I wouldn't even say Detroit counts. He's an Arizona player. I'm really sick of this "Well Arizona is west coast, no, wait, Arizona is technically midwest, no, wait, Arizona is the south". I don't care if Arizona has signed a treaty with the lost fucking continent of Atlantis, it is its own scene. Let's get one thing straight: This isn't "east coast vs. west coast", it's Socal vs. New York. If you want to be technical, it's Vegas and Socal, which are more or less adjacent scenes. This community has pretty clearly defined borders, I feel. New York is its own scene, with the Philly and Virginia guys occasionally being grouped in with them as just "east coast". Ohio is its own scene. Illinois and area is its own scene, with Slips, Kizzle and the other St. Lou guys being grouped in with them just because they play with those guys. Arizona is its own scene, separate from Socal. Grouping together scenes that hardly interact is really, really stupid. For instance, Ohio and Illinois could both be seen as just "The Midwest scene", but how often do those two scenes interact? Apart from Chicago guys going to Ohio tournaments once every few months and vice versa, how tight-knit are they? Similarly, the Vegas and Socal guys are real tight, but AZ has little to no interaction with Socal, despite being within humping distance of them. Why? They're entirely separate scenes. Vegas and Socal may not be, but Socal and AZ certainly are. Socal does their own thing. AZ does their own thing. Vegas kind of does Socal's thing as well, which is why you could feasibly group the two together, but Socal and AZ have little to no interaction; just leave it at that.
Bottom line: If Socal calls out New York, it should be Socal vs. New York. You don't see New York pulling anyone from Ohio, so Socal shouldn't be pulling Detroit from AZ. As far as I'm concerned, Socal trying to nab Detroit would be a huge crutch in this whole region war. It's basically saying "Well, we issued a challenge to VSM, but we can't do it with our own guys, so we're going to try and get the one non-New York player who's consistently held up against them". If Socal is so sure they can take VSM, they can do it themselves.
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