Event - E3 Invitational 2014 Invitationals: Will it be Competitive or Casual?

[Nstinct]

I know the contestants are competitive and skilled players. I also know Nintendo is using them to show off Smash Bros 4 to millions of people months before it's Wii U release.


Will it be an exciting try hard Competitive match? Or a less try hard, but still fun and entertaining Casual match?
I want to know what you guys think.

 

[Hinata]

Pfff, you kiddin' me? They're using items. It's ****in' casual. I ain't watchin' this trash. It's worthless.

-Said from the perspective of diehards. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's gonna just a fun little thing. Nothing too special.

 

[Morbi]

1. The players do not get to pick their characters unless they have the luck of the draw.
2. The matches are Free For All.
3. The matches are only five minutes.
4. Items are on.
5. Stages are random.
6. (Extension of 1 and 5; there are no counter-picks).
7. They are not going to play in a competitive meta-game.
8. The players were chosen via INVITE.

So, no. This is not going to be competitive by any stretch of the imagination. Alas, I will certainly enjoy the event, but it is going to be a casual setting, as it should be.

 

[greenluigiman2]

It won't be one, the other, or inbetween. It'll just be both.

 

[Morbi]

It won't be one, the other, or inbetween. It'll just be both.

I suppose hypothetically speaking the grand finals will be somewhat competitive.

 

[TingleZC]

Does it really matter?

Honestly, were getting to watch pro players play the game, and both us and the casuals get something. Nintendo wants to show off the items and that's fine; It's not a huge tourney or something.

Just have fun watching it, it's all good.

 

[greenluigiman2]

I suppose hypothetically speaking the grand finals will be somewhat competitive.

Even before the grand finals, some of the players are going to be very serious about winning, while others are just gonna have fun. It won't necessarily be competitive from a viewer perspective until the finale, but a good number of the payers are gonna play this in a competitive manner even with items and FFA.

 

[Empyrean]

The players aren't in this to win like it's MLG or Evo or anything. As far as we're concerned, there is no prize. So there's really no reason to go tryhard, and I'm not expecting to players to do so. What's most important is to get a sense of how the game feels and flows. That is what I'll be keeping my eyes on, and many others will too. Having a general idea of the players, there will be no salt that will be generated by the event (well, maybe some for grand finals) and all will probably have a lot of fun, even if they end up disliking how the game feels.

So yes, it won't be competitive by any means.

 

[greenluigiman2]

The players aren't in this to win like it's MLG or Evo or anything. As far as we're concerned, there is no prize. So there's really no reason to go tryhard, and I'm not expecting to players to do so. What's most important is to get a sense of how the game feels and flows. That is what I'll be keeping my eyes on, and many others will too. Having a general idea of the players, there will be no salt that will be generated by the event (well, maybe some for grand finals) and all will probably have a lot of fun, even if they end up disliking how the game feels.

So yes, it won't be competitive by any means.

The more you win, the longer you get to play... that's the prize. Also, E3 is the biggest gaming event of the year, who wouldn't want to be the first champion ever of an extremely hyped, unreleased game?

 

[Tetraplex]

The rules and set-up are casual, but these are competitive players and they will be trying to win. So a mix of both by the nature of the disparate ingredients.

 

[Golden Gallade]

I think the main point of the tournament is to show off and promote the game.

 

[Empyrean]

The more you win, the longer you get to play... that's the prize. Also, E3 is the biggest gaming event of the year, who wouldn't want to be the first champion ever of an extremely hyped, unreleased game?

D1 has already confirmed on stream chat that they will already have played the game since morning. I do admit that it is still a fairly good prize.

I know, winning such an event is still good, but I don't expect the players to put in as much effort as a real Smash tournament with money on the line.

 

[JCDied4U]

I just hope none of the characters get over-nerfed if they dominate, *ahem* Little Mac.

 

[mygamecube]

It's going to be a fun tourney, so it'll learn more towards casual play, but I'm sure there will be doses of competitiveness in there. Especially when it comes down to the last round.

 

[CF711]

It's going to be kind of a mix. I remember one of the players, PPMD I believe, saying that people were already colluding to gang up on him during the FFAs. So people are really taking this seriously. KDJ probably wants to win this so he can be a repeat winner, since he won the brawl tournament.

 

[GamerGuy09]

In aspect it will be casual. However everyone wants to be the one who won the first tournament for Smash Bros 4, and that they will go down in Smashistory.

 

[Hong]

They deliberately didn't bring in people like M2K for a reason.

The folks they invited are as varied as they are lively. I would say PPMD is the least silly of the bunch, and even he said he won't be taking it too seriously. Of course they will all want to win, but they know no one actually thinks this will be any true demonstration of superiority. The game is not even out for goodness sake.

 

[CloneHat]

Items don't mean a match is suddenly casual. Many of the players will be quite keen on taking home the title. Since they're competing in a competition, it's competitive.

 

[Wander]

It'll be really strong professional players playing with a casual ruleset. So in that regard, it's better than watching a bunch of Nintendo interns or random E3 guests playing. The people who got invited will at least be competent, even if they've never played this exact game before. The whole purpose is to show off the game, not to win prizes or anything, so I don't mind that the rules are a bit fluffy.

 

[KMAL]

I think it will be a mix because they are going into this blind. They have almost no idea how their mains will match up this time around. And for some their mains aren't even playable. This is mainly directed towards aMSa because he plays yoshi and yoshi's not playable in the tourney so whats he to do? Play Greninja? (if he does play someone other than yoshi please tell me) And for that reason they could play it casual but they like to keep things interesting so that why i think it will be a mix.

 

[Hong]

I think it will be a mix because they are going into this blind. They have almost no idea how their mains will match up this time around. And for some their mains aren't even playable. This is mainly directed towards aMSa because he plays yoshi and yoshi's not playable in the tourney so whats he to do? Play Greninja? (if he does play someone other than yoshi please tell me) And for that reason they could play it casual but they like to keep things interesting so that why i think it will be a mix.

He has a deadly Pit in PM.

 

[Morbi]

It's going to be kind of a mix. I remember one of the players, PPMD I believe, saying that people were already colluding to gang up on him during the FFAs. So people are really taking this seriously. KDJ probably wants to win this so he can be a repeat winner, since he won the brawl tournament.

If I were at the tournament, I would probably "collude" against him as well. I mean, I would want a chance to avoid elimination.

It'll be really strong professional players playing with a casual ruleset. So in that regard, it's better than watching a bunch of Nintendo interns or random E3 guests playing. The people who got invited will at least be competent, even if they've never played this exact game before. The whole purpose is to show off the game, not to win prizes or anything, so I don't mind that the rules are a bit fluffy.

"A bit fluffy?" I do not mind the rules either, but they are not, "a bit fluffy." The rules are seriously the antithesis of the standard.

 

[KMAL]

He has a deadly Pit in PM.

oooooooh.... Nice to know

 

[Nstinct]

Items don't mean a match is suddenly casual. Many of the players will be quite keen on taking home the title. Since they're competing in a competition, it's competitive.

On that note. In the Smash Documentary someone mentioned that tournaments actually had Items On for time before concluding that they it'd be better left off in tournament settings. They used a clip of captain falcon getting three useful pokemon on stage simultaneously to absolutely pummel their opponent off stage. So to a certain extent items aren't "completely" casual, although it was ultimately removed tournament play. Some items are Game Changers, some require your opponent to be watchful (motion sensors, bananas), some are randomly beneficial/harmful (lightning, Hammer if it breaks or Marth reflects), while others actually take skill to use. But most would agree that items can be to random to say one outplayed another, unless Luck was part of your skillset.


But even if items being casual or not was a debate, we can all agree a FFA is pretty casual. With people forming short lived peace treaties, some camping an edge, others opting to stay as far from the action as possible until someone approaches, there's just to many changing variables. For instance, my siblings and I can have these feuds with each other where two of us will knock each other down to 2 stocks each, while the third has keep himself from battle with all 4 stocks and little damage. We knew the third was away, but we were competing with each other. Most of the time the third stayed out of battle so he could win, other times it out of mutual respect to let us have at it for a little while. FFAs has to many variables to be "competitive", but they're often in the hearts of the players competitive in the hearts of those playing it. They may be considered casual, but with all the variables I think people (including comp players) will be surprised at how much fun a FFA can be to watch, even more so with Prog, D1, and Scar commentating.

 

[CloneHat]

Like the argument seems to be it's a casual ruleset because it differs from the standard "competitive" ruleset we use. That's a a fact. Competitive would mean that everyone is playing to win, and I doubt the Romans, when throwing several gladiators into the ring, thought of it being casual.

 

[Empyrean]

He has a deadly Pit in PM.

Wait what? aMSa doesn't play Pit in PM. I think you're mistaking him with Zero. aMSa mains Lucario in PM, and imo is easily one of the best and most creative ones. Also, didn't he say on Twitter that he's gonna go with Kirby?

 

[RODO]

I'm just curious as to how many techs the players will find out in such a short time.

 

[Deleted member 245254]

This seems like a pretty foolish question.

As long as 2 or more players are playing to beat one another, it's competitive. It doesn't matter what they're doing, whether playing Smash or hitting in any sized ball in to any sized hole/net/goal.

 

[Morbi]

This seems like a pretty foolish question.

As long as 2 or more players are playing to beat one another, it's competitive. It doesn't matter what they're doing, whether playing Smash or hitting in any sized ball in to any sized hole/net/goal.

Objectively speaking; of course, you are correct. However, that would insinuate that casual play is competitive play. The context is pertaining to Smash specific definitions, not necessarily the literal definition.

 

[Phyr]

Will be sort of both because people will want to enjoy the experience more than going for the win. Also FFA and items make for some innacuracy in results (which isn't that important cuase this invitational doesn't have any prize as much as i know).

I want to note that FFA and items make for some innacuracy in results but you can still play competitively with them. We ban them because we want to have acuracy over who SHOULD win the match. Note that a tourney tries to measure the player skill's level in a ranking in the results, and all the tourney parafernalia is there to ensure this. Double elim. brackets, pools, seeding, no-items, some scenarios, the ruling... etc. This doesn't make a game with inacuracy incompetitive (in realirty, it's impossible to be perfectly acurate because tons of psycology, health, light, height level, oxygen and a lot and lots and lots os issues that arise (and are taken care off, for example, in tennis) but we can't control them nor they change the results of the match (usually)), it just makes it boring to play competitively/loses its meaning so it's not desirable.

 

[RODO]

This seems like a pretty foolish question.

As long as 2 or more players are playing to beat one another, it's competitive. It doesn't matter what they're doing, whether playing Smash or hitting in any sized ball in to any sized hole/net/goal.

I guess you could say casual and competitive aren't describing the goal/gameplay but rather the purpose the individual has for playing the game. Someone playing the game because the want to have fun vs someone playing the game to be the best.

 

[Starphoenix]

This thread is just asking for a flame war. Why don't we wait a couple of days and see what it is like.