At the start, I need to state that I have nothing to do and know nothing about Smash gameplay and its community besides what I have read about them on r/Kappa.
MY point is, hate them all you want but they somehow managed to keep 15 years old game alive, and I would like to know how they did it and what KI community can incorporate from them to build strong community for KI.
Can somebody more informed speak?
LMAO!
EDIT: Honestly the best route to get an informed answer is to contact the prominent members of the smash community. The easiest place to do it is Twitter.
2GG are promoters of the Smash scene. I say start there https://twitter.com/2GGaming?s=07
@Infilament might know more about it, but my sense has always been that Smash was to some extent really helped by the fact that there was no expectation of online get-togethers or tournament support by anyone at the time people started playing. They got used to meeting up to play their game, and that allowed the scene to grow pretty organically. They were meeting together to play the game they loved long before “e-Sports” became a thing, so they’ve shifted into that realm with a ready-made scene of passionate and hardcore players.
I actually think KI largely managed something similar for a while, albeit never on the scale of what we now call Smash. The game’s best-in-class netcode didn’t do the offline scene any favors, but it did allow for a very flourishing online competive scene, and because of how good that online scene was the community was able to flow it into its dedicated offline event. I don’t think KI would necessarily become massive from that, but its online circuit really was the beginning of a Smash-like cult following I believe.
The biggest issue with that is just that we were probably a bit too dependent on a lot of work from very few people (Zombie for 8BBD, Brandon Alexander for KIWC). Spread that out among a few additional workers though, and I think you’d have a fairly solid base for a long-lasting competitive community.
This is VERY IMPORTANT.
Saw this thread just as I was about to post on Twitter to attempt to start a new online tournament series. If a few people are willing to join me for some better organization and advertisement, we could really get something going.
I’m down man.
I miss the 8BitBeatdown. Zombie worked his tail off we were so lucky to have him as an ambassador to the scene.
Try to get a hold of zombie, Brandon and Keits just as informational resources to try and avoid any rookie mistakes as you begin.
I’ve been running tournaments online and offline for the better part of three years. I just haven’t been doing it for KI yet.
@PCKPharrohYami does the Combo Killers series online and if I recall correctly he’s done several offline tourneys near the Houston area. He’s pretty consistent and should be a good person to reach out to regarding KI tournaments.
Melee actually came very close to outright dying around 2007 or 2008. If Brawl wasn’t such a monstrous turd of a game, I don’t think Melee would have lasted past it. For example, if Project M was the game that Nintendo released instead of Brawl, Melee wouldn’t be a prominent tournament game today.
The way Melee survived the “dark ages” of Smash and had a revival is pretty unique to Smash, but it largely involved people getting mad at Nintendo for not giving a crap (and they were right), and then doubling down their efforts to go back to an old game they liked rather than play a new game they didn’t like. But it was more than just that, because they were so certain Nintendo wouldn’t release another Smash game that had any similarities to Melee (and again, they were right), they basically just latched on to Melee as this bastion of game design, instead of just a good game with flaws. So the main reason it’s so strong today is not because it’s a flawless game, but because the scene kind of elevated it to the status of a god. It was a really strong reflex action to Nintendo (and the creator of Smash himself) trying to constantly put them down and say their game and way of playing was stupid and dumb.
But because of that, an important side effect of modern Smash is that there is “no johns” as they say (ie, no excuses for losing). Melee is a broken and extremely unforgiving game, and if you suck it’s 100% your fault and the community is very strong about that. I feel like KI is the absolute opposite of that, and it is very hard to have a lasting community without that mindset.
In order for KI to survive, the first thing that needs to happen is that many of the well-known pros or streamers have to actually LIKE the game and stop talking shi.t on it at every opportunity. Especially in today’s twitch/youtube era, growth is impossible without that, because that is the only avenue new players will have to try to learn and get excited about the game.
Preach!
Yes @iDoMusic4Media is right, Combo Killers will have its 1 year anniversary July 8th, i have ran over 35 Online tournaments for KI over this last year for FightSessions and my own series as well, ran my own offline event 2 times now and have helped run other tournaments for fightsessions outside of KI. and should be running the KI portion of Space City Beatdown in Houston Tx this august 5th since i was told we only need 8 people to show and we already got alot of buzz around it
If yall have any questions about tournaments feel free to hmu or want to know how to run tournaments i would be willing to teach what i know.
It would help if some of the pro/competitive players played the game because they like to, amd not because they want more subs, and money. I have seen a few of them switch games because the pot is bigger. I have heard some say that they play KI because they get more donations, than if they play a game they like.
Also some of yall need to show up in places other than the forums. TBH i dont know over 70% outside forums. i know im not crazy active everywhere but i do post my tournaments here and hardly anyone for the forums shows up other than the usual competitors in the offline/online scene. i have heard this saying over 200 times from ppl “im not good enough to compete”. This is the most annoying answer to give imo. The truth is no one would ever be good enough if they didnt put in the time to get better, play in onlines and get more involved with the community. People here need to step up as well by either joining the onlines we do have, try to make it to any offlines you can. (personal bs can happen and thats understandable but if your an hr or 2 away and decide not to go just because well “i dont feel like it” then thats you holding back KI)
Stream if possible, does not matter if your newer etc. have fun and promote the game (people will join and you can get more involved as well that way)
If you have intrest in running tournaments hit up some of the TO’s for advice. its not hard as long as you have dedication!
Commentary, not hard to understand that point. but everyone starts out somewhere. have fun be hype and learn the game as you go on to do more to provide better commentary. (everyone starts out new at some point)
Be more active on other social media when it comes to KI, see a ki stream, RT or share etc. Tournament sign ups etc. anything to do with KI RT and share. that helps spread the word so much!
If anyone has direct questions ill be happy to answer the best i can 