You Can’t Judge A Competitive Game

at least not one you’re actively playing. If you know you know.

And if you don’t, that’s why I’m making this.

The thing that brought this to my attention was one of Esam’s videos where he was responding to criticisms of Ultimate.

The Original Video :arrow_down:

Esam’s Response Video :arrow_down:

I watched all of the first video (as should everyone because Fudj makes good vids), but I only got a little more than halfway into Esam’s video before dropping it. Why’s that? Because Esam kept dropping this one word that gave me a pretty good summary of the rest of the vid:

Adapt.

Well, not directly saying it, moreso implying. Most of it was “you can change whatever xyz” or “y’all just miss smash 4”(which I do) but it kinda just clung onto me that this was a fairly shitty response video. And because it clung onto me, I understand where Esam is coming from a little but not enough to justify the video honestly.

“Just adapt” is a simultaneously smart and stupid suggestion. Smart because yeah; you can quite literally adapt to any situation with enough effort. Stupid because it’s not as simple as flipping a switch an all of a sudden everything clicks. What a lot of people think is that the effort stops being put in when someone starts taking losses, but really

People don’t quit because they’re losing, they quit because they’re not having fun.

But winning and having fun get mixed up so often it’s hard to really differentiate the two. I’d rather lose 100 times to someone with an entertaining and thought provoking playstyle than win against someone who’s got less personality than a pebble. The ratio of entertainment to winning gets thrown out the window once a competitive mindset is properly implemented, however.

Instead, having fun becomes more of a second hand thought than anything. The goal is winning; if you’re not winning, you need to adapt. Still, there’s a threshold for the amount of joy the game gives you. If you hit the point where the fun of the game stops being apparent, you’ll quit, no matter how much you’re winning. ZeRo, that dude that should be rotting in a jail cell? Undeniably the best Smash 4 player but he couldn’t handle competing because a certain character made the game outright unenjoyable for him.

Got a bit off topic there but whatever. Adopting the competitive mindset also means you have to sync your actions to the flow of the game as much as possible; in order words, adapt, and heavily. You can change upon will, the game can’t and won’t. You have to blame yourself wholly whenever you take a loss, as you weren’t in sync with the game as much as possible.

I feel like this is a big part as to why the popular opinion on Smash games shifts a couple of years once the game’s competitive scene dies down. Brawl started off with a fairly negative competitive reception on release but every once in a while you’ll see twitter dot com gush over one of its features or something in that regard. Same thing I’m guessing is gonna happen to Smash 4 in a couple of years time, and Melee if it were to miraculously die somehow.

TL;DR: You can’t be truthfully critical of a competitive game you play while actively competing in it.

This was literally a get this off my chest rant so pay no heed #TwilightWings

Best Wishes, Draco M.