Comparing the Japanese scene to the U.S. is flawed. The Japanese scene is quite different from the U.S. scene, for various reasons. Saying that they play for sharing the love of the game simply does not hold true in the higher levels of U.S. play. The Japanese might. The U.S. rarely does [outside of local gatherings or invitationals for games that are pretty much dead or obscure]. If the foreigners tournament was a place to trade dumb jokes and get to know each other, then it was a waste of time. People will do that outside of that tournament, at Mi-Ka-Do, at Gamersvision, at Big Box, at a ramen place, at a curry place, etc. To hold a tournament just so people can get to know each other [and I doubt that’s the reason why the Japanese or whoever organized said tourney] is fine - having said tournament as a showcase event at Evolution is not.
Your comparison of the foreigners and the Japanese is a pretty useful example. In the case of this tournament, replace foreigners with women and japanese with, well, guys and it’s the same exact thing. Some meaningless tournament that showcases the clear difference in skill that the general groups have with each other. Yes, there can be people that stand out [like Pyro beating AFM or whoever, but that was a completely different tournament, and is also a vastly different example], but then why not the main tournament? A win like that only reinforces the notion that said person is only good against their group, and crumbles when the ‘real’ tournament comes around.
As for the last part, let me get this straight: people will only be impressed if Japanese female players come in and wreck people? Then what’s the point of having a women-only tournament for the U.S., when your example only takes into consideration Japanese players? Looking at it from a different point of view - why would anyone want to watch sub-par players [sorry if I offend anyone out there] on the stream? Only because they’re women? So if a women is impressive enough to be ‘decent’, they have to be showcased like something spectacular? Then why not some random guy who comes from nowhere and ends up being decent?
Sorry to say, but the level of female sf4 players is vastly below the level of general sf4 players in the U.S. Is that something we should showcase? That simply breaks down into the basic statement of ‘Girls aren’t equal in terms of skill, so let’s have this side tournament to let them shine on their own, without guys to give them much of a challenge’.
I’m almost certain Miyuki would destroy that goddamn tournament. From what I’ve seen and understand, no other girl even holds a candle to her in the U.S. If another girl comes and beats her, that’s great, two decent girl players. That still doesn’t change the fact that the women-only tournament [even if it’s invitational] is still just separating the two sexes for almost needless reasons.
Edit: And who the hell is the say ‘There’s no point discussing this, it’s gonna happen’? Unless further discussion was banned by ink or wizard, there’s no reason not to talk about such a thing, especially if it’s such a touchy topic. Even if it’s definitely happening, I’d still argue about this in the hopes of possibly swaying people towards my own point of view, or possibly gleaning knowledge from their own arguments. If some people see no point in talking about this, then they might as well stay out of this thread.
