Hey so genuine question, there's a chance we get the final character annouced next week so what happens then?
Well, that entirely depends on if we do get someone soon. Which given Sakurai's own statements, I think we have until September at least.
In terms of what will happen to this thread, that depends entirely if Smashboards does support Newcomer Speculation after DLC is over. If the subform will stay active, there are a few options of what may occur. We would likely start to focus on a far off Ultimate DX or 6mash. The format likely will end up staying relatively similar to what it has been this time though.
I guess this is a good time to hijack this post to just talk about my thoughts on running RTC this time. One thing I think I would like to champion for this era of RTC was the shift from it just being a forum game of sorts to a thread of actual debate. Smash speculation will always be a bit of a crap shoot, but I think we as a collective did ok. The only real misses RTC had were Plant, Joker, and Kazuya imo. We were pretty high on SNK compared to the rest of the community, and while not everyone said Sephiroth was likely I would say that we did rate him better than most of the community. We did overrate some characters in the past, such as Geno, Decidueye, or Monster Hunter, but most of those cases were overrated beyond just in RTC in terms of chance. No one is perfect, but I do think that the format shift did help us. I do know that some people might not enjoy the fact that they have to write a bit more, but the current rules were written so that it would be less of a far departure. That way, people could just write something short and go on with their day, or do a larger write up to push whatever character or concept that they wanted to discuss.
If there is one thing that I would knock myself on, it is that I have had a difficult past few years and as a result I could have done significantly better as a host. There have been plenty of times where days went on for far too long. Granted, I am a big fan of letting days go fro around 48 hours. Speculation, especially during DLC, is not nearly as active. I like giving each day some room to breathe. But there are plenty of examples where a day has gone on for too long. I would say that running RTC as a team has been a strong step up, as it has made this process a lot easier. Making RTC a game that has a team running it has been a lifesaver for me. Running RTC vanilla is hard. Keeping track of the noms list, managing the thread, keeping a proper tally of votes, music posts, etc, its tough stuff. In the early days, back when I was still in college, I remember there were sometimes people would PM me asking to check my math, because a character did not make top ten in want due to me rounding off some decimals at some point. But transitioning RTC to a team based leadership structure has certainly made it a lot more manageable. Even in the nightmare scenarios where someone needs to be dealt with, it is much easier to act as a council rather than one person unilaterally deciding what is right or wrong.
Outreach outside of RTC has always been a bit of a difficult topic to look at. I know plenty of people do not like RTC because it inevitably ends up saying that their most wanted or a character they love is not likely or some people do not like the character. But honestly, I think that outreach is super important. I like it when people from other threads come in to give their argument. And while RTC might be a bit of an awkward piece of data to use, even controversial characters tend to rise in want as time goes on. KOS MOS is a great example. Despite her days being...difficult, the data shows that the more KOS MOS was discussed, the more likely people saw she was and the more open to her people were. RTC does a good job of helping people make the case for a character they think would be cool. Not every support thread has thousands of replies. Not every character gets to have a thread with millions of views discuss them, we cant all be Geno or Isaac. But that is part of the magic of RTC.
In terms of what I think could be done to help RTC grow in the future, I think the easiest thing would be to just keep reaching out to communities, maybe to some intra community events at some point. Maybe we could do a crew battle vs some other community on Smashboards, or we can hose mini tourneys. Who knows.
As for what role I will play in the future, I can say that at the very least for 6mash or Ult DX, I likely will be involved somewhat. I also expect to still be around for the post Ultimate discussion, where the RTC team and I will discuss what direction to push the thread. Perhaps we will do something else while the thread is in limbo, or we transition towards 6mash speculation. I honestly do not know completely yet, but I do think that this iteration of RTC has been a lot more fun that past iterations. It feels right now a lot more grounded due to the rules changes. A great example is Terry's day vs the SNK day we did after the rules change, the difference is night and day. I hope that in the future, even if I am not running 6mash rtc, the rule changes that we put in place will still be there.
Anywho, Octoling time
2% Chance
I guess you can make the case they can shill Splatoon 3 and the Octo Expansion, but I do not really think we need that. Splatoon 2 already got a lot of content in the base game. Could it have gotten more? Yes obviously, but it still got a good bit of content. We would essentially either have Octoling rep the Octo Expansion or Splatoon 3. Splatoon 3 I think is unlikely. With only a vague Early 2022 release date, I doubt that the dev team would choose it to be their promotional pick. As for the Octo Expansion, it would feel weird to me to shill DLC for a game that is five yeras old, when its sequel is literally coming out next year.
If we did get a second splatoon rep, Octolings are the obvious choice. They translate so much better into Smash than the DJ would. But right now, I am not confident that we will end up seeing Splatoon get any more content in Smash rn.
20% Want
Ok, this is one of my Nintendo confessions that I know I will get some flak for, but I never was the biggest splatoon fan. The controls just felt kind of obtsue for me and I never could get into it. I like the world in concept, and I like that it is a huge success (even if it means we will wait a long time for a new Mario Kart). But I just do not care for the series that much. At the very least, even if I do not care for Splatoon, I did like playing Inkling a lot. If we did get Octoling, I could easily see them being a ton of fun like Inkling is. But for the last character, I am gonna have to be a bit harsher for want. If this was just for the next smash, easy 50%, I would be neutral ish. But for last? Sorry.
Kiryu rerate x 10