thatdemoguy
CAPCOM LOOKING INTO A NEW TOURAMENT FORMAT FOR BEGINNERS
We are only 3 weeks away from the release of Street Fighter V, which is set to hit stores on February 16th, 2016. 3 WEEKS!!!! The hype is building to the point of overflowing. And with the hype comes all sorts of news surrounding the game. A cinematic story mode DLC was announced for this summer, which if I am correct is a first for the series and a huge step in a more content rich approach that is very reminiscent of the Mortal Kombat series. Also it was revealed that the first character that will be part of the season pass of Balrog, Ibuki, Guile, Juri, Urien, and Alex, will be released in March. Now this may just be a bit of speculation on my own part, but the new character is set to be revealed in March, which is the same month that the first event of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour takes place, that event being Final Round 19 in Atlanta, GA. The dates of the event are March 18th-20th. You can go register to attend the event HERE. So do I smell the character being revealed there? Or is this all just a coincidence? I THINK NOT!! Now amidst all the cool news that's coming out, there was another little tidbit of information that was revealed that could have an immediate and lasting influence on the FGC for years to come. In a recent interview with Endgadget, Capcom's very own Yoshinori Ono discussed the overall impact of Street Fighter IV and how they intend to continue to make forward strides with Street Fighter V. He states he wants the new game to feel readily accessible to not only seasoned tournament players, but also to someone who may be a first time player of the series. One of the ways they want to achieve this is that Capcom is thinking about holding "Beginner" Street Fighter V tournaments for casual players. While not totally negative per se, I have to give my own honest opinion and state that this move could actually hurt more than it helps. And here's why....
I feel that this could create a very obvious split in the game's player base. No, I don't mean anything along the lines of a true rift between the players themselves, because at the end of the day we are all still one family. But dividing the community based upon what could be seen as arbitrarily imposed criteria could actually be detrimental to the growth of not only the community, but of the game itself. For the game to truly grow, the players have to be allowed to break down the game within the game, or the metagame. Things, sometimes seemingly unfair things like strategies, tricks, and gameplay nuances that transcend the supposed limits of what was thought possible within the original prescribed ruleset HAVE to be discovered, initially abused, researched, and then adapted to at a constant rate. This is what drives the evolution of gameplay. Thus as the gameplay evolves, so will the players. So when you separate the community and create a group distinctly for "beginners", an artificial skill gap is then created. Players will feel they don’t have to push themselves past a certain point when confronted with competitive play. Which will then drive a wedge between those who reach that beginner plateau and become stagnant versus those who continue to learn the game past that artificial skill gap. Want a basic example of this happening? Do you remember the release of Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the so called unbeatable Sentinel? Oh I do, I most definitely rode Sentinel and his raw S all the way to my platinum trophy on PSN. For those who weren’t there, what happened was that Sentinel was considered to be a braindead and overpowered beginner character in the first couple of weeks after the release of the game. He had what was seen as a spammable launcher, he had lazer spit, he had really good damage output. So putting him on your team meant you had a character that posed a problem. That was until people adapted to him. It was found that his launcher was unsafe, players found you could get instant overheads on him, and it was found out that he was a glass cannon, meaning he could put out damage, but he took it worse in turn. This meant that within mere weeks between the first tournament post release and the second, players were getting 1-hit kills on him. As in if the player landed an attack on him, they did a combo that finished him, with ease. Or for another example, even though it was never my favorite game because I felt you had to play against the system mechanics more than the opponent, but do you remember the rise and fall of the FADC unblockable in Street Fighter 4? Though these were never truly attributed to any major tournament wins, they existed and were used, to varying degrees of success. But over time, players adapted to them. This means that the game evolved, and in turn the players were forced to evolve as well. But there were players who still tried to use the same gimmick, to less than favorable results. So they either had to continue to climb past that plateau, or just stop playing. This has to be allowed to happen with Street Fighter V, lest we all want to lose to a "beginner" strategy like day 1 Birdie EX Bull Revenger.
Now look at the smug face of victory...
*Sorry I had to take the obvious shot, nothing but respect to LPN though. I will be xcopy'ing that M. Bison*​
Furthermore, what really defines someone as being just a beginner player? Think long and hard about that. Now that you've thought about that, what separates a beginner from a "pro" player? What answer did you come up with? Is it their time playing the game? Is it their actual ability to play the game? Or is it their knowledge of the game in relation to their opponent? If so, I already detailed HERE that knowledge can be obtained very easily. And with that knowledge, your understanding of the game will increase. Once your understanding of the game increases, your ability to play it at a higher level will come along with it. So I don't feel this defines a beginner because it only takes a little bit of personal accountability and effort to break down that wall. A beginner could be someone who is brand new to the game, which is perfectly fine. I 100% encourage people to try the game and hopefully LOVE it. I take personal joy in seeing people who have never played Street Fighter (or fighting games in general) pick one up, go around the character select screen, find a character who appeals to them aesthetically, and then jump into a match blindly. The enthusiasm they experience as they make their character do cool moves/combos and the zeal they have to continue playing after the fight is over really makes me feel good. But now seriously think about filling a tournament bracket with those players. In this age of gameplay streaming, where tournament viewership rivals that of some primetime television shows, a beginner tournament just would not be entertaining for the larger audience. This is because that larger audience will more than likely be made up of fellow players and community members who already have knowledge of the game and only want to see the highest quality of play on display. They don't want to see button mashing or guessing or just flat out "bad play". Mind you, I said that nicely....I assure you the twitch audience and stream monsters won't be as nice. But let's move forward, what else could define someone being a beginner? Could it be sponsorships or overall tournament placings? It's common knowledge that only a very small percentage of players will truly break through the glass ceiling to receive sponsorships, its an extremely competitive environment and those who receive sponsorships have truly earned them. So if anybody who isn't considered good enough for a sponsorship is automatically considered a beginner, then this could prove to be an extremely slippery slope. So which sponsors qualify? How consistent does a player have to be? What happens when a player fails to meet the pro requirements? See the direction I’m heading here? If not, all I’m saying is that tournaments are full of players vying for an opportunity to play against the best. Out of the 2000+ entrants that entered Street Fighter IV at Evolution 2015, the good majority of them don't enter feeling like they are going to storm the brackets and win, they do it to test themselves against the strongest opponents in the world. So if not being the winner or placing outside of the top X automatically makes someone a beginner, then that’s a problem. Continuing in that direction, and trying to see this from a tournament organizer's perspective, how would this be managed logistically? A fact that has to be known about competitive gaming is that it truly is ALL INCLUSIVE; players aren't divided by age, sex, color, creed, or weight class. Anyone and everyone is allowed to play, but we are all playing in the same competitive space. So in the case of separate events at tournaments, when someone signs up for the tournament, do they go "I want to enter the beginner's event?" because they feel they have a higher chance of performing well because they feel the competition would be easier? And what will winning a beginner tournament really mean. Nobody and I mean nobody will remember the "best of the worst". They remember those who play the absolute best when playing against the absolute best. So what happens when someone who wins a beginner tournament then gets put into a standard tournament? That slaughter won't be entertaining to watch in the least, never mind actually experiencing it firsthand. Now go back up to the paragraph above and remember what I said about the growth of the game. If players feel they can simply enter a tournament with a lower skill gap and win, then the game simply won't grow past a certain level. A fair comparison to this, and I admit I am very guilty of this, would be going to enter something like a pre-release GameStop tournament just to get a free game. I went in knowing the competition there wasn't going to be of the highest quality, but for all intents and purposes I did it for the personal gain. Now what happens when you have more players trying to enter these "beginner" tournaments and the numbers for the standard tournaments take a theoretical dip? This cannot happen to a game as pivotal and important to the FGC as Street Fighter V. And there's only going to be ONE Street Fighter V. When I go to buy my copy, I am going to be receiving the exact same game as every other player; there won’t magically be some "beginner" version of the game being sold. Why should there be tournaments for different groups who bought the exact same game?
So, as critical as this may sound, if we want to continue to experience excitement like Snake eyez vs Norcal, or drama like Gamerbee vs Momochi then players should strive to play UP to the game and the scene....the scene shouldn't play DOWN or be forced to cater to them. Bottom line, point blank, end of story.
I’m fairly sure that none of these things will actually come to fruition, at least not anytime soon. But tell me what do you think? Agree/Disagree? Feel free to sound off in the comments here, which automatically links to my personal Facebook or feel free to tweet me at thatdemoguy.