHouseSpider]

Words being harmful goes way back into psychological roots, where in a person fearful of confrontation will blame the noise rather than the person making the noise. "Stop that noise", instead of a more accurate "why are you making that noise?". Or... "Don't use that word", even though that person is using that word to express something, like a child comes home from school to tell their parents how they want their bully to "explode" - is their child part of the jihad, or are we undermining the power of words and expression, in spite of the psychological irritation we have towards some choice of words?

TL;DR Where there is irritation, there will only be iteration.

 

[NA8C]

I've been here and there with the scene for a while, and never really played that hardcore yet. I have to admit the commentaries done are pretty hilarious when they're being loose with their vocabulary. Some of the straight forward commentary is good, but when there's something hype there's no real reason to hold back, imo.

I'm trying to get into the tourney scene slowly, but as the community is right now it is pretty awesome. The only negative thing I've seen really is from Stream chats, where it's easy to talk **** and not really get reprimanded as much.

 

[Sraigux]

I am a voucher for free speech. Nothing shows the RAW emotions of humans like swearing and yelling and being belligerent. We show who we want to be, and I love seeing people for themselves. I noticed that matches were getting less hype, despite crazier combos, and I never noticed it was due to sponsorship and professionalism. So I want it back; I want the hype that got me into smash!

 

[Lex Jewthor]

You bring up the Wombo Combo. But you fail to mention that initially, the Wombo Combo commentary itself HAD NO VULGARITIES until things started chilling out / the crowd started chiming in.

You've got "Poor Zhu", a mix of "That ain't Falco" and "Happy Feet", and then the titular "WOMBO COMBO!" and "WHERE YOU AT!" During the actual hype, the only thing with a swear in it is "Get yo ass whooped."


Yes, after it calms down you start to get the "what the ****" and "My ****ing **** hurts" from the nearby crowd, but if you cut it off before that, it isn't any less hype. Those after comments only add to it because it shows how the crowd was engaged. They could have been screaming anything, offensive or not, and it would have had a similar effect.

 

[ManaX]

Doubles are to remain.
For you LoL friends, think of Doubles as the ARAM to Summoners Rift. Summoners being singles, of course.
The day doubles gets retconned from the tourney scene is the day I stop playing multiplayer games.
Doubles is one of the few competitive modes where a serious match can still be goofy.
Like Jiggs dittos devolving into rest trading.

 

[EnigmaticScarecrow]

You bring up the Wombo Combo. But you fail to mention that initially, the Wombo Combo commentary itself HAD NO VULGARITIES until things started chilling out / the crowd started chiming in.

You've got "Poor Zhu", a mix of "That ain't Falco" and "Happy Feet", and then the titular "WOMBO COMBO!" and "WHERE YOU AT!" During the actual hype, the only thing with a swear in it is "Get yo *** whooped."


Yes, after it calms down you start to get the "what the ****" and "My ****ing **** hurts" from the nearby crowd, but if you cut it off before that, it isn't any less hype. Those after comments only add to it because it shows how the crowd was engaged. They could have been screaming anything, offensive or not, and it would have had a similar effect.

The way I see it, it's not the comments themselves, but the fact that we could say them in the first place if we wanted. I'm personally fine with losing the right to all those things being said, but the reason it was nice was the fact that we could say whatever, and commentators and the community could make it really funny at times as well, since I cuss a lot. That's really where the awesomeness of the grassroots community came from.

 

[Suikyo]

They look like kids... Just ignore them!
They talk a lot,but i doubt that they can do better...

 

[Proobie44]

It's quite the crossroads this community is in isn't it? Trying to maintain the roots while trying to appeal to a broader audience. I personally don't feel that Doubles should be touched, with the right players it's practically as much of an art form as a damn good singles, but then again I don't know much of the status of doubles matches recently.

In terms of the professionalism, I couldn't care less since at the end of the day I just want to see the match, other fighting games and their communities also suffer in the same problem and even real sports broadcast in terms of commentating and yes professionalism. So should the Smash Community up the ante? If it helps the community to grow then why not?

Also I don't really care much about the language of Commentators. If they do a good job of analysing the players and their tactics then that's all I need.