The summer of Smash is in full swing at this point, with CEO 2015 in the books and now FC Return having concluded as well. What did we learn FC this past weekend?
1. TSM Leffen =/= old Leffen
Leffen had a rough early part of 2015, losing sets to HugS, SFAT, and Axe at a string of tourneys and going winless against fellow big six members between January and May. But during these past few weeks, Leffen has been a changed man. He won CEO and FC without dropping a set, and has seemingly re-asserted dominance over Armada and Hungrybox. Learning to deal with expectations and settle in as a member of TSM may just have been the last ingredient Leffen needed to truly become a worldwide Melee superstar. Now let’s see if he can prove his worth vs Mango and PPMD on the biggest stage.
2. Never, ever run three stock Smash Wii U… ever
The FC day two schedule moved along at a snail’s pace in part because the inexplicable decision to run three stock Smash 4 caused delays, which were further amplified by the queueing up of multiple stream matches and the excessive number of game changeovers. PSA to all TOs, please ignore the vocal, entitled, never-ran-a-tourney-before social media monsters that argue for a three stock Smash 4 ruleset. Stick to the proven two stock ruleset so you can finish the tourney at a reasonable hour.
3. Old school events must catch up to the modern TOing metagame
As great as the in-person player experience was for me at FC, I can imagine the viewer experience was probably rough. We can’t have stream schedules that feature Melee Top 32 from 9am-11am EST, or paper brackets that don’t get put onto Challonge or SmashGG, or four changeovers between Melee and Smash 4 on the same stream during finals day of a major. The Kishes are fantastic hosts, but this weekend was an example of how old school events must understand what the modern 2015 Smash tourney looks like and what stream content is most valuable to viewers these days.
4. There is no favorite to win Melee at Evo 2015
In previous years going into Evo, there was a fairly agreeable delineation between who was the #1 overall seed, the #2 overall seed, the #3 overall seed, etc. but that’s absolutely not true this year. Armada, Leffen, Mango, PPMD (alphabetical order) all have a solid case for being the favorite to win it all. With a skillful argument, one could even include Hungrybox up there too. This is by far the closest these players have ever been to each other in perceived skill level.
5. Bracket luck will wreak havoc at Evo 2015
Mango is 4-0 vs Leffen in their last four sets. Leffen is 3-0 vs Armada in their last three sets. Armada is 5-1 vs Mango in their last six sets. An epic game of rock-paper-scissors is brewing in the Evo 2015 bracket. Armada is holding the short straw right now, having been placed on the same half as Leffen in the Evo 2015 bracket. But Mango’s path is difficult too, with a projected clash vs Westballz in quarters and PPMD in semis on his half of the bracket. For the first time in awhile, I have no idea who to bet on going into an upcoming major.
Thanks again for another great write up. I love reading these after a tournament because they summarise things that may have been overlooked from a viewer perspective.
You’re right about the viewer experience. I didn’t know what was going on, it seemed like they were switching between Melee and Smash 4 after every 2 sets for some reason. I personally prefer having either two separate streams (vgbc1 and vgbc2) or having both games at different time slots. Again, I’m speaking from a pure viewer experience. For me, it kills the momentum when they play a few sets and then switch the stream set up to the other game. When you’re watching the bracket, you want to see it all the way through until the end for the game you find more entertaining to watch (having top 8 at a different time or day is fine). I prefer playing one Smash game more than the other, and the other one is way more exciting and entertaining to watch because of its history and how far it’s come. The one thing that always needs to be addressed is: Is this a great viewer experience for the person at home staying awake, sometimes until 6 or 7am (international time zone differences)
Anyway, EVO is almost upon us! I hope TOs and staff continue to think about and improve the viewer experiences for all tournaments that they run throughout the year.
#TBH5 wooooo
ty for not immediately taking a super-extremist side on how streaming was handled. /r/smashbros seems to be switching from “TOs are satan” to “TOs are infallible, how dare you ever criticize them” regularly in the past few days. it’s silly to assume that anyone’s somehow above critique, but then they’ll sometimes take it a bit too far
So, It’s not really 3 stock that was the issue, but that the round robin was 3 stock Bo5’s which is absolutely overkill. I do prefer 2 stocks but solely blaming the length of the smash 4 segment on 3 stock isn’t right either.
I honestly thought 3 stocks was fine for smash 4 from the matches that I witnessed. Then again, with the stream showing more friendlies than actual tournament sets, who is to say if the tournament matches I did see were the norm.
I think one of the biggest stumbles of FC were the throwback tournaments, particularly on Smash 4. They were unbelievably slow and boring (the ones on stream). It’s obviously not normal, playing with items, but it was clear that, in the GF, no one knew how to actually use them effectively which slowed the game down even more. If that’s how every match of this side event played out, I can only imagine the time delays. Combine this with abnormal stage selection and there was a good solid hour or two of the stream wasted while tournament sets were being played in the background (according to the commentators).
So again, I don’t think 3 stocks was the problem. I also definitely don’t think FC should be the answer as to whether or not 2 or 3 is best for Smash Wii U.
Overall though, I think with everything that was fit into FC:Return, successfully might I add despite not being able to put everything on stream, was great. I think everyone would have liked to see more matches played out on stream, but at the end of the day, we saw Finals of everything. On the negative side, the lack of knowing what was happening on stream and how brackets had progressed made the viewer experience less than ideal.
So excellent job TO’s. FC:return was a lot to handle. In the end, it was successful.
“PSA to all TOs, please ignore the vocal, entitled, never-ran-a-tourney-before social media monsters that argue for a three stock Smash 4 ruleset.”
Paging German TOs, paging literally every single German TO.
I run 3 stock at my tournaments. We make it work with only 4 hours from the start of the tournament to when the venue closes. Kunai runs larger regionals with round robin pools and three stocks. So does DNL. Every TO in Germany makes 3 stock Smash 4 work. If I may make a suggestion: the problem might not be the fact that you’re running 3 stocks. It’s probably something else.
“The FC day two schedule moved along at a snail’s pace in part because the inexplicable decision to run three stock Smash 4 caused delays, which were further amplified by the queueing up of multiple stream matches and the excessive number of game changeovers.”
Excellent research, 10/10, 11/10 with rice.
The speed at which the bracket ran is definitely only traceable to 3 stocks instead of unoptimal pool supervision or custom move stalling. It is all because of 3 stocks.
Can I please use your sources and statistics to prove it to the outside world?