So, I think a bunch of **** needs to be addressed, and possibly changed, both in light of what has happened in the last "grading" period or whatever you wanna call it, and what happened today.
First off, some people were talking, and the panel being in a private forum needs to go. Even people on the panel think it should be made public. If we are going to remain having a panel, then I think there is nothing wrong with public discussion from the entire community.
Ultimately, I think that the panel should be done away with though. The whole making a top 10 list, and averaging it seems really dumb. I think the efforts could easily be made by the entire Oregon community, and we could come out with an ultimately better result, that more people feel compelled to except.
I think after the last best bout of each period, for a week everyone should get to discuss what they think the PR for that period should be, and at the end of that week, discussion ends, and we have a new list. If a largely unanimous decision can't be reached in the week, then I think we should have someone kinda like a "president" or chair person, that just cuts the discussion off, and they post the list, and that is the list until next time. No one is ultimately going to always be happy with the lists, people still aren't now, but I think some kinda consensus can be reached... Most of us aren't kids... Any more. I think keeper might be the youngest ACTUAL melee player (Jedi Noah doesn't count), and he makes some of the most articulate posts anyway, so I don't think being concerned with people acting immature should be an issue.
The problem with the panel, is 3/5 of the panel are regularly at tournaments. It seemed like a good panel original, but Jesse and Foos have been the only consistent participants in the last few months really. It makes creating an accurate list kinda impossible for the remaining 3 members, 2 of which have attended 1 of the last 3 tournaments, and one which has attended 0 (or at least the singles Portion, Gage did enter teams with The Prime back in November).
I saw some of the new lists when I was at Jesse's recently, and thought they were pretty stupid considering all things. I figured I would give it until todays Best Bout, to see if they possibly would stand up though, and I was just being wrong. However again, a large amount of people didn't show up, and especially those that are supposed to be making the "informed" decisions didn't.
If the panel is going to stay, at the very least, if what Gage says about himself is true, and given his attendance, nothing against him, he is a fun dude, but he should be off the panel. Also Binx and Allen's judgement for this cycle seems questionable as well, considering their attendance. This is nothing against anyone, just if we are gonna actually do this PR thing, I think we should do it right, and not make it some big joke.
After today, and the last 3 tournaments, I think that the lists people had previously made don't really hold up. Just for consideration, I have made a list of what I think seems the most legitimate in my opinion, after the last 3 tournaments.
1) Jesse
- This one is a no brainer really. Jesse goes hard. When he is playing his best, he is easily better than almost everyone on this list, and plays extremely well against top players from WA as well. Jesse is basically a best when he feels like showing up to play, and there is no question he is the best person in Oregon really. He has been at 2/3 of the last Oregon tournaments, and has gone to Game Clucks the last two months and performed very well. There isn't a lot bad about Jesse other than his consistency and motivation to perform well. If it seems like it might even be an off day, then he just chooses to loose, and that really sucks. Overall, he is a really good player.
2) Eggz
- With Gage not showing up to singles in the last 3 months, and declaring himself that he no longer wants to play, it seems obvious Shane takes his spot. Shane wasn't considered on any of the previous lists people made for this update, but he also wasn't living in Oregon. He is now though. It seems crazy for someone to enter so high on the PR, and normally that is something that should be avoided. However, Shane has been coming down here consistently and out performing all of us. Just because he wasn't a resident of our state at those times, doesn't mean he shouldn't be considered, if he is going to now be a regular in the Oregon community. Really the only thing keeping him from being #1 in my eyes, is it is his debut on our PR, and his Performance today at Best Bout wasn't his best. Shane is still obviously an incredible player, but he didn't show up and put in the work, or expect that he was going to have to today, and got 2 because of it (Text doesn't clarify the sarcasm, that this last part is for the lawls... Sorry, the main issue is it is a huge jump for first time on PR.).
3 & 4) Jonny/Rating
- This ranking is probably pretty skeptical for a lot of people, because I am making the post, but due to the previous players occupying these spots not showing up since November, it is kinda hard to gauge if their positioning is warranted. Today's Best Bout would have been the most ideal time for them to come, with the lack of WA players coming down, so we could have seen how Oregon does against Oregon, but that didn't happen.
- Jonny has been performing pretty consistently, and although people constantly complain about the way he plays Falcon, he has been showing up, and doing work. I put myself and him as either 3 or 4, because to me it doesn't matter ultimately. He has beat me 2/3 of the last times we have played, but I have performed better against players who are ranked higher than both of us recently. Which ever of these you want to weigh higher, it doesn't matter. Jonny also performed exceptionally well today at Best Bout, and even though I hate to take into account their validity, for those that haven't been coming to the tournaments but are there Wednesdays, he out performed all of you then also.
- I have continued to improve, just like all of us have, and recently took Winners finals from Jesse at Game Clucks, I assume beating who most people in their new lists I saw at Jesse's, in one of the 3 most hype sets of a tournament should count for something. Also mine and Jesse's tournament matches today were crazy close. I did lose to Jonny today, and last time we played, which is why I would lean toward putting myself probably at 4 instead of 3, but it still is a toss up perhaps.
5) Foos
- HOLY ****... So I know one of the biggest parts of being GOOD is consistency, but Foos brought his ****ing game today. Foos on most lists I saw was on the verge of being removed from the PR for this cycle. Foos game through and defeated both Jesse in losers finals, and Shane in Grand Finals to win the tournament. He also beat Jonny who I nominate for a higher spot on the PR than Foos, do to general consistency and performance at tournaments. I have seen Foos beat everyone except a few people that were listed higher than him previously, and the work he put in today, in conjunction with peoples lack of attendance, I think justifies his placing at #5. If things continue like today though, I have no problems seeing him in the top 3 soon, with the improvements he has been making.
6) Minh
- Obviously a good player, and was ranked considerably higher on the last list. Perhaps still is even though good, but the lack of attendance makes it hard to judge. People have been putting in a ton of work lately, and those people have been showing up, and showing the work they have put it. This very well could be the case for Minh also, but I haven't got to see him play in a tournament since November. Ultimately the ranking of #6 isn't because I think other people have definitively gotten better than him, or he has comparatively gotten worse, but that we just don't know. A lot happens in a few months. A respectable #6 seems good, given the work he has been known to put in, in past endeavors. Minh did really well at the November Best Bout, but hasn't been back since. While the rest of us have been showing up and doing work, we have nothing to go off of since then for him. I see no reason why Minh can't move back up to around where he was previously in the next update, if he shows up semi consistently, and performs the same as he was previously. To reiterate again, his drop isn't because he did anything wrong, or people necessarily got better, but that we don't have results to justify him being where he was before.
7) Binx
- Pretty much the same as Minh. He comes on Wednesday's a lot, but I like to factor in the credibility of those events slightly less than real tournament play. Also from what I have observed the last few Wednesday's a lot of players have been putting in hella work against Binx, and he loses match ups I don't think he expects to (see Ryan last wednesday). Again, same thing applies here with Binx as Minh; Binx did really well back in November, but he hasn't shown up since then as well. His drop isn't because he is bad, or people got way better, but that we don't have results to justify him being where he was before. People are performing like Ballers, and Binx hasn't been there to stop them, if he still can.
8) Keeper
- Keeper is a solid player. He has lack of attendance working against him for this update I think. I have noticed a lot of improvements in his edge game, and recovery, but he still generally finishes the same in the pack, and recently has lost to people that previously ranked below him.
9) AlienAllen
-It might seem weird for me to move Allen up, when I was complaining about attendance, and then move Binx and Minh down for it. I did this mostly because the previous #9 has the same problem working against him as Allen, Binx and Minh, but also in his one time out in the last 3 months didn't perform as well as Allen. I don't live in, or play with the Corvallis people often, so I might be totally off base with this, but again, I am basin most of this on bigger tournament results and who people play in bigger tournaments. Bigger meaning our monthlies that the majority of our community attends, or should be attending.
10) Ryan/TheCatPhysician
-Either of these dudes works for me. Ryan has come out of nowhere, and is absolutely crushing it. If he can calm down a little, with his puff ball, he is going to move up this thing really fast.
-Cat isn't my other pick because of homie status, he generally does pretty well, is a good player, really smart, often under performs and loses random match ups to players less skilled then him. He also beats this same players. His problem is consistency, and it would seem playing under pressure.
-If I had to lean one way or the other, I would go with Ryan probably, but I had a hard time giving this a definitive person.
These are all my opinions on what I have observed from Nov 20th - Jan 20th. I would like to see what everyone else thinks.
