Improving our Community (ATL South Logo?)

[Purple]

disclaimer : This is in no way has the theme of bashing the smash community, however it is meant to discuss truthful unbiased facts that the Shoryuken community has high quality things that the Smash community does not. If anything this can be considered a 'how to make the smash community better'. To exarch and Mike G my intention is not to bring hate to the smash community however ask questions.

I find that often times we discuss our community's power over other communities and games; very often we're battling against ourselves (melee vs brawl being the most prominent argument). I myself loved the smash community because of the fact that the game I play competitive is part of the smash community base, no where else. However after recently watching Evo 2k10, I've come upon the realization that...

... The Fighting Game community is leagues better than the smash community.

Now you can use many excuses as to 'why' this is (and in many of those cases, I agree). However does that change the base fact that the Fighting Game Community is better?

While watching the stream, I saw events and planned out videos that I never would've seen at smash tournaments. While I will take a step back and say that much of the qualities are funds-related, the ideas behind them have rarely been duplicated into our community.

- Awards for community members : We have a large, and expansive community and with that, many unsung heroes. The researchers who look in every nook and cranny to find information about certain characters and give them to the public. What is the award for these members here? The brawl/melee backroom?

( o____o )...

What type of award is that? In the end, aren't we dividing ourselves even more while creating the idea of "you want to be with the best; the few", instead of having the idea of bringing up your community as a whole by standing out amongst all of them? Even then all it is is a purple name with some secret threads about smash brothers (that can generally speaking, be talked about anywhere else). What gives members the drive to continue outside of that? No public recognition, no award, no sign that your effort is clearly working.

Another thing I noticed is the ridiculous amount of sponsors, while I know we have our own from MLG events, what about the most important sponsor you would think to have; Nintendo? Isn't it kind of odd that all of these other games are being recognized with open arms (capcom, namco, and others representatives actually go out and attend these fighting game tournaments), while our tournament can't even be streamed with high quality? We have to use cameras to record our mlg matches.. What the hell is that? Have we even decided as a community to write a petition for getting our events streamed? We as a smash have given Nintendo a lot of money with just those three games alone (n64, GCN, Wii, and then Virtual Console for SSB64 AGAIN). Wtf is this?

I have more to say on the matter, however time doesn't permit it right now.

We as a community have been going on for a little bit under 11 years (this is when smash came out at least).

For the time being though, I will ask.

"Why are we so set on thinking the smash community is something special?"
"Why do we seem to be bent on not working together?"
"Why do we not have nintendo of all people as a legitimate sponsor of our community after 11 years of competitive gaming."
"Why are all of these tournament organizers not able to come together for one huge tournament set up."

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

är du galen? who's to say one community is better than the other? o_o;

does it really matter? lol

i think what matters is that everyone is having fun with their game, and enjoying their own communities. i've never seen the purpose of saying "haha my community is better than yours because we've done so and so and have been around for so and so years".

So, I ask you, why does it matter?

 

[Purple]

är du galen? who's to say one community is better than the other? o_o;

does it really matter? lol

i think what matters is that everyone is having fun with their game, and enjoying their own communities. i've never seen the purpose of saying "haha my community is better than yours because we've done so and so and have been around for so and so years".

So, I ask you, why does it matter?

Let's consider this by your logic.

"As long as we have fun, it doesn't matter how good or bad we might be or how good or bad others are,"

This is a fun and light-heart reason to enjoy the game, however with these thoughts you don't improve as much as you could. Deep down, we all want to WIN, not just enjoy the game; winning is fun you know? While many of us enjoy it, the reason we play it for hours on end learning a certain matchup is to WIN; our competitive spirit guiding us through rigorous trials to the point that the game might not even be fun. We can have fun, however we can improve and better this experience as we continue onwards. By improving our community (by looking at our community in comparison to others), we can expand ourselves, make these tournaments we host even MORE fun for members of our community, expand our fan base, etc.

In the end this comparison should be inspiring people to actually do MORE for us.

By the way, did you know that at Evo2k10 24 golden TE sticks were given out to top 8/ community members? How would you feel if you got a golden gamecube controller for your efforts at a tournament? Wouldn't that make the experience that much better?

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

No, because I'm in it for fun, lol. I don't care about some golden piece of plastic. My controller is probably better anyways ^^

dude we are improving, and we have one of the best communities around. the mere fact that we hold ourselves together so well and for so long is a testament to that.

sure improving our tournaments and stuff would be better, but how to you expect to do that eh?

 

[Purple]

No, because I'm in it for fun, lol. I don't care about some golden piece of plastic. My controller is probably better anyways ^^

Your controller probably is more practical considering it's plastic and not gold, however it's something you can look back on and have a remembrance of.

[collapse= random tidbit that doesn't really prove anything]
My last two recent tournaments have been Herb 3 and Final Round XIII. At Final Round they gave us badges to make sure we were known to have paid, at Herb 3 we got nothing. I still have my FRXIII badge in my room, what do I have from Herb 3? (Btw, as for MLG tournaments, those items can be received in a variety of places, even online; not much entirely special about that)[/collapse]

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

My controller is better because it's not brand new, and I've been using it since the GC came out, so it's one of the most worn in controllers in the community, and maybe one of the oldest too ^^. Gold is a bad controller colour anyways.

Why must you have a material item to remember something that was good? Or to win anything at all as a prize?

 

[Masky]

..........

 

[BearsAreScary]

What about the most important sponsor you would think to have; Nintendo?

This is actually the biggest thing that will prevent Smash from ever getting off the ground as a respected community, or even better, assimilating into the current FGC and making it even better.

Now, of course there are external reasons why this hatred occurs, and yes there are things that people do that don't help Smash's rep, but the root cause of why the Smash community will never be as good as the rest of the FGC is because Nintendo does not give two ****s about tournament play. If any of you recall, Nintendo specifically stated when Brawl was coming out that they did not give a crap about things like character balance in 1v1 play with no items and approved stages, the creators thought that was boring, and took the game in another direction. Of course you'll never stop people from competing in a game they want to compete in, but over time it will definitely hurt the tournament Smash scene (as all of you may have noticed, it kind of already did). If we continue down this path, Super Smash Brothers Fightin' Time (tentative title) will be the most ******** **** you all have ever seen as far as tournaments are concerned. It may be fun for a while, but after a few months, it will fall flat, and once again the neighborhood 13 year old egotists will be the only ones playing. Maybe you like tournament Smash, maybe you even like how Brawl turned out, but you're honestly chasing ghosts if you think Brawl is a step in the right direction for the future of this franchise (again, tournament play only). Again, please note, not bashing Brawl (I played a bunch of tournaments myself), but the fact is Nintendo went from making Melee, which was a much faster and more complex version of Smash from 64, to reverting and re-simplifying the game. Again, let's try to ignore tournament reasons for argumentation, and try to look at Nintendo's side of it.

A big part of the reason Brawl was made was a fan service. Not to you guys, of course, but to the majority of their fan base. 95+% of people who play Smash play it because it's fun. You play with 3 friends, get some cool items, and blow the butt out of them with a flashy super move. It's fun and, most importantly for Nintendo, it's really easy to pick up. This has been a theme of the Smash games they always wanted to emphasize. The majority of Smashers (casual ones) do not like us, in fact they hate us, for playing these 1v1 no items approved stages games. They don't want to get "good", they don't want to practice advanced techniques, they just want to beat the crap out of their friends with a super Sonic flying around or something. We, as "tourney***s", are a minority in a giant community of people who play the same game we do. Nintendo is here to serve them, not us. Melee was too fast and filled with "game-breaking glitches" such as wavedashing, and the fact was there was really no way for a casual player to even compete with the likes of (a crappy player like) me.

Nintendo's thus in a tough position. How do you make a game that's fun and crazy for casual players and also balanced and really fun for tournament players? It sounds easy - just have all the crazy stuff there, just pay some attention to balance and make sure that's all good to go. Well....how complicated are they to make it? It's not an easy thing to decide, Melee was a bit too unforgiving for many newer players, so in Brawl they simplified it and guess what - casual players love it, which, if you're keeping score, only makes them dislike us more.

Let's compare this to your average SF player. SF is an inherently and historically unforgiving game. Oh, you jumped? 40% of your life is gone. Eat a ****, noob. Ever since SF2, it has been for the more hardcore player, only rarely being inviting to the newer player. Not to mention that SF is entirely based around intense 1-on-1 play at all times. No items, no crazy stages, all about the characters and system mechanics. This doesn't inherently limit a community's ability to grow, but it usually means that anyone willing to learn SF is someone who's more patient and ready to be destroyed a million and one times before actually learning anything. Of course this actually happens in Smash too, but the difference is in the preparation of the player beforehand. Ever see a Smash player be all excited about his first tournament, only to go home and never heard from again? Rarely happens in SF. For one reason or another, people come back.

Let's couple that with what Ono has been doing with SF4 and now SSF4. First, getting guys like Sirlin and Seth Killian on board with the production team. Ono wants his game to kick ***, you know why? Because the hardcore gamer base IS the Street Fighter (not to mention MvC, TvC, etc.) base. Capcom's market base for these games is not casual gamers, so they have a unique interest in these people. They are the future of Capcom's wallet, so Ono takes his time to assimilate himself into the community. It's a brilliant move, and honestly everybody loves it.

Now, Smash gets made fun of for being a kids game a lot. As much crap as Smashers get for being young, having a game that appeals to a whole bunch of young people is a really really good thing for the health of the community. There are constantly new people trying to get in the scene, and I guarantee on every block you'll find a new kid who thinks he's the bomb diggity at Smash, but has never heard of Smashboards and would lose to a washed-up scrub like me. And honestly, it is the best feeling in the world to take some kid who posts about how he's the best thing since sliced Mew2king talking all this smack and then you 3-stock him 3 times in a row.

So yep, that's about it. SF's main consumer base is people who are competitive (because SF doesn't have crazy party mode like Smash does), so the executives care about things like EVO. Smash's consumer base is kids who like to bash each other with Mario and Pikachu, and so Nintendo will likely keep on keepin' on servicing them. That's just how it goes.

I do not see Smash becoming a big tournament game (especially anything like EVO) in the future simply because Nintendo just isn't on board with it. Now, if that all changed....I guess I'll eat all these words and be quiet.

 

[Renth]

dis a aha a ah dumb.

 

[AfroQT]

Capcom made SF for the sole purpose of being a competitive fighter.
They put time (and money) into balancing it.

Nintendo doesn't give 2 ****s if ANY of their games are balanced.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

Wow, really really good post tong ^^

 

[Purple]

I'm kind of curious on this, because upon thinking about it there are sections of smashboards that are there for casual gameplay.

Would anyone say the smashboards community as we know it is more steered to competitive or casual? If it's competitive, then yeah our community isn't going to be able to be all that good in comparison to SF. Good points Elliot, that is something that I should've taken into account. Since this game isn't supposed to be competitive, it's not going to be as good.


-------------

lol Renth

:edit: wow, somehow we posted at the exact same time and yours still shows up as the most recent, that's pretty cool.

 

[Renth]

Wait bro

let me get this right.

You're butt hurt because no one gave you a "medal" ...

You're about to get annoying troll achievement unlocked

 

[Zero_Gamer]

Shoryuken has the same things as Smashboards in terms of casual diversions...

 

[Purple]

Shoryuken has the same things as Smashboards in terms of casual diversions...

If you can explain that that would be awesome, I don't frequent Shoryuken enough to know much except that there's a premium member just like there is here.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

:edit: wow, somehow we posted at the exact same time and yours still shows up as the most recent, that's pretty cool.

It's Renth, what do you expect?

 

[BBQ°]

I would like to see the community make improvements. When I see the west coast's community compared to atlantic south's community (and even the east coast's community...), it makes me pretty jealous. They have those fancy intros to their tournament videos.
ex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFk3qOGU22E

All that fancy **** make the videos look really legit and more professional. If I were a new player looking to get into smash and I saw those videos, I would be more dedicated to attend those tournaments. And if I were an outsider from a different community, I might hold some more respect to the Melee community. I know all those fancy intros don't mean **** to some people because it doesn't change what's actually happening in the game and it doesn't change the community, but it simply adds a level of professionalism. I mean hell... if any of you guys saw the MLG Hawaii intro, we made things seem legit as ****!!! ok, maybe not, but we actually had some people believe that it was real, lol. (and for the MLG Hawaii intro, we only had music and commentators, there was no fancy graphical intro.)

But yeah, another thing that I really like about west coast's community is that they have a commentator that most people like to listen to (HMW, obviously). Yeah... he doesn't give much insight but he's just got this good personality and you like hearing him talk. I think it would be really cool if we had a standard commentator too, and Dogysamich fits that role perfectly, it's just we lack tournaments.

Another thing I would like to see (but many people will probably disagree with) is have the tournament finals set up similar to MLG. I heard that MLG for Brawl had everyone turn off all the other TVs so they would watch the finals of tournaments. I heard that made some matches hype as hell that otherwise wouldn't have been. I think stuff like that is important for Melee too... it just makes tournaments more fun to be in and adds some importance to "should-be" important matches.

I think that's all I have for now. Sorry this is all jumbled and probably has a lot of false remarks. I was in a rush plus I'm a noob.

 

[Purple]

Good stuff BBQ, kind of goes off of tangent from the original fighting game community conversation, however your points are valid enough.

 

[Эикельманн [РУС]]

I would like to see the community make improvements. When I see the west coast's community compared to atlantic south's community (and even the east coast's community...), it makes me pretty jealous. They have those fancy intros to their tournament videos.
ex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFk3qOGU22E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh43296BJ_M


Get jealous.

 

[BBQ°]

Wow, really really good post tong ^^

elliot posted that

 

[BBQ°]

Good stuff BBQ, kind of goes off of tangent from the original fighting game community conversation, however your points are valid enough.

I don't know anything about other fighting game communities, so I just stuck with the smash side of it :embarrass

 

[Teran]

"Why are we so set on thinking the smash community is something special?"

Because we are.

"Why do we seem to be bent on not working together?"

Because it's just not meant to be. Why can't blacks and whites get along? Yeah. Answer that one too plox.

"Why do we not have nintendo of all people as a legitimate sponsor of our community after 11 years of competitive gaming."

Beause Sakurai doesn't WANT Smash to be a competitive game, hence, Nintendo doesn't want Smash to be a competitive game. Nintendo won't sponsor a vision of Smash they oppose, it'd be like a black man trading with an 1800s cotton farm.

"Why are all of these tournament organizers not able to come together for one huge tournament set up."

They have lives.

It costs a lot of money. Oh let's just up and waltz into some giant venue that we can just easily find and book. Can we get all these TOs to easily find the time to work together to organise such a huge tournament? How many people will really attend? Can we run such a big event smoothly? All profound questions dear sir.

Basically, we are Smash community and we ballin'

Stop hatin'

 

[Purple]

Because we are.

And so is the kid in the short bus to his mother, but that doesn't make him extraordinarily 'special'.

Because it's just not meant to be. Why can't blacks and whites get along? Yeah. Answer that one too plox.

The only time people can find a way to agree is if they all have a common interest that allows them to subside their hate. If blacks and whites don't like each other, however they both equally hate chinks more, they can subside long enough to have a chink abuse marathon .

In smash's case it would be hating the fighting community for taking the glory of being the only "large-scale community".

Beause Sakurai doesn't WANT Smash to be a competitive game, hence, Nintendo doesn't want Smash to be a competitive game. Nintendo won't sponsor a vision of Smash they oppose, it'd be like a black man trading with an 1800s cotton farm.

That makes perfect sense. Not really going to contest this one.

They have lives.

It costs a lot of money. Oh let's just up and waltz into some giant venue that we can just easily find and book. Can we get all these TOs to easily find the time to work together to organise such a huge tournament? How many people will really attend? Can we run such a big event smoothly? All profound questions dear sir.

Basically, we are Smash community and we ballin'

It does cost a lot of money, a lot of planning, and a lot of time, however we have shown the potential of booking very large areas for tournaments (Genesis, Pound 4, etc.) If these TOs can do that, think of how much they could do as a collaborative effort. I will agree however that it would take much more time to prepare, and the smash community as it is probably wouldn't even be all that active in going to the tournament just because it was well planned.

 

[Renth]

If all the TOs in the world got together jerked each other off and held a tournament i don't think it would make more of a difference than they would've solo.

Pound 4 we had a lot of out of country smashers but I guess that's just not enough for some people

 

[Teran]

We are a community that plays the most unique fighting game out there (imo before you start bawwing everyone).

This also adds to a level of diversity in the people involved as well as us just playing a cool game series.

Also, we're not going to get along because other fighting game communities hate us more than we have a problem with them. Ask the haters why they hate, because tbh we're usually fine with everyone else.

As for large tournaments, the potential's there but it'd be nigh on impossible to achieve the huuuuuuuge *** tournament you have in mind at this time.

 

[Purple]

If all the TOs in the world got together jerked each other off and held a tournament i don't think it would make more of a difference than they would've solo.

Pound 4 we had a lot of out of country smashers but I guess that's just not enough for some people

Of course not, It should never be enough that a few Out of Country players comes, we should want the whole world to be in one spot as one community. Is it bad to want more than what you're given?

I do agree that we play a very unique fighting game, the most unique in fact; we just don't have the support where it matters (nintendo obv ).

Interestingly enough, if we all continue to play brawl or smash-esque games for a few more years (like 2 to 3, maybe a few more), I think we can have a sudden exponential boost of tournament attendance (due to people beginning to leave their parental homes, having viable transportation, etc.)

 

[iDeo]

After reading this, I really have the urge to write an email to Nintendo. Regardless if they take to heart or not, it would be informative to them that their games has such a fan base competitively as well and should take some sort of interest.

 

[Purple]

Honestly, I don't see why fan based members would not like a balanced smash game, and a party mode for casual players.

 

[dashdancedan]

What gives members the drive to continue outside of that? No public recognition, no award, no sign that your effort is clearly working.

"Why are we so set on thinking the smash community is something special?"
"Why do we seem to be bent on not working together?"
"Why do we not have nintendo of all people as a legitimate sponsor of our community after 11 years of competitive gaming."
"Why are all of these tournament organizers not able to come together for one huge tournament set up."

The drive to get better and play better people? I think Smash players have more self-drive than any other community. We don't need a ****king cookie to keep playing Smash.

I don't post on SWF that often, but recently I made a topic about Shield Dropping including a video that I spent a fair amount of time on. What's my reward? A little recognition at tournaments maybe? My real is my own satisfaction in having found a new OOS option on platforms. I don't need an outside reward to continue research in this game.

The Smash community is special because it is entirely community based. We have tournaments nation wide that people attend with the single drive of just getting to play good players and get better. And bent on not working together? What does this even mean? Do we not help each other get better? Do people not post on SWF to give character specific advice?

Why would we get Nintendo to be a sponsor? They've already shown their disinterest. If we're looking for a sponsor, we should search elsewhere. We've gotten VGBC as a sponsor, right?

And about tournament organizers coming together for one big tournament. uh APEX? We have huge tournaments every year where almost every Smasher who can afford it comes. I think one main reason tournament directors don't collaborate more often is because they have lives outside of Smash. School and Jobs that they can't just take off to have a 3 or 4 day monster tournament. Do you expect them to fly out to a central location every year like it's their job?

One of the main reason's Smash is different is because it can be seen on two levels: A competitive one and a party game. As Elliot said, real fighting games have the game creators support and a linear competitive path, while Smash is left to organize on its own trying to get casual player who are unaware of competitive play to join their side. And as seen in history, casual players are often resistant and even hostile to this change. We're fighting to get people to play the same game play our version of the same game.

Smash is about free will and SF is just a linear progression. Starting from bad competitive player to good competitive player, not from nonexistent competitive player to bad competitive player and then to good competitive player.

 

[iDeo]

Honestly, I don't see why fan based members would not like a balanced smash game, and a party mode for casual players.

like no lie Jamal, i really feel like hosting a tourney rite now. in a sense u could say this topic was pretty motivational and i think the smash community as a whole should come together to convey wat a an impact smash has had to nintendo.

this response may sound choppy

 

[Caleb Wolfbrand]

can't you just sum this up by saying how much larger the fighting game community is? last I checked that doesn't exactly make it better, though.

the types of people who play 2d fighters / vs games / 3d fighters are not my kind of people. I mean, I like them, but I don't "get" them.

When I first went to Georgia for a Smash tournament, it was ****ing insane for me. I realized I wasn't alone. There are other people who play it and feel the way I feel about it (which isn't everyone, mind you, it's special people like Co_and_me and Reflex and DogySamich and so on that made me feel the Smash Scene was special)

I've been to a few fighting tourneys before and... it's just different. Different atmosphere. Different people. Same for FPS and RTS tourneys.
Different.

But saying Fighting is > Smash? If you argue strictly from how they have sponsors and huge events and yadda yadda then sure, I can't see anyone disagreeing. But that doesn't change the fact that the Smash scene is the most ballin' swagified gangsters in any competitive community. so Smash > everything when it comes to being awesome.


edit : nice post Dan

 

[Purple]

But that doesn't change the fact that the Smash scene is the most ballin' swagified gangsters in any competitive community. so Smash > everything when it comes to being awesome.

I'm going to reply to dashdancedan's in a moment however I want to respond to this post quickly because it's an easy post.

This point is strongly based on opinion, along with any posts relying on the people themselves as why as a community is better, all communities (for the most part) have their nice guys, the intellectual guys, and the scams, almost all communities go out to eat and have fun chat, almost all communities reference the game they play for humor, the only difference communities is the common interest between communities. For us it's smash, for SRK it's Street Fighter.

 

[Zero_Gamer]

If you can explain that that would be awesome, I don't frequent Shoryuken enough to know much except that there's a premium member just like there is here.

Silly forum games, image/gif threads, debate, anime discussion, non-competitive video game discussion. This stuff is on all forums, even Tekken Zaibatsu and Dustloop.

Imo, the forums themselves are less organized than Smashboards despite the community getting more respect than us.

 

[Purple]

Silly forum games, image/gif threads, debate, anime discussion, non-competitive video game discussion. This stuff is on all forums, even Tekken Zaibatsu and Dustloop.

Imo, the forums themselves are less organized than Smashboards despite the community getting more respect than us.

I don't think the forum itself describes the community, if that was the case then SWF would be one of the best most organized communities in the world.











I probably shouldn't have said that.

 

[CRASHiC]

Smash playas are gay******s from outerspace

 

[dashdancedan]

PS I love the amount of trust in the Smash community. I once went to Chicago for a concert and ended up staying with a Smasher I'd never talked to before.

Smashers are tight, yo.

 

[ph00tbag]

"Why do we not have nintendo of all people as a legitimate sponsor of our community after 11 years of competitive gaming.""

I don't think it's for lack of trying. There haven't been any petitions, like you suggest, but they wouldn't do anything. The fault lies primarily with Nintendo. As a longtime Metroid fan, I've come to terms with the fact that Nintendo (at least NOA) really couldn't care less about devoted niche fans. You won't be getting Ninty's support, because for all the size of the biggest Smash events, it'll never be enough for Nintendo to say, "this clearly is something our userbase as a whole supports." They'll just see it as a couple people who are really passionate about their games. That's great, and they're not going to stop us, but it's not worth the money of a sponsorship to them.

 

[Renth]

Smashers are tight, yo.

Sig worthy quote is sig worthy

 

[Yeroc]

*Subscribes*

 

[exarch]

There is so much more I could say and want to but I won’t for now. This reminds me of my thread about improving gameplay overall in the SE, but is now about improving the community. This is a good thread.

You make a bunch of good points in the OP. I too have dreams for the community. But, none of this is as easy as you would like to make it.

Having been a tournament organizer, guide author, regional authority, and many other things in this community without ever gaining access to the backroom, I can speak on a lot of these points from experience.

Although a lot of what I would say has already been said, i.e. the biggest reason we don’t have the huge tournament is because people are busy, etc, I’ll skip to what’s important. And try to limit the huge wall of text this is bound to become before I’m done.

There is a huge secret in this community which is probably pretty well known but I have never seen discussed openly: if you want something to happen, do it. Authority on smashboards is from yourself. We are an underground community, so anyone who acts like a leader will be supported as one. Even if you are uncomfortable with it at first, you grow into it. I guarantee you none of the big name organizers in each region registered for smashboards with the motivation to become a host of a 50+ man tournament one day. They saw an opportunity and took it.

These people with their “SUPPORT MK BAN” signatures are a joke. You want MK banned? Host a tournament where he’s banned. Convince other people to come to it. You want new FL Power Rankings? Stop opening threads to discuss it, and just do it. That’s what I did for the last edition of them. I appointed panelists, vote receivers and tally-ers, and asked QDVS (a mod at the time) to post them when finished. (Of course I tried to be fair, but these things will not happen with a committee: in an underground community, everything needs a leader.)

You want big tournaments? Host smaller ones. Gain notoriety. Host bigger ones. Gain more notoriety. Host really big ones. That’s how this works. You want sponsors? Go find some. All of this is doable, but it takes commitment from just one individual to make happen.

That is how the smash community functions. It is what we rely on.

And it’s why we’re better than the others.

[collapse=Dreams, Hopes, and Aspirations.]
I did not stop hosting tournaments because of inability. I stopped because I wanted to go bigger, and knew it would not be truly plausible for me. Plus I wanted to wait till I had more money. But at the cost of more money is less time, so it is still difficult for me to do much. That serves just as a warning to not think it’s going to be easy once school is over.

Spoiler

All of this is IMO, please feel free to prove me wrong, by hosting a HUGE tourney in Cordele.

Location is something fundamental necessary for a truly enormous tournament. Florida is not the place for a national tournament, imo. It is not central enough for it. For a(n) (inter)national tournament, you need two major things.
1. Live near the middle of the country/your region, so you can pull significant attendance from regional driving. This is where FL fails as a state.
2. Live close enough to a big city to be able to get a venue near an international airport. The bigger the airport is the better.

The only attempted national tournament in FL (FAST1) was successful for the second part. It provided a very reasonable way for long OOSers to get to the venue. However, the locals and regionals drawn in were I’d guess about 50-60, which was not enough to convince Airplaners to make a return trip.

Gainesville, where I was, would have been impossible for a larger tournament than what I had (~64 @ LTEC 2.) The only advantage Gainesville had over Orlando for tournament scene is it draws GA, AL, LA, and the panhandle easier. It loses in size of local community, availability of airport, and proximity to SFL, which was more than enough to crush any hopes I had of putting together a truly national multi-day tournament.

Florida, your tournament hub is Orlando. This is where the statewide tourneys should occur. Orlando, large tournaments are your responsibility. And by Orlando I mean, Louis (skratch), Juan (Hungrybox,) Frames, Proteus, Finch, and Garbonzo. I’m talking all individuals. You are responsible for Florida’s smash community’s continued maintenance, if not growth, on a state-side scale.

That is not to say other cities should not host tournaments. Each city will have an advantage over others, offering different mixes of smashers due to ease of accessibility. Gainesville, it is your responsibility to keep GA and FL mixed. Josh, Mark, Max, Mampam, Jav, I am literally pointing my finger at you. You love the community, own it.

The same goes for other cities. Local tournaments are probably the most important single things that happen on a regular basis. (Smashfests are included somewhat, if they truly draw the community together. Weekly or biweekly is my recommendation, depending on the community’s motivation to play.) Tourneys should be monthly or so.

For the SouthEast, the optimal city is Atlanta. For regional tournaments, this is YOUR responsibility. And that includes the proper preparation and infrequency of tournaments to make sure you get a huge turnout. You are the place in the SE that can harness all of the states together for one tournament. If I lived closer to ATL, you can bet I would have had several national tournaments at this point.

Atlanta is it. You have the busiest airport in the WORLD. Atlanta, you are the place for the largest international smash brothers tournaments. But the proper preparation needs to happen first (i.e. talk to experience.)

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You love the community, now own it.