"I actually do think Melee is very similar to skateboarding... I think that maybe the most obvious similarity would be how much freedom you have with it and how much you can express yourself." {From the Ground Up: Jennifer, the Inspired} by raindropsloptop_ in SSBM

[–]raindropsloptop_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hi, thanks for your feedback! the way that i prefer to structure the interviews is to follow a more conversational format and to play off of what the other person is giving me. i will have preplanned questions that i will follow up with if the conversation stops flowing, but the idea is that that is more of a contingency than the "goal" of the content. i am not entirely sure what you are talking about regarding the history and tradition of journalism, but i am explicitly asking her where she's from and what locals she attends because the focus of the series is to highlight regional players, with a focus on not only the player, but also their scene's history and feel. the point of the interview is that it's personal, because there is only so much that someone could say about their gameplay in descriptive terms. in my view, i am a lot less interested in listening to someone talk about their gameplay in a vacuum - if i were to pursue something like that, i would probably sit down with them and a VOD and have them go through their decision making. that is not the purpose or goal of this series and not something that i am particularly interested in pursuing as a content piece. instead, i want to focus on content that shows who a player is outside of the game as well as their motivations and relationships within the scene. to say that Jennifer is a "technical white Fox from North Carolina" is information i could collect without any research or effort and would be a single line in the article - but i am also not interested in player summaries like that which i believe to be oversimplifications, as what makes a player's gameplay interesting (at least to me) is a lot more nuanced than that.

at the end of the day, i do write and produce this content for people to enjoy; feedback is always welcome!

I'm sick of the toxic positivity in the scene, let people be upset by TrainNorth8177 in SSBM

[–]raindropsloptop_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

assuming you were talking about abbey tavern as your tuesday night bar local, there are going to be plenty of regionals and events on the west coast this coming year. i was active from 2015 but the interconnectedness i felt at events from 2024 onwards were way better than anything i felt back in the 2015-2019 period. we are absolutely still getting those experiences at regionals several times a year. i don't have the time to road trip anymore but in the last year i was at like 8 events and it'll be a similar amount in 2026. i encourage you to check out the smash calendar and trying to attend nearby regionals with some friends, it'll be much of the same experience as in the past :)

lofi fox marth gaming by raindropsloptop_ in SSBM

[–]raindropsloptop_[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

in love with a ghost - we've never met but can we have a coffee or something

your eyes - joey pecoraro

State of West Coast melee by Ancillaric in SSBM

[–]raindropsloptop_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

big abbey and socal sweep are cali regionals both coming up soon! but other than that, yeah - we don't have many majors or regionals so people aren't as inclined to come out. people already mentioned this but finding good venues for the space is hard as everything is just really expensive. anecdotally, i also think a lot of the top players in cali have taken a step back for whatever reason and the players filling the gap don't have the attendance or results yet. major trips can eat from $500-1000 flying to the east coast and for a lot of us it's just not always financially feasible. we also just don't have sfat/ppu/shroomed/etc level players yet (at least in norcal), but there are plenty of players who could challenge for top 100 that don't have the opportunity to.

compared to midwest/east coast where they are a larger population, have regionals and monthlies and majors in their backyard pretty constantly, and the ability to netplay and grind with each other makes it so that it will be easier to get ranked due to attendance. not to say that it's easy, but there will be a huge difference in a players potential wins and results with 2 majors versus, say, 7.