The best sign in the world to me is that shot of 8k strong
in the hall last weekend. You can’t even see the back of the room. That to me
says, “We ain’t goin’ no-wheres.” With that stubborn, grammatically incorrect
thought it reassures me that the FGC isn’t going to just disappear. It is a
physical embodiment of how strong we are and how we are going anywhere. There’s
a reason I’m being very redundant here.
A lot of people say the FGC faded away a decade ago. I would protest that it just went where all great things go when people aren’t ready for how great they are. Underground. We didn’t fade away or wither to nothing but a root. We slipped into the shadows and operated as normal, waiting for the chance to strike when we knew we could not be ignored any longer. In fact one could argue that we weeded out some of the bandwagon people and got to our core. If anyone would like to argue with that, go right ahead. Just remember that a decade ago when the FGC was supposedly “dead,” the first UFGT happened, ask someone who plays Tekken what was going down in Atlanta, and that thing that defines a generation of gaming happened…what was it called again? Oh yeah it was Evolution the biggest fighting game tournament in the world.
Twelve years ago, a tournament series called “Battle by the Bay” which had already relocated to Las Vegas from Sunnyvale and was rebranded Evolution or EVO for short. The Evolution Championship Series has done exactly what its name sake implies. Its decision to switch from arcade cabs to consoles in ’04 was wrought with controversy. Yet, that didn’t seem to stop probably the single most known moment in our history from happening. Think about where the tournament might be today if that switch hadn’t been made. Just that one subtle, unpopular decision charted a new course in an entire gaming community. It opened up all the possibilities for bringing your own systems, sticks, and controllers. It meant that guys could practice at home and have the exact same game at the tournament. I don’t even want to get started with the differences between arcade and console versions from back in the day. But, the most important part of what that decision did was that it set this tournament up for the future. Taking risks is not something you see many people or companies do. However, it is often what needs to be done for true success.
Now before you start to get salty about how this is a piece to suck up to EVO and the organizers, let me just tell you this. There are plenty of things that EVO has done over the years that I don’t like. In fact, I’ve been one of the more vocal advocates against the things they do that I don’t like, in print and live on our show. I blew them up for leaving out Tekken initially this year, giving InjustASS their own hall and way more support than it deserved despite being so new last year, including Smash Bros as a fighting game, and I was a strong advocate against Ultra being played this year instead of AE2012. This is just to name a few. I don’t particularly like the methods that the Cannons and Wizard use for a lot of their operations. Yet, that’s the beauty in their tournament. They don’t care if I don’t like their methods or decisions. They care about making the best tournament which appeals to the most people that it possibly can get to. Now I don’t have to like that, but if you want to be successful and grow a brand or a community, you can’t possibly cater to everyone.
You have to remember that if there aren’t any eyes on the event or butts in the seats, then the events will stop happening. What good is a tournament then if no one is going or watching? Look across all other things popular in the world. This is a theme that runs true. Do you think the NFL would make the bank it does without getting the casuals to keep their eyes on the screen too? Now you do not have to like that. I don’t like that. But that is the way the world works. And you have to respect that. I respect that immensely. I want what I want as a fan but if whatever I’m involved with isn’t giving it to me, I can take my time and business elsewhere. It’s actually a pretty good system when people use it and don’t just bitch and moan all the time. Take for instance some of the major sports in our country the USA. I just don’t watch on TV anymore. The product on the screen is just not possibly good enough to hold my attention.
And here is where EVO is ahead of the game. EVO and a lot of other major FGC tourneys out there don’t get in the way of the product on the screen. In fact, they do everything to facilitate it. You want to see the games that aren’t on main stage? FGC will get more streams. You want to see two players go at it that aren’t going to catch each other in a tourney bracket? We’re making it happen and guess what they’re playing to ten games instead of three. You want to see which coast of the country is better top to bottom? Here have this five versus five exhibition. This is the kind of thing regular sports cannot give you. They can’t give you all of the organically grown, community driven content that is created by the talent and fans themselves. And tournaments in the country that get big enough to where people fly out just to hang out and watch all have one common denominator and that simply is all of the great cool stuff going on that caters to as many people as possible. We get Super Turbo at EVO in some form every year. Fightermania at CEO, auction tournaments in Chicago, and running twenty, yes TWENTY games in SoCal all make the list of stuff that we have that other sports, and hell even every other video game, don’t have.
We’re never going away. We’ll never die. Think your game is dead? Guess what, if you go to EVO, I bet you someone is running a side tournament for that. Our genre is one of the best because of all the great things it offers on its own. And EVO is where we show everyone in the world that’s exactly what’s going on over here in the states. We offer it all. It might come with some weird packaging. Sometimes it might be a little beat up from shipping and handling mishaps. But rain or shine, day or night, we damn sure deliver the goods, and we aren’t ever going to stop.
We had to play a lot of the same games for a decade. We didn’t go away. Kotaku manufactures and article about how we’re cavemen once a month. We haven’t sunk, haven’t even sprung a leak. Capcom puts out a new update a month before the biggest tournament in the world. You want to talk about throwing a wrench in competitive play? Hey world, how about we turn out the largest tournament field for the series, EVER. Are we legit? Should people take us seriously? We play on consoles that are manufactured by Sony and Microsoft. The computer your using to read this, wouldn’t be here without MS including if you’re on an Apple, learn history. Those Blu-rays in your player, that’s proprietary Sony. You know who had the patent on floppy discs back in the day? Sony. And those giant companies are starting to sponsor us. Did you watch EVO? Is Pepsi a big sponsor? Guess what. They make more money than Coke now. EVO embodies us. And it’s the perfect word because it describes what we do. We evolve. Our sponsors are companies that have evolved to beat their competition over and over again. Get used to it. We might not ever be the biggest. But, if you think we are going to keep getting bigger and better, than you best get ready to hold the losses and taste the pain. Because, this party is just gettin’ started and it ain’t ever gonna stop.
Keep walking forward and pressing those buttons. We got your back.
A lot of people say the FGC faded away a decade ago. I would protest that it just went where all great things go when people aren’t ready for how great they are. Underground. We didn’t fade away or wither to nothing but a root. We slipped into the shadows and operated as normal, waiting for the chance to strike when we knew we could not be ignored any longer. In fact one could argue that we weeded out some of the bandwagon people and got to our core. If anyone would like to argue with that, go right ahead. Just remember that a decade ago when the FGC was supposedly “dead,” the first UFGT happened, ask someone who plays Tekken what was going down in Atlanta, and that thing that defines a generation of gaming happened…what was it called again? Oh yeah it was Evolution the biggest fighting game tournament in the world.
Twelve years ago, a tournament series called “Battle by the Bay” which had already relocated to Las Vegas from Sunnyvale and was rebranded Evolution or EVO for short. The Evolution Championship Series has done exactly what its name sake implies. Its decision to switch from arcade cabs to consoles in ’04 was wrought with controversy. Yet, that didn’t seem to stop probably the single most known moment in our history from happening. Think about where the tournament might be today if that switch hadn’t been made. Just that one subtle, unpopular decision charted a new course in an entire gaming community. It opened up all the possibilities for bringing your own systems, sticks, and controllers. It meant that guys could practice at home and have the exact same game at the tournament. I don’t even want to get started with the differences between arcade and console versions from back in the day. But, the most important part of what that decision did was that it set this tournament up for the future. Taking risks is not something you see many people or companies do. However, it is often what needs to be done for true success.
Now before you start to get salty about how this is a piece to suck up to EVO and the organizers, let me just tell you this. There are plenty of things that EVO has done over the years that I don’t like. In fact, I’ve been one of the more vocal advocates against the things they do that I don’t like, in print and live on our show. I blew them up for leaving out Tekken initially this year, giving InjustASS their own hall and way more support than it deserved despite being so new last year, including Smash Bros as a fighting game, and I was a strong advocate against Ultra being played this year instead of AE2012. This is just to name a few. I don’t particularly like the methods that the Cannons and Wizard use for a lot of their operations. Yet, that’s the beauty in their tournament. They don’t care if I don’t like their methods or decisions. They care about making the best tournament which appeals to the most people that it possibly can get to. Now I don’t have to like that, but if you want to be successful and grow a brand or a community, you can’t possibly cater to everyone.
You have to remember that if there aren’t any eyes on the event or butts in the seats, then the events will stop happening. What good is a tournament then if no one is going or watching? Look across all other things popular in the world. This is a theme that runs true. Do you think the NFL would make the bank it does without getting the casuals to keep their eyes on the screen too? Now you do not have to like that. I don’t like that. But that is the way the world works. And you have to respect that. I respect that immensely. I want what I want as a fan but if whatever I’m involved with isn’t giving it to me, I can take my time and business elsewhere. It’s actually a pretty good system when people use it and don’t just bitch and moan all the time. Take for instance some of the major sports in our country the USA. I just don’t watch on TV anymore. The product on the screen is just not possibly good enough to hold my attention.
And here is where EVO is ahead of the game. EVO and a lot of other major FGC tourneys out there don’t get in the way of the product on the screen. In fact, they do everything to facilitate it. You want to see the games that aren’t on main stage? FGC will get more streams. You want to see two players go at it that aren’t going to catch each other in a tourney bracket? We’re making it happen and guess what they’re playing to ten games instead of three. You want to see which coast of the country is better top to bottom? Here have this five versus five exhibition. This is the kind of thing regular sports cannot give you. They can’t give you all of the organically grown, community driven content that is created by the talent and fans themselves. And tournaments in the country that get big enough to where people fly out just to hang out and watch all have one common denominator and that simply is all of the great cool stuff going on that caters to as many people as possible. We get Super Turbo at EVO in some form every year. Fightermania at CEO, auction tournaments in Chicago, and running twenty, yes TWENTY games in SoCal all make the list of stuff that we have that other sports, and hell even every other video game, don’t have.
We’re never going away. We’ll never die. Think your game is dead? Guess what, if you go to EVO, I bet you someone is running a side tournament for that. Our genre is one of the best because of all the great things it offers on its own. And EVO is where we show everyone in the world that’s exactly what’s going on over here in the states. We offer it all. It might come with some weird packaging. Sometimes it might be a little beat up from shipping and handling mishaps. But rain or shine, day or night, we damn sure deliver the goods, and we aren’t ever going to stop.
We had to play a lot of the same games for a decade. We didn’t go away. Kotaku manufactures and article about how we’re cavemen once a month. We haven’t sunk, haven’t even sprung a leak. Capcom puts out a new update a month before the biggest tournament in the world. You want to talk about throwing a wrench in competitive play? Hey world, how about we turn out the largest tournament field for the series, EVER. Are we legit? Should people take us seriously? We play on consoles that are manufactured by Sony and Microsoft. The computer your using to read this, wouldn’t be here without MS including if you’re on an Apple, learn history. Those Blu-rays in your player, that’s proprietary Sony. You know who had the patent on floppy discs back in the day? Sony. And those giant companies are starting to sponsor us. Did you watch EVO? Is Pepsi a big sponsor? Guess what. They make more money than Coke now. EVO embodies us. And it’s the perfect word because it describes what we do. We evolve. Our sponsors are companies that have evolved to beat their competition over and over again. Get used to it. We might not ever be the biggest. But, if you think we are going to keep getting bigger and better, than you best get ready to hold the losses and taste the pain. Because, this party is just gettin’ started and it ain’t ever gonna stop.
Keep walking forward and pressing those buttons. We got your back.
