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What's the Story With VSM?

Medina4life

Media Master
Wow, I never knew EGP's sessions died out too. I do find this thread interesting, and maybe it can be a general state of various regions. I am curious as to how people feel about certain things.

To touch base on what Reo was saying, it seems like he felt those gatherings were a waste of time when they stopped having mini tournaments. What are some of the reasons those stopped? I'm sure being a top player, it'd be nice to look forward to that every week knowing you had had a strong chance of winning it and making your money back. What about the mid-level guys or people that are new to the scene. Are they really learning as much as they could be if the focus of those weekly sessions is primarily tournaments in which they probably won't do that well in? Or would they rather use their money each week to "play casuals" in an offline environment with great players? The fact that Phil is away for several weeks and can't stream shouldn't deter people from wanting to come out anyways and just level up. I don't know anything about that scene so this is why I'm curious on how the structure of it went.

I've only been back for a bit now, but maybe I can provide a little insight on how gatherings are at GGA. I went there on Thursday and there were 6 setups I believe. 4 INJ and 2 MK. Maybe 12-15 people showed up. Gatherings are pretty much the same since my temporary absence. People come, we play casuals and learn as much match ups and styles of game play in the time we have there. After say around 30 min of playing someone, players rotate and play with someone else. It's not a written rule or anything, that's just the attitude and expectation of players to do so. The environment itself has always felt like a place to go and just learn as much as you can and that's why it's been successful for two years now. The "top players" don't just play with each other. They play anyone and everyone who is willing to ask. They don't just body the people they play. They try to help them out by giving advice and it's really effective. Look at how much has changed in time. Two years ago the only player that was considered elite was 16-bit. He wasn't anywhere near GGA. After the training sessions, Dizzy started making a name for himself. Then players like Wafflez, Soonk, Jeremiah, Hahn, etc. started doing really well. Anyone that goes there and takes it seriously gets better. Granted, since 16-Bit and Dizzy are roommates, they get to level up a lot. The same goes for the Soonk/Jeremiah/Slips place.

NY has so much talent that I don't really understand why they don't have a similar training ground. Local tournies are fun, but I don't know if they are the most effective way to level up a scene. It when you have individuals not sharing knowledge in how to defeat a certain tactics for the purpose of winning those local events. It'd be cool if say if there were 2 gatherings a week. 1 for training and the other for these locals.

Thoughts?
 

cR WoundCowboy

WoundCowbae <3
Back near the beginning of MK9's life, VSM was considered to be THE scene for MK. I remember tuning in to twitch and being entertained for hours at a time by high level play and the personalities of the scene. But yea, I guess things change :(. It seems to me that the best scene is currently GGA, both for MK and Injustice. I understand that alot of people here may be indifferent or dismissive about Injustice but the fact is that it is an opportunity to build or rebuild your scene. New people can finally stand a chance (nobody new in MK would be able to compete with the rest of us) against good players and they might have more motivation to meet up on a regular basis. Take advantage of this opportunity!!
 

CRUM

Warrior
Back near the beginning of MK9's life, VSM was considered to be THE scene for MK. I remember tuning in to twitch and being entertained for hours at a time by high level play and the personalities of the scene. But yea, I guess things change :(. It seems to me that the best scene is currently GGA, both for MK and Injustice. I understand that alot of people here may be indifferent or dismissive about Injustice but the fact is that it is an opportunity to build or rebuild your scene. New people can finally stand a chance (nobody new in MK would be able to compete with the rest of us) against good players and they might have more motivation to meet up on a regular basis. Take advantage of this opportunity!!
I feel that it isn't an opportunity to rebuild, maybe in theory it is, but I feel that there's no hype behind it. MK was on it's last legs for quite a while throughout the past couple of years, and that's why everyone put forth their strongest effort to support it. Injustice is new, people aren't even giving it time to develop and we are getting gameplay patches on a week-to-week basis.

People considered MK9 a horribly broken game, but the reality is that I had a lot more fun watching and playing MK than I am Injustice. Maybe that's just relative to what a I prefer as a fighting game player, but I feel that Injustice is new and there is no hype for the game because EVERYONE is supporting it. Without Injustice, you can bet your ass that everyone on this forum would be generating hype for EVO and VXG for MK9. In MK, nothing was better than seeing a WoundCowboy comeback, or a Dizzy/Tyrant match. Now it's just.. whatever to me. No one wants to put effort into playing MK anymore, and a lot of this community is torn between two games. That's just my personal opinion about the state of this community, and the games that accompany it.

EDIT: and for the record, I enjoy both playing and watching Injustice.
 
I just think MK is too flawed to go back to after playing Injustice, even with MK being more fun to play. Maybe after a year or two there will be reemergence for those feeling nostalgic, but for now, it's in the graveyard.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 

SwiftTomHanks

missiles are coming
The one thing people haven't mentioned concerning this is something I would imagine all scenes suffer from; after a year or two of playing MK with these guys I'd consider a lot of them great friends of mine. The other week Rapzilla asked me to come to vsm, my first thought was "why would I do that, lets just hang at your place, play games, grill burgers, swim, and drink".

The days of public venues around the north east are dead IMO. I'm not to crazy over Injustice, not many of us are; but when we do get together its at someone's house and more in the form of a party rather than level up session. And where this truly hurts is meeting new people, as I'm not going to invite a stranger over to my house anymore. Perhaps if we were more passionate about the game...

But yea, when you add up the following...
A game we don't care that much about (most of us)
Venue Fee and travel costs
People's homes have more to do
We are actually friends now

It's not a good recipe for weekly level up sessions.
 

G4S KT

Gaming4Satan Founder
Everyone from other regions has to realize too how dense nyc and the surrounding area is. Even though Im about 15 miles as the crow flies to VSM getting there is incredibly hard.

After a while it becomes too much to spend 90+ minutes in transit (one way) and upwards of $50 each week
 

Red Reaper

The Hyrax Whisperer
Well to be blunt imagine this

MK9 only - Take away the following players from each scene

VSM
maxter
cd
reo
jr

EGP
tyrant
pboard
xblades
chef

Vegas
mit
djt
dab
flawedzilla

kh
cat
showtime
scar
shanxter

ATL
pig
clint
redd
smarr

GGA
bit
dizzy
wafflez
han

etc etc etc etc.......Itd hurt a lot taking away the top 4 from any and put a huge damper on that scene leveling up w those MUs and overall fundamentally

EGP would still work without them..


I think the four that would hurt the most would be losing Chef, PBoard, Krayzie, and most of all Brian (TenZero7).

Chef literally helps anyone. A goblin kould up from the sewers and ask him how you beat Kenshi with Johnny and he'd happily explain to him how to punish spirit charge and all this wonderful tech he has.

PBoard supports his area and I attribute much of their success to his support. Less recognized threats like WestCoastJeff and MFSlayer are strong at least in part because of this. Plus he knows magic! Who doesn't love magic?

Krayzie has been one of the longest supporters of the scene. When no one else is doing anything, he's the one gathering people from anywhere and everywhere to his home to play. When MK died at WNF a long time ago, he stepped up and that was how I got into the scene. It makes sense why he was one of the founders of TYM, he's passionate not just about MK but its scene.

Last but definitely not least is Brian. When WNF stopped supporting MK he stepped in and helped support the scene. When people were broke he didn't even charge them! Clearly he wasn't in it just for the money. He provided consoles and a venue all while running on little sleep. He's made the most sacrifice for us and truly is the most valued person in our scene. WNF, even with its numbers, is not the same as what Brian provided us with, he provided us with a sense of community that nothing else could ever replace.

There's community leaders and then there's players. I value community leaders MUCH more.

Tyrant and Xblades have been among the best at what they do, and that is play the game. They're top players and it definitely helps to have them in your scene but from a community standpoint they're not the foundation which holds the scene together.

Not to mention, Krayzie and Chef know the whole cast in MK to a great extent and will soon learn the whole cast in Injustice.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
I feel that it isn't an opportunity to rebuild, maybe in theory it is, but I feel that there's no hype behind it. MK was on it's last legs for quite a while throughout the past couple of years, and that's why everyone put forth their strongest effort to support it. Injustice is new, people aren't even giving it time to develop and we are getting gameplay patches on a week-to-week basis.
I feel like this is a case of you mainly seeing things the way you want to see them. Lets talk about the hype for Injustice:

Next Level Battle Circuit -- Regardless of whether they have 30 players or 10 players show up, wetween 5K and 7K people are tuning in every single week. Everyone wants to see if Chris G will pull out another miracle, or if Rico Suave can best CD Jr., etc. For a tiny local to have that big of a following is a pretty strong sign for the scene.

Wednesday Night Fights -- This pretty much goes without saying. Great commentatary from Aris, Steve and that other guy.. About 7K viewers every wednesday, people tuning in to see if Deathstroke can tear up the bracket again, if Tyrant can beat the odds, if Rip will stop being free, etc. EGP and RDK guys are going each week and really supporting the scene.

Assorted other weeklies and training streams, including The Break in Jersey, Art and Valle getting about 1K viewers apiece every time they turn the equipment on to train, Atlanta BnB which had really great numbers and hype for the last one I watched (including Ed Boon weighing in on the matches), whatever the thing at Reno Racks' house is called, etc. Scenes popping up in random places.

All the new drama with Corn vs. the world. You can't have watched any of the aftermath videos of UFGT and say there is no hype around this game. Really?

Then there's a new regional battle cropping up with Tom and REO saying they're on another level than everyone else, GGA tearing it up in the Midwest, Aris and those guys not having travelled much yet, Jr. talking smack per usual and PerfectLegend having something to prove..

OBS was up to 1600 viewers in their 2nd to last episode.. With all kinds of FGC personalities weighing in. Scores of heated twitter convos about this game on a daily basis.

So really the only thing that's changed is that a lot of this hype isn't in the same old places you'd find it for in MK. But it's definitely there and I don't know how anyone can miss it.
 

G4S Claude VonStroke

@MK_ClaudeVS on twitter
But that wasn't hype for the game. That was because people were blowing keits up and they opened with a song talking about keits having a threesome with mr wizard. It had nothing to do with the actual gameplay in tournament.
 

CRUM

Warrior
I feel like this is a case of you mainly seeing things the way you want to see them. Lets talk about the hype for Injustice:

Next Level Battle Circuit -- Regardless of whether they have 30 players or 10 players show up, wetween 5K and 7K people are tuning in every single week. Everyone wants to see if Chris G will pull out another miracle, or if Rico Suave can best CD Jr., etc. For a tiny local to have that big of a following is a pretty strong sign for the scene.

Wednesday Night Fights -- This pretty much goes without saying. Great commentatary from Aris, Steve and that other guy.. About 7K viewers every wednesday, people tuning in to see if Deathstroke can tear up the bracket again, if Tyrant can beat the odds, if Rip will stop being free, etc. EGP and RDK guys are going each week and really supporting the scene.

Assorted other weeklies and training streams, including The Break in Jersey, Art and Valle getting about 1K viewers apiece every time they turn the equipment on to train, Atlanta BnB which had really great numbers and hype for the last one I watched (including Ed Boon weighing in on the matches), whatever the thing at Reno Racks' house is called, etc. Scenes popping up in random places.

All the new drama with Corn vs. the world. You can't have watched any of the aftermath videos of UFGT and say there is no hype around this game. Really?

Then there's a new regional battle cropping up with Tom and REO saying they're on another level than everyone else, GGA tearing it up in the Midwest, Aris and those guys not having travelled much yet, Jr. talking smack per usual and PerfectLegend having something to prove..

OBS was up to 1600 viewers in their 2nd to last episode.. With all kinds of FGC personalities weighing in. Scores of heated twitter convos about this game on a daily basis.

So really the only thing that's changed is that a lot of this hype isn't in the same old places you'd find it for in MK. But it's definitely there and I don't know how anyone can miss it.
You really think that I WANT to see no hype for Injustice? I understand that you feel it's your job to amp up the game or whatever, but the hype for Injustice compared to MK just isn't even close. I remember all of the drama and rivalries that kept me interested in MK. All you did was point out certain little happenings in the community, but quite frankly I don't see hype for them. These forums are dead in regards to hype, and I think some people are too reluctant to say that the hype for MK is missed. And the reason OBS was at an all-time high was because of how both MK and Injustice were treated at UFGT.

EDIT: Maybe it's because the game is young. But I generally think that Injustice isn't as fun to watch as MK. With all the support from other community's, I feel as though this community is in limbo. No one really cares much about MK anymore, and that's the saddest reality of it all.
 

Groove Heaven

Jobber-baron
I still love MK. I also kind of like IGAU I guess maybe. I went to VSM once and had a really good time, sucks if it's not really together anymore.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
You really think that I WANT to see no hype for Injustice? I understand that you feel it's your job to amp up the game or whatever, but the hype for Injustice compared to MK just isn't even close. I remember all of the drama and rivalries that kept me interested in MK. All you did was point out certain little happenings in the community, but quite frankly I don't see hype for them. These forums are dead in regards to hype, and I think some people are too reluctant to say that the hype for MK is missed. And the reason OBS was at an all-time high was because of how both MK and Injustice were treated at UFGT.
I think you missed my point -- all I did was state the facts; I don't feel it's a job at all, but you can't ignore that stuff as if it isn't going on.

And one of the main things I wanted to get across is exactly what I said; that the hype is out there, even if you don't find it in the usual places. Just because a lot of WNF guys don't post on TYM doesn't mean that it's not going on; and if you're used to TYM, VSM, or any other place as the only barometer of community hype then you're missing a lot of what's happening these days.

The only reason I wanted to comment is that I've noticed some people have developed tunnel vision -- if there's nothing going on in their favorite MK spot/team/show, then they assume the entire IGAU community is lacking hype.

I keep track of it so that I can write about it here; but overall people need to realize that Injustice has brought new interest in all kinds of places.
 

CRUM

Warrior
I think you missed my point -- all I did was state the facts; I don't feel it's a job at all, but you can't ignore that stuff as if it isn't going on.

And one of the main things I wanted to get across is exactly what I said; that the hype is out there, even if you don't find it in the usual places. Just because a lot of WNF guys don't post on TYM doesn't mean that it's not going on; and if you're used to TYM, VSM, or any other place as the only barometer of community hype then you're missing a lot of what's happening these days.

The only reason I wanted to comment is that I've noticed some people have developed tunnel vision -- if there's nothing going on in their favorite MK spot/team/show, then they assume the entire IGAU community is lacking hype.

I keep track of it so that I can write about it here; but overall people need to realize that Injustice has brought new interest in all kinds of places.
Interest yes, hype no. Just my opinion. I never want to jump out of my seat when I'm watching Injustice, and I'm quite sure that a lot of people share this feeling. I think what pisses me off is that MK gets no love or support anymore.