I was going to post a bunch of stuff, but it's mostly been said already, much more eloquently than I could put it. I guess the 'debate' comes down to what is theoretically correct vs. what is able to be practically implemented
but on the other hand, we have five prominent TOs that decided to regulate their stage lists for their tournaments, no problem...their initiative is supported by the swf admins, still no problem...but putting the bbr name on this TO Subcommittee and telling the other nationals directly (and smaller tourneys indirectly, more on that in a moment) that you'll lose recognition if you deviate is a little harsh imo. I'm thinking about half of the bawwing in this thread couldve been averted if the line of thinking was "hey fellow TOs, the five of us came up with this stage list and will be using it for all of 2011, this is our variation on the BBR's recommended list and we'd be glad if you followed it too" rather than "DO EEET OR ELSE
".
This whole situation reminds me of what essentially amounted to a coupe d'etat in the WBR, where the large, unwieldy group dragged their heels on bringing out a good product, and Cape took charge, gathered a posse, and knocked everyone's socks off with a badass codeset. He didn't brand it WBR, he didn't say "this is the future, resistance/dissent is futile", he showed what he had and let it do the talking for him. And whaddaya know, it became the official Brawl+ codeset - not because someone in power said it should, but because IT WAS BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE OUT THERE. Period. Honey vs vinegar, no? Even a niner knows that any force has an equal and opposite reaction - push hard for this and you'll get resistance, demand conformity and you'll get more resistance; but ask nicely, or better yet talk to other TOs without informing the public (assuming nobody gets suspicious that a stage list gets formalized overnight) and this would've sailed through, and six months from now, when this had 20 major tourneys' worth of data and maybe a few tweaks, nobody would bat an eyelash when it became an official BBR policy. Sure you'd still get people like BPC and Raziek (not gonna lie, I probably would too) arguing the stages, but by then it'd be too far gone to even consider a large overhaul.
And that bull about this not affecting local tourneys? Please. In the scenario I just described, do you think any locals near (time-wise) to
6 months' worth of national tourneys would go against the grain? Remember that little circuit called MLG? Remember the complaints from everywhere when the stage list came out? Remember, despite the bawwing, that tournaments were held with the MLG stage list to get players ready? Now imagine that, except replace 'MLG' with 'just about every major tournament for six months'. Yeah, I don't think that anybody besides those regions vehemetly against this list would stick to their own. Especially if you notified other TOs not involved in creating the list, while keeping it away from the public. A year from now, barring this initiative crashing and burning
hard, not even the hardline dissidents (at least, within the States) would be able to run tourneys without at least one of every few running the Official Brawl-Back-Room-Certified Tournament-Organizer-Approved Stage Recommendation.
That's how you make a uniform list, subvert the BBR, and get what you want, all without 700+ posts' worth of ****ing. Not "HEY GUYS, THIS IS OUR LIST, THE ADMINS WERE COOL WITH IT, SO SHUT UP. YOU TOO BBR." Because, honestly, the TOs run the show. They could do what they want if they get the community to agree with what they want. And, for all intents and purposes, I can see this list, +/- a stage here or there, be accepted as a national standard, as long as you go about it the right way. Not that I agree with it (and I would argue it if others weren't), but I'm just some rando with a grape name and $0.02 of opinion he decided to share.
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@BPC
He'd win the set assuming a 5 stage starter list (that has FD, as most do). Strike down to one of those 3. Beat you there.
Lose on your meaningless counterpick.
You ban one of the remaining 2.
He takes you to the third.
Good game.
isnt this...iunno...a problem? Being able to undermine a stage list, whether 8 or 22 stages in length, by being good at three fairly similar ones? ofc, this could be averted by removing fd/having a 7 stage starter list/not sucking, but still...