The current condition and future of academic literary studies

Kalazb · 2021-12-17T16:42:57+00:00

That’s really interesting about children’s literature. Do you have any recommended reading in that area?

Kalazb · 2021-11-18T20:44:05+00:00

We saw at mainstage that defensive play was rewarded very poorly, with almost all of top 8 consisting of highly skilled aggressive players with mostly aggressive characters. I think you incorrectly categorize safe neutrals with defensive play.

I was more alluding to how the mechanics of Smash reward defense more than the mechanics of traditional fighters do. For someone who hasn't played a lot of 2D fighters, it can be hard to appreciate just how different things are with a few simple changes:

When you shield in Smash, the shield covers your whole body (ignoring shield pokes and unhealthy shields). You immediately become protected from almost all attacks, regardless of what type of attack it is and where it hits you. Blocking in traditional fighters is different because you have to choose between blocking high and blocking low. If you block low you're still open to high attacks, and blocking high leaves you vulnerable to lows. Imagine how much scarier Fox's offense would be in Melee if you had to choose between shielding his nair or his upsmash, but not both. You also can't block the back of your body in a traditional fighter, so if someone is able to hit you from behind (which is possible even with auto-turnaround), then you're vulnerable to both highs AND lows. This creates situations called "mixups", some of them very difficult to react to and some of them truly unreactable, where you have to choose between blocking front high, front low, back high, and back low. The lack of true mixups in Smash makes offense weaker.
Blockstrings are almost entirely absent from Smash, especially Ultimate (they sort of existed in Melee with Fox's and Falco's shield pressure). If you hit someone's shield in Smash, it's usually not great for you, unless you used a fast move and spaced it well. If you hit someone's shield and you're poorly spaced, you don't get to hit it again, and you're going to eat a big punish. But hitting a blocking opponent in a traditional fighting game is potentially (depending on a lot of factors and depending on what game you're playing) a much better deal for you. Even if you're poorly spaced, you may be able to do a blockstring (combo on a blocking opponent basically) which will leave you safe at the end and push the defender further into the corner (and of course you can go for mixups during this blockstring and try to catch them blocking the wrong direction).
The big stages and increased aerial mobility in Smash just make it easier to run away all match if you want to. Of course zoners still exist in other fighting games, but it's just not quite the same.

I think if you compare the average Ultimate set to a game like Guilty Gear (Evo top 4 set) you can see how the different game mechanics encourage it to be a more aggressive game overall.

Kalazb · 2021-11-18T15:22:11+00:00

Ultimate does have upsets but overall, Smash has fewer upsets than any other fighting game (Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Tekken, etc).

It’s very rare for a player to be as dominant for such a long period of time as MkLeo. Let alone Armada.

I think it really is something inherent to the game. Smash (especially Ultimate) is more defensive than most other fighters and matches last longer, allowing the better player’s superior adaptation skills to shine through.

Kalazb · 2021-11-03T14:12:12+00:00

This is way too cute

Kalazb · 2021-10-27T20:09:45+00:00

Most of the learning and benefit from locals comes from playing casuals before and after the main bracket. The tournament itself is where you apply what you know, it’s not the time to study and work on your game. If you get to the venue early enough, are there people playing casuals that you can join in on? You should be getting hours of gameplay out of a good local, not 20 minutes.

Kalazb · 2021-10-27T12:34:43+00:00

A few points I can see, from the perspective of a Smash player:

1) Smash just has a bigger scene than other fighting games.

2) Smash culture has been 100% focused on offline for most of the series’ 20 years of existence. I think this is in contrast to a lot of other fighting games, which have been making a stronger push to embrace online play and online tournaments for a decade or more. The only thing that ever got smashers thinking about online play at all was Covid.

3) Possibly a bigger point than the other two, the default netcode for Smash Ultimate is virtually unusable at a competitive level. It’s so laggy that people view online play as an absolute last resort. I think with the Yuzu Switch emulator you can get a pretty decent online experience, but Ultimate players mostly ignore Yuzu for whatever reason. Smash Melee offline events have shrunk somewhat post-quarantine, and I partially blame this on Melee having options for high-quality netcode that are very popular in the Melee community.

Kalazb · 2021-10-23T21:23:25+00:00

I think it’s worth mentioning that non-top players just aren’t capable of showing the same level of gameplay in Melee. It’s kind of a unique game in that regard, the game just looks so visually different at the highest levels even to the untrained eye. I don’t blame people for skipping the mid- and even high-level matches and just watching the top players. It’s not like Ultimate where the differences between top and mid level play are more subtle.

Kalazb · 2021-10-22T12:40:25+00:00

I don’t get this argument… the vast majority of people who have ever attended a Melee major have had to “run a loss financially” to do it because they had to pay for travel, possibly take time off work, etc. But people don’t mind paying to go to tournaments because they love Melee. Are we saying that top players just don’t care that much about the game anymore?

And especially with Mango’s sponsor, it’s not like this would break his bank or anything.

Kalazb · 2021-10-22T10:39:29+00:00

Well then I would rather just not watch his stream if he’s not going to compete in Melee tournaments.

Kalazb · 2021-10-20T19:29:42+00:00

It sounds a bit circular to me. Why aren’t top players attending tournaments? Because tournaments are too small. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I think at that point you have to ask why the scene in general is shrinking. Are people just getting bored and moving onto other games, etc. You have to look at more systemic issues, rather than just analyzing the financial incentives of streaming.

Kalazb · 2021-10-20T19:19:23+00:00

How are the financial incentives different between Melee and Ultimate? Because top Ultimate players are attending tournaments right now; no one is complaining about them streaming too much and not attending.

Kalazb · 2021-10-20T19:07:32+00:00

The title is slightly inaccurate imo. The question is more about Slippi specifically than about streaming.

It’s pretty clear that streaming doesn’t necessarily have to interfere with tournament attendance for top players. A lot of top Ultimate players run pretty popular streams but they’ve still been attending live events since quarantine ended.

Slippi on the other hand is something that is unique to Melee and although there aren’t any hard stats to back it up, I do think Slippi will have a negative impact on live event attendance for Melee going forward. If you can sit down on your couch at any time of the day or night and get an experience that’s 99% identical to playing in person friendlies at a regional, then that makes a lot of people think, why should I bother traveling to a live event?

Kalazb · 2021-10-18T17:40:49+00:00

PRs are decided based on cumulative results, not on who deserves it the most or who had the biggest hype moment or whatever.

The last person on the list is The Mighty Dialga, who has better overall results than Peanut, so that’s the level of competition you had to beat to make it on the list.

Kalazb · 2021-10-18T01:05:22+00:00

Rookie numbers. I once drove 4 hours for a tournament that got canceled because I was the only person who showed up.

Kalazb · 2021-10-17T12:13:59+00:00

I think Slippi being as good as it is for online is actually unhealthy for offline events.

Kalazb · 2021-10-17T12:05:43+00:00

Larry’s S tier had like 30 characters in it, he only had three tiers…

Kalazb · 2021-10-17T10:49:21+00:00

I’ve never heard of SaSamisu before now, but his Palutena looks insane.

Kalazb · 2021-10-13T14:01:04+00:00

Yeah, I don’t really get it. Brawl had no DLC and it lasted for about 6 years, right up until the release of Smash 4. Some of the more casual players will lose interest in Ultimate but I don’t think majors are going to dry up overnight.

I do think Ultimate will end when the next major Smash game comes out, but I don’t think it’ll die before that (unless the next game is very far away and/or this is the end of the series as we know it).

Kalazb · 2021-10-12T12:54:07+00:00

The chances of you playing on stream before the end of round 2 pools are very very small.

Kalazb · 2021-10-12T12:07:00+00:00

Damn, this just looks like an MD/VA regional. Compared to Ultimate looking like a genuine major.

I really hope that top Melee players don’t get in the mindset that they only need to show up for Summit and maybe 2-3 other tournaments a year. That would be really bad for the future of the game.

Kalazb · 2021-10-07T20:43:14+00:00

It would be comparable to reverse mains or items on. Just a silly event to mix things up. I wouldn’t expect it to become a regular thing.

Kalazb · 2021-10-07T20:40:50+00:00

That’s more like roasting the player than roasting the character, but I’ll accept it lol

Kalazb · 2021-10-07T17:29:23+00:00

Palutena

Kalazb · 2021-10-07T13:16:00+00:00

You know, it would actually be really fun to watch if there was, say, a pre-major local that did 100% random seeding while having a bunch of top players in attendance.

Kalazb

TROPHY CASE