I watched Dragon's video. At no time did he say that MK11 wasn't competitively viable. I don't think he even used the word "balance" a single time. What he did say (twice actually) was that MK11 is an "incredibly well-made" game at its core and that he likes it very much. So as a start, maybe we can stop trying to gaslight people with false claims that Dragon (and all the non-"kids" in the world, apparently) agree with your extreme (and demonstrably false) take on the game.
What Dragon did talk about was some thoughtful, reasonable critiques of a few of the game's mechanics that he thinks are flaws, mainly because they skew the risk-reward ratio in certain ways:
- Breakaways; flawless blocks: Both of these give the defender an opportunity to punish the attacker even after the defender got hit; thus the attacker has to deal with a risk of being punished just for trying to cash in the reward from the hit;
- Jump kicks; fatal blows: These attacks are very powerful but very difficult to punish consistently; thus the attacker gets the potential of huge reward without needing to take on a fair level of risk to get it.
I agree (and I suspect most people here do) that these are all dumb, because they go against basic FG fundamentals. If you land a hit, you should get the reward without having to play an ugly mind game around it. And if you throw out an attack that has a big potential reward, you should be taking an equally big risk if your opponent defends correctly.
But Dragon never said these things were anti-competitive--which (to me) would mean that they break the game so badly that superior skill no longer matters; anyone could win, regardless of skill, by abusing these mechanics. That's completely untrue. Yes, they definitely violate our sense of fairness and sportsmanship; they don't reward fundamentals and instead encourage some ugly behavior--but you CAN play around them, and people do, every day. Yes, they introduce a bit more guessing and randomness--but the person who plays with more skill is still far more likely to come out on top.
A lot of people would prefer not to compete in a game like this; that's fine. But it's a big honkin' stretch to claim that
no one can compete in it; that's complete nonsense.
