Where are pros going to go after "ditiching" mk1 ?

[supahotbean]

On Twitter there has been alot of talk about how people are extremely upset about the current sate of mk1. Ranging from character balance to overall prize pool money.

I don't understand the frustration around character balance. I don't think that this game has a horrible balance scale rather than just people picking the best to win. I don't think this will change from hopping to a new fighting game , since games like street fighter or tekken will have an entire top 8/16 practically comprising of the same character.

To the second statement , I know that the prize pools for mk1 are horrendous for the pro competition, but where would they go ? I know both street fighter and tekken 8 are great places for alot of mk1 professionals to go to but, unlike the mortal kombat , other games I believe have a stronger range of competition and consistent top rankers. So trying to hop into a larger pond I belive would ultimately hurt them since it would take them a few years for them to solidify their name.

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this, what do you think some of the solutions are to save the mk1 competitive com

 

[ReD WolF]

I haven't seen the twitter chatter, but I can't see how people would be complaining about character balance, The disparity between the top and bottom characters in this game is a lot closer than in previous NRS titles which stems from the assist characters. The QOL stuff and the prize pool money I understand. The problem with the prize pool money is that they have conditioned their player base from previous titles to expect that kind of money moving forward. If INj2 and MK11 had big payouts, the precedent is set. Players expect that in the here and now. Time will tell, but I hope people that play at a high level do not drop this game. It is very entertaining to watch and play IMO despite the QOL flaws.

 

[BKV2]

I don’t have any solutions but I can assure you this whole dropping MK1 for Tekken gimmick will last for about a month at best. For the people that stream the game and make money off of content they will see the views go down and not be as into it anymore especially since the time it takes to get good at Tekken takes a while. There are still many DLC characters and patch updates with those characters in the works. Things will change and they’ll come running right back to MK. As far as the comp scene though that’s probably cooked

 

[Eddy Wang]

they will get a job because they are thriving in tekken 8 or sf6

 

[PrinceGoro]

the amount of nrs pros that have any chance of being decent at tekken 8 at the highest level are literally 2 people lol so yeah,i dont see a bright future for them there.

the character kameo balalnce though it always could use work and improvments like in any game,its an iterrative process,is not the issue why the pros are threatening to jump ship,its the fact that there is zero certantiy of future pro kompetitions,and having zero insight as to what the commitment from nrs and wb is to those pro events,as well as the prize money being very low.

Both tekken and sf have standardized pro seasons and the players know that the devs and the publisher are very commited to them so they feel secure.

as much as its a good thing to have options and them threatening to leave could get nrs and wb to do something,but sadly 99.9999999 % of nrs tournament players wont do shit in other games,it would take them pretty much the entire life span of tekken 8 to maybe be decent at the highest level and even then they would probably get smoked by staple tekken players.

 

[Amplified$hotz]

I don’t think it’s strictly about money. People want to play and stream a game that’s actually good.

MK1 isn’t a mentally stimulating game for people who’ve matured in their fighting game journey.

 

[rifraf]

I don't understand the frustration around character balance.

I just watched Tom Brady's latest video titled as "The death of MK1". The reasons where character balance, watered down characters, and the lack of specific archetypes. Although I do understand the last one, I call BS on the other ones.

1. Character balance is good overall.
2. I keep seeing this trend lately people calling characters watered down and I really hate it. People need a reality check or something. They need to fire up MK9 and realise what they have in their mind is a fantasy. Yes, not all characters are created equal, some are proven to be sub-par but that doesn't mean MK1 JC is a watered down version of MK9 JC just because he doesn't have as ridiculous frames. Same goes for almost every character, plus there are kameos.

Anyway, I think it's totally ridiculous and straight up hypocritical calling MK1 characters watered down.

 

[Immortal]

Brady is the last person anybody should be listening about... anything.

As for the topic, 99% of MK pro players wont go anywhere else, they just gonna complain and play the game at the same time.

 

[LionHeart V1]

I don’t think it’s strictly about money. People want to play and stream a game that’s actually good.

MK1 isn’t a mentally stimulating game for people who’ve matured in their fighting game journey.

D1 Stormcell isn’t stimulating???

 

[rifraf]

Brady is the last person anybody should be listening about... anything.

Ouch, that's a bit harsh. The guy is a legend in the MK world.

 

[Fermbiz]

Brady is the last person anybody should be listening about... anything.

Completely disagree. He's an MK veteran with tons of knowledge and good insight into MK games.

 

[rifraf]

I don’t think it’s strictly about money. People want to play and stream a game that’s actually good.

MK1 isn’t a mentally stimulating game for people who’ve matured in their fighting game journey.

Genuine question. What makes MK1 not as mentally stimulating for you? Are there any other fighting games you find fulfil that role better for you?

 

[zerosebaz]

Ouch, that's a bit harsh. The guy is a legend in the MK world.

A legendary pocketeer of donation money.

 

[Amplified$hotz]

I just watched Tom Brady's latest video titled as "The death of MK1". The reasons where character balance, watered down characters, and the lack of specific archetypes. Although I do understand the last one, I call BS on the other ones.

1. Character balance is good overall.
2. I keep seeing this trend lately people calling characters watered down and I really hate it. People need a reality check or something. They need to fire up MK9 and realise what they have in their mind is a fantasy. Yes, not all characters are created equal, some are proven to be sub-par but that doesn't mean MK1 JC is a watered down version of MK9 JC just because he doesn't have as ridiculous frames. Same goes for almost every character, plus there are kameos.

Anyway, I think it's totally ridiculous and straight up hypocritical calling MK1 characters watered down.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time trying to change your mind, but every Kung Lao player on the planet will tell you that he should have his teleport , launching spin, better divekick, and low hat. What they gave him in return isn’t better than what they took away.

He is watered down, end of story.

And I could go in further on other characters but I’ve spent way too much time talking about this trash game.

 

[Amplified$hotz]

D1 Stormcell isn’t stimulating???

Lmao man. I don’t get how people don’t see it.

 

[Amplified$hotz]

Genuine question. What makes MK1 not as mentally stimulating for you? Are there any other fighting games you find fulfil that role better for you?

There are too many situations in MK1 where you don’t really have to consider the opponents options.

A good Raiden/Kano for example can execute his strategy on most of the cast without really caring who’s in front of him. And it’s not just raiden who is like this.

In Tekken for the most part, you almost always have to consider your opponent’s options. While they’re standing up and while they’re knocked down. This mind game is what makes matchup knowledge and experience so valuable.

This is honestly just a piece of why MK1 is brain dead. I could write a whole article on it.

Anyway, do you see yourself enjoying the fight against sento a year from now? Two years from now? Three years from now?

 

[Rude]

Everyone that's going to Tekken - with the exception of people that have played the series before - are going to get washed by Johnny Doughnuts whose been playing Eddie since the 90's. It's a legacy franchise.

Honestly, you should just play a game you like. Don't chase trends. That's whack.

 

[BKV2]

they will get a job because they are thriving in tekken 8 or sf6

You might be clinically insane if you think they’re all gonna thrive in SF6 or T8. They’ll be right back here on MK LMAO

 

[Immortal]

Ouch, that's a bit harsh. The guy is a legend in the MK world.

Completely disagree. He's an MK veteran with tons of knowledge and good insight into MK games.

I'm ancient, if i remember correctly im like 1-2 years older than Brady so i actually was "here" and played at the time(and played vs him) he did. After MK9 it was pretty downhill for him. And no, the 2 months period of MK X release where he and Reo won something after being testers for the game doesn't count. The only thing after that he is known is whinning and memes and thats like close to 10 years now.... but thats all secondary.

The main thing he is known today is for lying and stealing peoples money, that much was proven. So like i said many years ago i can still say now - if i would meet him irl i woudln't even shake his hand, coz the only people i don't respect are liers and worse yet people who steal from others.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

So at my last count, this is the 5th game that everybody is switching to.

• 2013 — "I'm switching to Killer Instinct!" (Lasted about 3-4 months)
• 2018 — "I'm switching to DBFZ, it's gonna save the community and become the new smash" (lasted about 3-4 months, except for Sonic who lasted a year+)
• 2021 — "I'm switching to Strive, it's so balanced and the perfect game" (lasted about 3 months except for K7 Showoff who played 2 years)
• 2023 — "I'm switching to SF6" (lasted about 1-2 months if that.. Hard to name a top NRS player who plays it)
• 2024 — "I'm switching to Tekken 8"

From what I can see, people usually forget a few things.. One, there's a legacy curve, so you're going to get bodied at first if you're new. Which means you have to really, really like the game and be dedicated to it to be competitive. Two, no game is perfect, and every game that starts out being the perfect game ends up being heavily criticized by that game's top players within a year (see DBFZ, Strive, and now SF6).

Ultimately maybe 5-6% pecent of people will stick with it, and the rest are going to come right back to the game that feels most comfortable to them. Until the next "jesus game" comes out and starts its honeymoon phase.

 

[Rude]

I'm ancient, if i remember correctly im like 1-2 years older than Brady so i actually was "here" and played at the time(and played vs him) he did. After MK9 it was pretty downhill for him. And no, the 2 months period of MK X release where he and Reo won something after being testers for the game doesn't count. The only thing after that he is known is whinning and memes and thats like close to 10 years now.... but thats all secondary.

The main thing he is known today is for lying and stealing peoples money, that much was proven. So like i said many years ago i can still say now - if i would meet him irl i woudln't even shake his hand, coz the only people i don't respect are liers and worse yet people who steal from others.

Look at that knee.

 

[Tom Brady]

I'm ancient, if i remember correctly im like 1-2 years older than Brady so i actually was "here" and played at the time(and played vs him) he did. After MK9 it was pretty downhill for him. And no, the 2 months period of MK X release where he and Reo won something after being testers for the game doesn't count. The only thing after that he is known is whinning and memes and thats like close to 10 years now.... but thats all secondary.

The main thing he is known today is for lying and stealing peoples money, that much was proven. So like i said many years ago i can still say now - if i would meet him irl i woudln't even shake his hand, coz the only people i don't respect are liers and worse yet people who steal from others.

Whatever your personal feelings on me are.. at least get the competitive stuff right.. I wasnt just MK9 then downhill.. I also had a few top 8s in IGAU and was also a very good MKX player even when the players voted i was considered in the top 25-30 players in the world. Was in the top 10-16 of pretty much every major I attended. I guess if you wanna say i want a top 20-25 player because those were the consistent top 8 guys, sure.. but some terrible player? I was a good player until 40 man... I'd say thats where it went downhill.. its called retirement

 

[Eji1700]

1. Being a "pro" is basically impossible in MK1 right now and that is a legit problem for those who've expected income from it. With WB no longer supporting the scene it's up to NRS and the scene itself.

2. Jumping to Tekken is probably the WORST possible pick because the aforementioned Johnny Doughnuts isn't even a top 20 competitor in your local region and you get to climb the learning curve of a game that thinks walking is an execution error. (To be clear the MK pro's are obviously accomplished players and I'm sure most of them CAN do it, it's just not going to be a quick process and if you're looking to solve your income issue that's not the place to go).

3. SF6, while it has it's problems, has pretty tight balance overall. Yes you're going to get blanka'd/luke'd/ken'd/whatever'd, but there's decent diversity in top 8's and character specialists have put up results. It's probably not the worst place to hop because the system shock is going to be less extreme.

4. MK1 has decent balance right now EXCEPT for at least sub zero. I still think people don't get just how fundamentally fucked he is, but I also get that adding "except sub" to every comment on the balance is whatever, and I could be wrong and it's close but no one cares. Still he is one of the only modern fighting game characters I can think of with a special move that is punishable if you cancel into it from certain moves ON HIT.

5. MK1's gameplay is "ok". There's a lot of repetitive patterns where no matter who you're playing you feel like you're doing the same thing, and there's not enough situations in the game where you want to do anything else. Sure plenty of characters are viable, but they feel like 90's viable where 80% of their kit is trash but hey there's 3 good normals and this one busted special move so just use those. It's just not fun to watch. Combos tend to route into similar situations, and huge portions of the cast's movelist (ESPECIALLY THE KAMEO'S) are useless. How often are you seeing anything other than stryker nades? Sure he's a viable kameo, but the risk reward is wrong so he's boring as fuck. And a lot of main characters got their knee's broken with the idea of "well with a kameo you can" but the actual effect is watching lao/tanya just live and die on how many armored launchers hit. Worse there's a lot of "solved" feeling kameo picks. It's not like ninjakiller plays with kameo x and rewind with y (assuming they mained the same character). Most of it devloves down to the same picks, JUST LIKE THE VARIATION SYSTEM.

6. Looking at other tag fighters could help, but in general this again feels like half the cast is stuck playing fair while the other half gets to have dirt. I don't get why they don't just turn on the firehose of bullshit and let characters feel powerful so you can actually use kameo's to change up your style, not fix GAPING HOLES in your entire gameplan.

 

[ReD WolF]

Whatever your personal feelings on me are.. at least get the competitive stuff right.. I wasnt just MK9 then downhill.. I also had a few top 8s in IGAU and was also a very good MKX player even when the players voted i was considered in the top 25-30 players in the world. Was in the top 10-16 of pretty much every major I attended. I guess if you wanna say i want a top 20-25 player because those were the consistent top 8 guys, sure.. but some terrible player? I was a good player until 40 man... I'd say thats where it went downhill.. its called retirement

Lord Brady Returns!

 

[Amplified$hotz]

1. Being a "pro" is basically impossible in MK1 right now and that is a legit problem for those who've expected income from it. With WB no longer supporting the scene it's up to NRS and the scene itself.

2. Jumping to Tekken is probably the WORST possible pick because the aforementioned Johnny Doughnuts isn't even a top 20 competitor in your local region and you get to climb the learning curve of a game that thinks walking is an execution error. (To be clear the MK pro's are obviously accomplished players and I'm sure most of them CAN do it, it's just not going to be a quick process and if you're looking to solve your income issue that's not the place to go).

3. SF6, while it has it's problems, has pretty tight balance overall. Yes you're going to get blanka'd/luke'd/ken'd/whatever'd, but there's decent diversity in top 8's and character specialists have put up results. It's probably not the worst place to hop because the system shock is going to be less extreme.

4. MK1 has decent balance right now EXCEPT for at least sub zero. I still think people don't get just how fundamentally fucked he is, but I also get that adding "except sub" to every comment on the balance is whatever, and I could be wrong and it's close but no one cares. Still he is one of the only modern fighting game characters I can think of with a special move that is punishable if you cancel into it from certain moves ON HIT.

5. MK1's gameplay is "ok". There's a lot of repetitive patterns where no matter who you're playing you feel like you're doing the same thing, and there's not enough situations in the game where you want to do anything else. Sure plenty of characters are viable, but they feel like 90's viable where 80% of their kit is trash but hey there's 3 good normals and this one busted special move so just use those. It's just not fun to watch. Combos tend to route into similar situations, and huge portions of the cast's movelist (ESPECIALLY THE KAMEO'S) are useless. How often are you seeing anything other than stryker nades? Sure he's a viable kameo, but the risk reward is wrong so he's boring as fuck. And a lot of main characters got their knee's broken with the idea of "well with a kameo you can" but the actual effect is watching lao/tanya just live and die on how many armored launchers hit. Worse there's a lot of "solved" feeling kameo picks. It's not like ninjakiller plays with kameo x and rewind with y (assuming they mained the same character). Most of it devloves down to the same picks, JUST LIKE THE VARIATION SYSTEM.

6. Looking at other tag fighters could help, but in general this again feels like half the cast is stuck playing fair while the other half gets to have dirt. I don't get why they don't just turn on the firehose of bullshit and let characters feel powerful so you can actually use kameo's to change up your style, not fix GAPING HOLES in your entire gameplan.

Great post. Especially number 5. This is the first NRS game I’ve seen where a player can get a character to top 8 (online) tournament level with 2 or 3 days of play.