Lt. Boxy Angelman
I WILL EAT THIS GAME
Welcome to session 2 of Boxy Theory 101 
.
Today, we speak on the subject of lost potential in the shadow of great success: Injustice, and my personal belief that Barbara Gordon is responsible for stunting its growth, both in competition and in hope for the human soul.
First of all: a hearty congratulations to @SonicFox5000 for his victory at Final Round, and for furthering his legacy as one of the FGC's most dominant and valuable players ever to plug in a pad. You have always and will always scare the living hell out of me on the battlefield. Much Boxy love, all day.
With that being said...I feel as though this subject, that has given me pause for almost 2 years, must be addressed and discussed with you lovely people, because I feel as though I can't be the only person who feels thusly...
Ask yourself this: if you're an aspiring competitive player, and you're on the fence about seriously pursuing a campaign into competition...how shattered into pieces is your soul after watching a SonicFox final? Or more specifically, having to watch Batgirl mauling after Batgirl mauling and know that there is no path to success that doesn't go through her?
Injustice has come a LONG way. It's host to a still-strong arsenal of brilliant and powerful players who've made it worth watching and supporting since its inception. It's a blast, it's an addiction, I still love to play it/get hype for it, and it's helped the NRS scene as a whole develop and grow and learn and all that goodness in many a useful way...
...but I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the moment I saw Batgirl and experienced her, and saw the direction her game coupled with the IGAU physics themselves were going to force the metagame to go, that Injustice was never going to break the glass ceiling that MK9 almost shattered or become a tactically-superior fighter, and that there was no way I was going to subject myself to the same insane ritualistic training I did coming up in MK9. Babs killed my boner, plain and simple.
In spite of the host of unique and standout-ish character designs and playstyle combinations - Lex Luthor's screen control, Doomsday's ruthless speed, Nightwing's stances, so on and so forth - it ALWAYS comes back to the 50/50 armored/unarmored guessing game and who can force you to play it the best. Which would've been fine, were it not for the fact that this character was literally built to not only control the screen better than almost the entire cast, but whose up-close and corner game can EFFORTLESSLY destroy the escape plans of an opponent no matter what they have to throw back at her. No, the girl isn't indestructible, she isn't quite Kabal or ST Akuma, but I felt/knew back then that if my major stake in IGAU was simply to improve and stay sharp as a player until MKX came to surface, there was little sense in driving myself insane training to compete in what Batgirl essentially turned into a giant game of Bat Paper Scissors. And I feel like the potential for growth and evolution there was suffered immensely starting with her, when the inevitable 50/50 future starting dawning on more and more players, especially online/at large outside of the tournament scene.
Case in point: previously mentioned Grand Champion Fox. It would likely have made no difference to him if there had been a Batgirl or not; he would've stuck with Harley and probably broken in one of the other ladies, and he still would've run roughshod over the scene regardless.
But there have been too many times, watching him or other Babs players at work, where no matter how good or respectable they are, you watch the fight break out and the gimmicks kick in, and I say to myself "this character is fucked."
I just feel like this game could've gone a lot further if it didn't revolve around such absurd guessing game shenanigans, and for me, that's always going to come back to Batgirl making me see that. Sonic deserves all the props in the world for being the champ, but the potential IGAU had to be extra-fuck-all amazing went out the window when she came swinging in.
Thoughts? Feels?
.Today, we speak on the subject of lost potential in the shadow of great success: Injustice, and my personal belief that Barbara Gordon is responsible for stunting its growth, both in competition and in hope for the human soul.
First of all: a hearty congratulations to @SonicFox5000 for his victory at Final Round, and for furthering his legacy as one of the FGC's most dominant and valuable players ever to plug in a pad. You have always and will always scare the living hell out of me on the battlefield. Much Boxy love, all day.
With that being said...I feel as though this subject, that has given me pause for almost 2 years, must be addressed and discussed with you lovely people, because I feel as though I can't be the only person who feels thusly...
Ask yourself this: if you're an aspiring competitive player, and you're on the fence about seriously pursuing a campaign into competition...how shattered into pieces is your soul after watching a SonicFox final? Or more specifically, having to watch Batgirl mauling after Batgirl mauling and know that there is no path to success that doesn't go through her?
Injustice has come a LONG way. It's host to a still-strong arsenal of brilliant and powerful players who've made it worth watching and supporting since its inception. It's a blast, it's an addiction, I still love to play it/get hype for it, and it's helped the NRS scene as a whole develop and grow and learn and all that goodness in many a useful way...
...but I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the moment I saw Batgirl and experienced her, and saw the direction her game coupled with the IGAU physics themselves were going to force the metagame to go, that Injustice was never going to break the glass ceiling that MK9 almost shattered or become a tactically-superior fighter, and that there was no way I was going to subject myself to the same insane ritualistic training I did coming up in MK9. Babs killed my boner, plain and simple.
In spite of the host of unique and standout-ish character designs and playstyle combinations - Lex Luthor's screen control, Doomsday's ruthless speed, Nightwing's stances, so on and so forth - it ALWAYS comes back to the 50/50 armored/unarmored guessing game and who can force you to play it the best. Which would've been fine, were it not for the fact that this character was literally built to not only control the screen better than almost the entire cast, but whose up-close and corner game can EFFORTLESSLY destroy the escape plans of an opponent no matter what they have to throw back at her. No, the girl isn't indestructible, she isn't quite Kabal or ST Akuma, but I felt/knew back then that if my major stake in IGAU was simply to improve and stay sharp as a player until MKX came to surface, there was little sense in driving myself insane training to compete in what Batgirl essentially turned into a giant game of Bat Paper Scissors. And I feel like the potential for growth and evolution there was suffered immensely starting with her, when the inevitable 50/50 future starting dawning on more and more players, especially online/at large outside of the tournament scene.
Case in point: previously mentioned Grand Champion Fox. It would likely have made no difference to him if there had been a Batgirl or not; he would've stuck with Harley and probably broken in one of the other ladies, and he still would've run roughshod over the scene regardless.
But there have been too many times, watching him or other Babs players at work, where no matter how good or respectable they are, you watch the fight break out and the gimmicks kick in, and I say to myself "this character is fucked."
I just feel like this game could've gone a lot further if it didn't revolve around such absurd guessing game shenanigans, and for me, that's always going to come back to Batgirl making me see that. Sonic deserves all the props in the world for being the champ, but the potential IGAU had to be extra-fuck-all amazing went out the window when she came swinging in.
Thoughts? Feels?
