KI should’ve been there man. We had 540 entrants last year and all the data for the past 12 months so far suggests that the entrants numbers would have went up this year.
Jeez.
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whats BB? blazblue?
Correct
I still don’t get why they needed two Smash games but KI couldn’t even get into the lineup. So dissapointing. You can argue they make numbers, but that’s still so crushing for both spectators and fans.
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Big drop in entrants for all games. I wonder what happened?
You have T7 which just got released to the public so that caused a boost there. I would say SFV is declining due to all the issues and people becoming frustrated with the game. UMvC3 is dying plus the horrible PR of Infinite might cause a decrease. Sm4sh might be lower because of the Switch replacing the Wii U. Not sure about Melee though. As for GG, I have no clue but the drop wasn’t that large compared to the rest
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Well, I think the absolutely insane numbers SFV got last year were mostly just a pretty big outlier owing to the fact that it was so new. Its number basically just returned to the SF4 trendline of increasing numbers each year. On the whole though, there are quite a few tournaments to go to throughout the year now, so it kind of makes sense (to me anyway) that many people would go to closer tournaments where they’re more likely to do well, know people, and not spend as much on food or travel.
For myself, I went to the one Evo I did just because I wanted to see KI on the biggest stage, but overall I wasn’t really impressed with the event itself and wouldn’t have come back even if KI was there again. I think I might be in the minority on that point, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the other first-timers felt the same. I’ve liked both CEO’s more than Evo, and I hear Combo Breaker is the best of them all (the way they support all games is awesome). I do wish KI had made it back to Evo though - the game saw consistently increasing numbers each year, and I find it very hard to believe we wouldn’t have outperformed KOF14 entrants (though I like KOF and want it to do well). Is what it is though -shrug-
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Usually the reason given for two Smash games is because the two games have completely different fanbases. Some people love Smash Melee and will refuse to play Smash 4 and vice versa. They both also have huge turnouts, so as a TO, if you decide to take away one, you upset a large part of the FGC and lose tons of money as well.
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Evo’s reputation has been dwindling somewhat with tournies like cb being so great as well as games getting their own specialized events
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Considering there’s no KI at EVO I’m not hyped at all.
I’m looking forward to defend the north to watch some KI.
Also SF has the eleague and the pro tours around the world which are meaningful for their own cup. However EVO is EVO. Still a bit surprised about the numbers. But people have their reasons to not assist. like Storm clearly did.
I’m more hyped about Justin Wong coming to my country to play in the CPT XD I think watching some SFV or other games friends figthing him would be really interesting!
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Evo was really poorly run last year all around, so I think they lost a lot of first-timers who won’t be going back (I’m not a first timer, but last year was likely my last ever Evo because of how poorly it was run). That, and the fact that many people registered for SFV before the game even came out, so I feel the numbers were a bit inflated as many people just didn’t bother going once they found out they didn’t like the game that much (I would love to know how many people actually showed up for their SFV pools, and how many were no-shows last year).
Numbers for pretty much all FGC tournaments (except Combo Breaker, good for them) have been drastically down this year. And I think a lot of that has to do with the general dissatisfaction towards Capcom/SFV and the potential esports bubble bursting. People are starting to realize that many pro players who claimed they were in it for the love of the game are just in in for the money/for themselves, and Capcom (our frontrunner) can’t actually build a game that matches the quality of what they used to do, or even the quality of any of their competitors. So despite there being lots of other good games out there, people just kinda… lose interest in the general tournament circuit.
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WOW… Evo is just falling apart. Glad to see the other events that DO support KI doing better than EVO.
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In some cases, I find it disheartening. Take Gamerbee, for example. Despite his successes in the game, he’s struggling to find something to enjoy in it, which really makes me feel for him because he brought something new to the table when he came onto the scene back in 2012 I believe.
I’m not going to beat a dead horse on my thoughts on the game. So if you’re looking for more in-depth thoughts, check here. Overall, the game, to me, isn’t fun to practice anymore and neutral is way too messy. Needs a quality of life change(s), and badly.
Tekken’s increased numbers are great to hear considering, that game certainly deserves that. It’s a quality game. I think KoF needs some time to develop their community more, while I’m getting into the game myself, it’s a bit of an adjustment to get used to.
Right now though, Dragon Ball Fighter Z has, in my opinion, grabbed our community (the FGC) with a very fierce vicegrip. They have an extremely iconic franchise that is much more popular than many of our current talent has in front of us today. They’re having a demo of that game at EVO this year, including onsite registration and online registration tournaments for the game. I doubt I’ll sign up for them, but ArcSys literally could shoot to infinity and beyond with this game. It might knock off Street Fighter for the top spot which that series has held for quite some time, I am honestly starting to think this can come to fruition.
This, in turn, will only help this community grow though and create competition to get out better products to the masses. Competition always breeds more opportunity, in my opinion. Digressing a bit, but returning to topic
Considering EVO has been on the rise for eight years in a row, perhaps this is something to bring it back down to earth and get things in check. Would KI have increased entrants if it had another shot? The data has shown that it could have, but we’re not there so that’s that. The entire thing needs casual stations for everyone, badly.
In addition, I certainly hope this year runs on time.
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I have no sympathy for EVO or any desire to watch it this year.
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To be clear, I don’t fault people like Gamerbee for playing SFV for money, despite not liking it. If I was in his position (play SFV or get a real job), and it was my dream to be a pro gamer, then I would probably do the same thing.
It’s just the sad reality of the FGC that I think is hitting a lot of people; the quality of the game means literally nothing when it comes to popularity in the scene. People will play what is easy, simple, has the most money/tournament entrants (even if they have no chance of making any esports money themselves), and is the game their favorite FGC pro (Daigo, Momochi, Sako, etc) is currently playing, even if they too are playing it just for money.
And all this is really disheartening. For me, anyway, I suppose I can’t speak for others, but there are probably others like me.
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Just give KI a big fat prize pot and we’re world famous.
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Looks like Evo had a done a massive nose dive to me!
In the light of these numbers why not allow another game like KI to have a spot?
I’ve never really cared about EVO if I’m honest but it would be good to see KI there
Just to start off with, I really don’t see the impetus for hoping Evo fails, and certainly not for calling it a failure this year. I didn’t think Evo was all that great last year, but I’ve no desire to see it crash and burn. Evo actually going under would herald a huge negative shift in all tournaments, and I don’t see why a FG player would want to see that happen. Further, even with precipitous decline in the main game (the others largely held most steady, or bounced only slightly up or down), Evo is still the biggest game in town. It’s probably doing fine. They’ll retool and rescale from what they did this year, but a well organized (from a financial standpoint) event should certainly not go under from a single underperforming year.
To @Infilament’s point, I guess I’m not super surprised? I was never one of those people who thought these pros were doing it all for the love of the game anyway. That’s what it means to be a “professional” in the most basic sense of the word - you have a job to do and you do it well, regardless of whether you adore it or not. I don’t believe JWong and Chris G (or even Tokido) stopped playing KI because KI wasn’t fun - they stopped because this is their livelihood and KI wasn’t the game that would advance their careers (and that’s totally fine!). I think a lot of SF4’s growth was because it was a good game that people liked, but a lot of it (especially later) was also because that’s the game that everyone else was playing and that’s where the money was. People hated some of the stuff in USF4, but that’s what they were plugged into and that’s where the big tourney opportunities were.
The moment videogames become about putting food on the table, it’s no longer a hobby. It’s a job, and that means you go to it whether you like it or not. I feel like I saw that in the last “generation” of tournaments, so not surprised at all to see it replicated for these new releases. This was always going to be true as real money moved into the FGC.
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This is what scares me. People will blindly follow a franchise, even if it isn’t doing well.
I think if Marvel doesn’t do well, it’s gonna hurt the FGC massively, IMO.
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People will also award said franchise an undeserved “best fighting game” medal. Politics at its finest.
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