TaFoKiNtS
Smash Lord
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 1,027
So overall, I'd like to give my perspective that I've shared as a figurehead of melee.
Back in 2008, Melee nearly died after the release of Brawl. Most of the top players figured that Brawl was the spiritual successor to Melee and it was time to move on. Tournaments were no longer featuring melee at most locals. Even if they were run, they would get 20 at max. People who played Melee were ostracized in many communities.
"Get with the times. Brawl is better"
"Now you can't just win by spamming mindless tech skill"
On one hand, I could have tried to validate my hobby to everyone, entering fruitless internet debates on why my game is important, but instead I just kept playing Melee, the game I enjoy for fun.
I don't see why any community has to feel the need to validate itself to other people. It reeks of insecurity. I have been personally made fun of by Smash 4 players, casuals, Brawl players, PM players, FGC, etc..., but I don't care. I'll still produce awesome content and play the game to the people that actually like the game. This is also the mindset that most melee figureheads had. We invested into our own games, our local tournament scenes, and produced our own nationals/montages/highlightreels/stories, which is why you saw it go from "nearly dead" in 08 to "thriving" in 2013, even before the whole #oneunit thing.
Mind you, I appreciate everyone who helped in regards to the Evo donation drive, but keep in mind MIOM, a melee-focused group, spearheaded the movement. We didn't go beg Brawl or PM to start a campaign on behalf of us. Instead, we let everyone know what our goals were and started it.
In contrast, MLG dropped Brawl a year after and expected Melee to return the favor for Evo. In respect, MANY melee figureheads were on board to help brawl, but we were never interested in starting the movement ourselves. This is brawl's moment to shine and there needed to be leadership to intiate a movement. Where were the brawl figureheads at the time? Frankly, there was none, and consequently, that's one of the key reasons why melee didn't help brawl out - the lack of Brawl leadership.
If you've seen before, Melee people have helped out countless people from other communities.
Prog, d1, and I have always been willing to give advice to people who needed help organizing podcasts, tournaments, and general leadership
Oxy and Mayhem from Socal have helped PM and Brawl get stable venues for some amount of time.
An underrated notion of #oneunit is that it has indeed helped most of the smash communities. With #oneunit, we got Evo, which in turn leveraged things such as more viewership and events such as the e3 invitational. I imagine that this has probably helped tournament growth for other smash games other than melee significantly, even if the tangible benefits can't necessarily be measured.
Anyway, I'm probably rambling at this point
tl;dr Melee has tried to help other communites in the past, please don't say we NEVER helped anyone
Back in 2008, Melee nearly died after the release of Brawl. Most of the top players figured that Brawl was the spiritual successor to Melee and it was time to move on. Tournaments were no longer featuring melee at most locals. Even if they were run, they would get 20 at max. People who played Melee were ostracized in many communities.
"Get with the times. Brawl is better"
"Now you can't just win by spamming mindless tech skill"
On one hand, I could have tried to validate my hobby to everyone, entering fruitless internet debates on why my game is important, but instead I just kept playing Melee, the game I enjoy for fun.
I don't see why any community has to feel the need to validate itself to other people. It reeks of insecurity. I have been personally made fun of by Smash 4 players, casuals, Brawl players, PM players, FGC, etc..., but I don't care. I'll still produce awesome content and play the game to the people that actually like the game. This is also the mindset that most melee figureheads had. We invested into our own games, our local tournament scenes, and produced our own nationals/montages/highlightreels/stories, which is why you saw it go from "nearly dead" in 08 to "thriving" in 2013, even before the whole #oneunit thing.
Mind you, I appreciate everyone who helped in regards to the Evo donation drive, but keep in mind MIOM, a melee-focused group, spearheaded the movement. We didn't go beg Brawl or PM to start a campaign on behalf of us. Instead, we let everyone know what our goals were and started it.
In contrast, MLG dropped Brawl a year after and expected Melee to return the favor for Evo. In respect, MANY melee figureheads were on board to help brawl, but we were never interested in starting the movement ourselves. This is brawl's moment to shine and there needed to be leadership to intiate a movement. Where were the brawl figureheads at the time? Frankly, there was none, and consequently, that's one of the key reasons why melee didn't help brawl out - the lack of Brawl leadership.
If you've seen before, Melee people have helped out countless people from other communities.
Prog, d1, and I have always been willing to give advice to people who needed help organizing podcasts, tournaments, and general leadership
Oxy and Mayhem from Socal have helped PM and Brawl get stable venues for some amount of time.
An underrated notion of #oneunit is that it has indeed helped most of the smash communities. With #oneunit, we got Evo, which in turn leveraged things such as more viewership and events such as the e3 invitational. I imagine that this has probably helped tournament growth for other smash games other than melee significantly, even if the tangible benefits can't necessarily be measured.
Anyway, I'm probably rambling at this point
tl;dr Melee has tried to help other communites in the past, please don't say we NEVER helped anyone