CrazyFingers
The Power of Lame Compels You
Hey guys, it's been a really long time since I've posted one of these more intellectual threads but I decided with the recent talk about NEC and discussions about the post-patch tiers, I figured I would try and shed some light on one of the biggest things people discuss when it comes to this and that being tournament results. Now before I get into this I should probably explain what I mean. Basically, whenever there's a character that is 'bad' starts placing in tournaments or hell even just places once, an entire explosion of debate begins because the people who think the character is still bad state "Tournament results don't mean anything, bad characters place plenty and good characters sometimes never place at all" and I totally get that. However we can't act like Tournament Results do not at all reflect the strength of a character. To me, that statement is just ridiculous. A character winning really means nothing at all when referring to strength? Let's go through this step by step shall we?
Characters Who Are Bad Placing in Tournament
Okay, so there's this argument that characters who aren't strong or sometimes actively bad have placed in tournament before, this doesn't make them good. Perfect example is Mr. Aquaman placing with Ares in tournament during the Injustice days. I have talked to him on multiple occasions about Ares and he's basically told me he attributes a lot of his victory to how damn gimmicky Ares was. Early on in the lifespan of Injustice, hardly anyone knew the Ares matchup and therefor they got slaughtered because of it. However when you actually began to lab the character and get down to the thick of it, the character was mostly smoke and mirrors. Now how exactly did he place though? We already know the character was possibly bottom 3 material, Mr. Aquaman placed with him. Clearly that means tournament results don't matter in that aspect right? Well, yes and no. You see, when you are early on in a game's life cycle, minds are fresh and not nearly as much is known about characters, which is where Ares, Lord of the Gimmicks, thrives. This bit of information, is very important for the 'Tournament Results don't mean jack for strength' argument. People like to chock it up to 'he just didn't know the matchup, who even plays that character?' and them getting blown up for it. I can't refute that, this is what Ares did to you. So for that side of the argument, they have a solid point.
Character Who Are Bad NOT Placing in Tournament
This bit is something that people seem to forget. Even though bad characters can most certainly place in tournament, and have in the past, no one bats and eye when a top player who's playing a bottom character, doesn't place. Why don't they? Well the statement you'll hear is probably something like, "Well of course he didn't place, *insert character here* is trash tier" now wait a minute, didn't you just say that bad characters can place in tournament? You can't have your cake and eat it too man. Bad characters CAN win but you hardly, if ever see them win. People nine times out of ten will be playing a character they feel can compete. Example, anyone ever who was dumb enough to enter tournament with Unbreakable Sub-Zero at any point in the game's life until this latest patch. If you saw an Unbreakable enter a tournament and drown in pools, you wouldn't say a single damn word and might even be like "what did you expect." In short, bad character can win, that doesn't mean they do, and hell, they hardly ever do.
Characters Who Are Top Tier NOT Placing in Tournament
Okay here's where we get into the thick of it. Top tier characters is where most players who want to compete will flock to, so that they can win, as we all know. However, those are those top tier characters that just don't get representation, but everyone unanimously agrees on the character being top tier. Biggest example in the NRS scene probably being Cyrax in MK9. Only having a few players who really made the character shined and even placing with him, Cyrax was still known as a top tier monster, being at least Top 3 in the game no questions asked. Yet if you saw a Cyrax player drown in pools, you wouldn't yell that Cyrax was trash, he was clearly busted. So what does this mean? It simply means, sometimes you don't win. If you're losing with a Top Tier character it could mean you're not using the character to its fullest or maybe you're just bad, who knows and even then, good players playing Top Tiers lose plenty. Maybe it was a bad matchup or they just got outplayed. It's a fighting game, stuff happens and sometimes you lose. At the end of the day, the better player will most likely win.
Characters Who Are Top Tier Placing in Tournament
This is pretty similar to the bad characters not placing section. The expectation is that the good characters will place and the bad characters won't. When bad characters place, it's a struggle and you can SEE that it's a struggle. When good characters place it might still look like a struggle, but you can visibly see that the pre-patch Alien player, is having less of a hard time than the pre-patch Unbreakable player. When SonicFox was placing with Acidic countless times, no one batted an eye. "He's Sonic and Acidic is busted, what's to be surprised about. Obviously Alien is going to win, the character is busted." yea well here's the thing, if we're saying "Obviously X character is going to place, he/she is busted." we can't be looking at usually presumed bad characters placing and going "well no matchup knowledge" or "Low Tiers can place" the harsh reality is that bottom tiers RARELY place if ever. Stop acting like it's a normal thing that happens when those are the outliars and not the normalities.
So after all of that, DO tournament results matter when talking about a character's strength? Well I firmly believe they absolutely can but it's all about context. Ares isn't top tier because in month one Aquaman did well with him. Cyrax wasn't booty tier because a blind guy played him and didn't place. When you see a top player using a character and winning CONVINCINGLY with that character, against people who know the matchup just fine, there might be a chance that *gasp* the character is good. So remember, when you start waving around tournament results for arguments or dismissing them, look at the context.
Characters Who Are Bad Placing in Tournament
Okay, so there's this argument that characters who aren't strong or sometimes actively bad have placed in tournament before, this doesn't make them good. Perfect example is Mr. Aquaman placing with Ares in tournament during the Injustice days. I have talked to him on multiple occasions about Ares and he's basically told me he attributes a lot of his victory to how damn gimmicky Ares was. Early on in the lifespan of Injustice, hardly anyone knew the Ares matchup and therefor they got slaughtered because of it. However when you actually began to lab the character and get down to the thick of it, the character was mostly smoke and mirrors. Now how exactly did he place though? We already know the character was possibly bottom 3 material, Mr. Aquaman placed with him. Clearly that means tournament results don't matter in that aspect right? Well, yes and no. You see, when you are early on in a game's life cycle, minds are fresh and not nearly as much is known about characters, which is where Ares, Lord of the Gimmicks, thrives. This bit of information, is very important for the 'Tournament Results don't mean jack for strength' argument. People like to chock it up to 'he just didn't know the matchup, who even plays that character?' and them getting blown up for it. I can't refute that, this is what Ares did to you. So for that side of the argument, they have a solid point.
Character Who Are Bad NOT Placing in Tournament
This bit is something that people seem to forget. Even though bad characters can most certainly place in tournament, and have in the past, no one bats and eye when a top player who's playing a bottom character, doesn't place. Why don't they? Well the statement you'll hear is probably something like, "Well of course he didn't place, *insert character here* is trash tier" now wait a minute, didn't you just say that bad characters can place in tournament? You can't have your cake and eat it too man. Bad characters CAN win but you hardly, if ever see them win. People nine times out of ten will be playing a character they feel can compete. Example, anyone ever who was dumb enough to enter tournament with Unbreakable Sub-Zero at any point in the game's life until this latest patch. If you saw an Unbreakable enter a tournament and drown in pools, you wouldn't say a single damn word and might even be like "what did you expect." In short, bad character can win, that doesn't mean they do, and hell, they hardly ever do.
Characters Who Are Top Tier NOT Placing in Tournament
Okay here's where we get into the thick of it. Top tier characters is where most players who want to compete will flock to, so that they can win, as we all know. However, those are those top tier characters that just don't get representation, but everyone unanimously agrees on the character being top tier. Biggest example in the NRS scene probably being Cyrax in MK9. Only having a few players who really made the character shined and even placing with him, Cyrax was still known as a top tier monster, being at least Top 3 in the game no questions asked. Yet if you saw a Cyrax player drown in pools, you wouldn't yell that Cyrax was trash, he was clearly busted. So what does this mean? It simply means, sometimes you don't win. If you're losing with a Top Tier character it could mean you're not using the character to its fullest or maybe you're just bad, who knows and even then, good players playing Top Tiers lose plenty. Maybe it was a bad matchup or they just got outplayed. It's a fighting game, stuff happens and sometimes you lose. At the end of the day, the better player will most likely win.
Characters Who Are Top Tier Placing in Tournament
This is pretty similar to the bad characters not placing section. The expectation is that the good characters will place and the bad characters won't. When bad characters place, it's a struggle and you can SEE that it's a struggle. When good characters place it might still look like a struggle, but you can visibly see that the pre-patch Alien player, is having less of a hard time than the pre-patch Unbreakable player. When SonicFox was placing with Acidic countless times, no one batted an eye. "He's Sonic and Acidic is busted, what's to be surprised about. Obviously Alien is going to win, the character is busted." yea well here's the thing, if we're saying "Obviously X character is going to place, he/she is busted." we can't be looking at usually presumed bad characters placing and going "well no matchup knowledge" or "Low Tiers can place" the harsh reality is that bottom tiers RARELY place if ever. Stop acting like it's a normal thing that happens when those are the outliars and not the normalities.
So after all of that, DO tournament results matter when talking about a character's strength? Well I firmly believe they absolutely can but it's all about context. Ares isn't top tier because in month one Aquaman did well with him. Cyrax wasn't booty tier because a blind guy played him and didn't place. When you see a top player using a character and winning CONVINCINGLY with that character, against people who know the matchup just fine, there might be a chance that *gasp* the character is good. So remember, when you start waving around tournament results for arguments or dismissing them, look at the context.
