this game needs hype, **** talk, pop-offs, coastal pride, high stakes MM's, rivalries etc. to keep it alive. hate is sadly what keeps fighting games alive. that's why i've always cringed whenever people say "<3 smash community" lol; i've always felt that it was slowly but surely killing the hype. i especially hate it when pp/armada say it after they win a national. i'd much rather hear them boast about how ****ing free their wins were (Armada knows apex was free
); that'd give me more of a reason to play this game. the way things are right now, the melee community feels like a big happy family, not a fighting game community. i dont like it lol
maybe i'm wrong and i should just consider myself fortunate that my favorite game lasted more than a decade, which is a lot longer than today's competitive games are going to last. but i do feel that there has been a lack of **** talk as of late that has to be atleast somewhat related to melee's decline
i miss melee's golden age so much
I kinda agree. In all these past years I've been watching almost everything Melee on YouTube and expanding my knowledge about the Melee community, there has clearly been a change of attitude among players.
Looking back, I believe that Genesis was the turning point. That tournament really changed
everything. Before I explain how so, let's think of how things looked before. In the history of smash until after Genesis, crew battles for instance were
regional crew battles. East, West, Midwest, South, Canada or whatever North American region or state competed and seemed to take a lot of pride in those events. Hell, sometimes it was even regions or cities within a state (NorCal vs SoCal). There is lots of footage that immortalized the hype that Melee tournaments had going at the time: old crew battles such as FC3/RoM1, 2008-2009 HMW videos, the FAST1 LF's between Shiz and M2K, the Area52 set between Darkrain and Cactuar, etc. (I could go on forever with examples). Sometimes, merely the fact a top player from a state travels to another brought a lot of excitement, because it didn't seem to be nearly as common an instance as it is nowadays. There were lots of matches people wanted to see and lots of questions unanswered.
But here's what happened at Genesis. Not only was it the largest underground Melee tournament ever hosted at the time, but it also had one crucial element: Armada, a European player, beat everyone, including Mango to get all the way to grand finals. Everything collapsed there. Suddenly it wasn't all West Coast, East Coast or whatever anymore... the country had to unite against a common foe. Americans of all regions cheered for Mango, it didn't matter what he was affiliated with. He was representing the US against the World. And he won.
And everything changed. It's like the borders of every state in the US got blurred. Everyone reconciled. And nationals/internationals were now all about being the absolute best and giving a good fight to Armada or whatever the World had prepared for the US (Amsah and Javi having been the two other most successful players, even if only at one event each). You can feel the sharp contrast of tone in tournaments just by looking at everyone's favorite example, HomeMadeWaffles' videos. NorCal and Socal hype? Shouting/trashtalking/etc.? All but dissapeared. You can clearly sense slight boredom in Brandon and Phil's voices. After all, regions didn't matter too much anymore. Interesting and hyped things did happen after Genesis and beyond: Dr. Peepee's meteoric to the top. But that hype was all centered on PP as an individual player, not on the fact he originated from a rather weak state (sorry NC) or from the East Coast.
All the international tournaments after Genesis also had a lot of hype going for them, but not the same kind of hype as you (Hax) probably liked it. With the top players in Melee virtually set in stone and with progressively less upsets happening (in top 8 play, but there are exceptions of course), events for the average Melee players became much more about meeting their old friends and feeling part of a warm and happy community. I don't mind it too much, but I do agree that Melee has lost quite a bit of its wild side and it is a bit disappointing in this aspect.
The world had become a much bigger place after Genesis. At least for the US.
