RULE 2 HAS BEEN CHANGED BACK

Calling the Smash 4 community to arms. Let's step it up. (self.smashbroscopypasta)

submitted 1 day ago by diddykongisapokemon

Smash 4 players - this is a call to arms. It is mandatory that you read this if you have any sort of stake in its competitive future. We need to get our act together. Too many days have gone by on which our counterparts in Melee have seen a meteoric rise to the forefront of eSports, but the Smash 4 community has lagged behind. How is it possible that a 13.5 year old game is accelerating at a faster pace than a brand new one--one with developer support and exposure on national television commercials? The answer is simple and two-fold, and no, it’s not because “Melee is just a better game.” First and foremost, the Melee community has been so successful recently because they have structure and leadership, two things that Smash 4 desperately lacks. The centralized entity of MeleeItOnMe alone is a huge step in the right direction. Whenever anything transpires in their community or metagame, you can find out about it from one singular source. The owners and operators of MIOM are recognized as leaders, movers, and shakers within the scene, and people look to them for guidance. They plan events, streams, podcasts, rankings, articles, and basically every sort of content you can imagine. Their staff features the best, brightest, and hardest-working in the community. Secondly, they have an insane amount of drive and work ethic. A project like MIOM is not possible without the collaboration of countless content producers. Not only does it depend on the input of community members, but it also rewards their efforts by granting contributors the prestige and exposure of having something hosted on the community’s primary news outlet. In short, they’re putting in more work than us, and they have an optimized structure for conveying that work to the masses. It doesn’t stop here, though. Another key component that the Smash 4 community lacks is the unapologetic, shameless embracing of the game that they play. Melee players are PROUD of their game. Say what you will about how the hivemind crucifies Smash 4 and Brawl, but that doesn’t change the fact that even some of our top players and most influential figures have denounced the game, claiming it’s not deep or exciting. (Sidenote: I still remember all the Melee vets saying the same about Brawl when it first dropped, then its metagame fleshed out and became extremely deep.) As an outsider looking in, such talk from players of this caliber would immediately discourage me from investing time into this game/community on any sort of advanced level. Stop worrying about what people might think, and love your game. Sing its praises from the mountaintops, even. How can you expect anyone to be enthusiastic about a game if not even its most invested players aren’t? Another devastating shortcoming of the Smash 4 scene is our lack of visibility on social media. If you play this game in tournaments, whether you’re good or not, make a Twitter account. Got one? Use it. I used to have the same johns as everyone else--I don’t know what to tweet about! I don’t like Twitter! 140 characters isn’t enough! Unfortunately, you’ve gotta hold that. It’s far too valuable of a tool, and like me, you’ll probably end up liking it once you master the format. Matt Demers from The Score has a great guide about Twitter:http://gumroad.com/mattdemers I[1] made a nifty social media master sheet here. Add yourselves! I made a new column to indicate regular streaming times too.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ML59T4pJzJQ5trdBPk1B_mamA8-QdvmMUAyKQcadTR8/edit?usp=sharing Also[2] , follow the people on this list who interest you. Talk to other streamers so they can host you when they finish--share the wealth, and growth is sure to come. We’re also in desperate need of some broader tournament organization. We need more big tournaments, rather than every local TO trying to get their piece. Think long-term, not short-term--the small amount of side cash you’ll make from having your region’s most popular weekly is peanuts in comparison to the growth the scene (and you, as a TO) will see from a collaborative, large event. Apex is in the winter, EVO is in the summer. What’s going on in the spring or fall that you don’t want to miss? What about in the weeks leading up to or following these seasonal finales? In prog’s words, who will step up to run “The Big House” of Smash 4? Also remember that we can’t overcentralize in a single region, and with some careful planning, different regions can run majors in the same time frame without interference. Back to the local level, we need to make one local stand out from another. I’ve already been talking to other tristate TOs about a small circuit, with four or five events spanning across three months that culminate in a regional-sized finale at the end. Circuit points draw attendees to the qualifiers, pot bonuses draw them to the finale. Take a cut of each qualifier’s venue fee to finance something extra for the big winners at the championship. Another completely untapped market is school tournaments. MattDotZeb’s The Melee Games is a revolutionary project, and I intend to make some good out of my last few months in college by starting a similar project. High schools might be a little trickier, but are still fair game. Again, let’s centralize and collaborate to get things like this moving. Another distinct difference between Melee’s scene and the Smash 4 scene is that we don’t have representatives on any god-tier eSports teams. Liquid, Cloud 9, Evil Geniuses--where are they? Without saying too much, I know that they’re not out of reach. There are certainly players in this community worthy of sponsorship by these entities. Our current challenge is to become visible to them, and to show them that Smash 4 is a game worth investing in. Top players--do more than just playing the game. Even streaming from home is a big plus. Add tons of Smash-related goodies to your resume. Apply yourselves. Once you’ve done that, apply for teams. Email inquiries, reaching out to personal connections, all of that--you may get shot down at first, but if you keep grinding and you’re honest about your grind, you will see results. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see success immediately, because they’re looking. Trust me. Last, but perhaps most importantly, we absolutely need some sort of centralized media outlet for the community, a la MeleeItOnMe. Let’s bring back a regular podcast with players from multiple regions, talking about the development of the metagame and community affairs. Visibility is important, especially when we’re doing more than just playing. MIOM isn’t just a cast, though. They’re also the front page of the Melee community. Whenever something happens, big or small, you can find an article or a video about it on MIOM. The beauty of the project is that it’s crowdsourced--anyone can submit, as long as the work is of acceptable quality, so it’s not just the same 5-10 people slaving endlessly to churn out content on a daily basis. Everyone helps build it, and it helps build everyone. The site gets content, and you get exposure. I’ve already begun spearheading a project like this with False, TheRapture, Steinway, and others. I don’t want to make any empty promises or talk too much about something without anything concrete to show for ourselves, but we’ll leave it at a simple “we’re working on it.” With the vast talent pool this community has to offer, I’m sure we won’t have trouble finding volunteers to submit content. (hit me up if you want more details) I know this was a huge post, but I leave you with one short message--again, in the words of prog, though this was the driving theme behind this essay. “Players shouldn’t look to switch to where the money is, they should look to make the money come to the game they love.” Nobody in Melee, or the earliest days of the NBA for that matter, had any clue that what they did would produce such results. They just kept grinding and their hard work was noticed. People want to hate our game--so what? Our objective should be to produce such good content that they look like fools for talking smack and not appreciating such fine art. Good luck, and happy Smashing.

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Quality post, have an upvote

Seconded.

/r/smashcirclejerk Thread Parent