Maybe if the wifi is awesome for Smash 4 the Midwest can be awesome. I hear other gaming communities have a ton of good players in the MW if the game is played online. Overswarm would randomly get calls while working for IT at his university from Halo pros and then go hang with them after work.
Also, back in 2010, I studied the hell out of people. I had a binder where I wrote down every little habit or gimmick that everyone had when I watched them via a live match/ youtube video. I went around and interviewed a ton of people about what their opinions were and what made them most frustrated about fighting MK. I played every chance I could and asked for advice from every player with every skill level. I was dead set on winning and becoming better. I was slowly but surely achieving my goal of going "pro" with MLG and getting a stipend when MLG dropped us. At MLG DC, I was one placement away from getting a stipend to Dallas (I got 24th and I needed 18th or whatever the next step up was). I was ranked top 15 in the world according to that tournament compilation chart from 2010 and I was doing things like 2-0ing everyone in my Apex pool. Then MLG dropped us and I lost all motivation to actually improve. Sure, I play Marth now and I have fun playing him, but I haven't actually put effort into learning this game since October 2010.
From my personal experience, players in the Midwest CAN improve, but it takes wayyyyy more effort than the other regions. I hardly ever got 2-0ed at MLG, but I couldn't close the deal. I had so much less experience than Seibrik, Havok, MikeHaze, ADHD, etc. that I could not close the deal on them when I had them in a favorable position. In the end, their experience won them the sets I played against them because I would choke or I respected them too much. I had never played a top tier MK, or one of the best Marths, so I was destined to lose. I felt that if I could play them again that I would have a good chance. I felt that I was catching up to the tier of players that I wanted to be, but MLG was cut short and I lost all motivation to play and improve.
At this point, I have switched off MK for Falco and now Marth. I still go to tournaments and I do want to win, but I don't care enough to actually put forth that kind of effort I did in 2010. The amount of effort a MW player has to put in compared to other regions is staggering. Even when OS and I had bred a great local scene and had specialty characters to play against (smash 64's ness, tyr's lucas, YbM's kirby, Infern/ smash 64's snake, OS' ROB) it was not enough to stand up to the national scene.
Another reason the MW has fell short of reaching its potential (at least in the Ohio/ Indiana/ Kentucky area) is that everyone would sandbag against each other. ****ing godkais would never play to win outside of tournament. Even a couple months ago at Chi's no money tournament, AZ would sandbag against me blatantly by not pulling bananas and doing stupid stuff that we both know wouldn't work. He didn't want me to catch on to his habits or how to weave in and out of bananas. He wanted to beat me that day. The problem with this mentality is that when you go out of region, you'll get stomped. I never truly learned how to fight Diddy, and I still don't know how to fight Diddy, despite knowing and teaming with AZ since Brawl began. AZ is just an example but almost everyone in the area did this. Everyone was too worried about beating each other in the next weekend in order to get a rank up on the PR that we didn't learn how to fight each others' characters at a fundamental level. This is still going on today. Would anyone believe that even after a year of living near Judo that I STILL don't know how to fight Shiek? lol
At this point of Brawl, I just look at tournaments like they're something to do/ an excuse to travel with my friends and see people I enjoy being around. That is not to say that I don't want to win, or that I don't want to improve. I just don't want to put the effort forward to do so. It seems that MOST people still feel this way. There are a couple notables that are grinding it out and learning the game day by day (Zinoto, Carls, etc.), but people like Shugo, me, Lain, Judge, etc. we just view tournaments as a chance to hang out and maybe win money by banking on our old skills. We have fun and we want to win, but we don't want to put the effort forth to do it any more.
So, yeah. Midwesterners have a harder time getting decent, but it does happen. It's just that it's usually way too much effort to keep up with. Good luck Carls and Zinoto! The MW is rooting for you!
and see if I can conquer them. Though I can see some flaws with that confidence, especially against 
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