I think Spooky deserves his shot. Yes, we can go on and on about what happened last year at Evo. But really, I think the impetus here is to focus on what he does for the FG community. I’ve been watching his streams for a long while now, and Spooky has put in so much time, effort and money into streaming that it’s a little ridiculous. The man, at this point, basically has his process on lockdown. While some streamers rarely leave their state (some don’t even seem to stream anything outside their county…), Spooky has been putting in the legwork - literally - to bring us streams from all over North America. Not only has Spooky put on basically flawless streams, but he’s humble and honest about it. I kick him spare change at every event he streams. For me, its worth it. Not for the raffles or contests, but just to keep him going. He had 18,000 viewers for Final Round for two of the most hype tourneys in a while (both SSFIV and MvC3), with viewers blowing it up everywhere, and the action went down without a hitch and with a truckload of excitement.
Sometimes there’s a lot of shit bandied about about stream monsters and supporting the community (“What’s with all the stream monsters? Actually leave your house and hit up a tourney!” etc., we’ve all heard it all) and whatnot. These days…I find it hard to even get time to support my local arcade (University Pinball here in Philly), let alone get my shit together and go out to tournaments. Life is just sometimes not conducive to gaming, or any time intensive hobby, as I’m sure we all know more and more intimately as we get older.
For me, at least, streaming is a way to “participate” in, even to the smallest degree, a big part of what makes the FG community special and really unique. Spooky brings us a piece of that hype every time he packs up his stuff, travels out and sets up his equipment for days’ worth of 12 hour shifts running a consistent and quality stream for thousands of FG enthusiasts. I think he deserves a shot.
To end this with not a bang, but a whimper; unfortunately, I feel the same way Liquid does. Like in all things, there are a lot of politics behind the scenes and I’m sure Evo is no exception. But, the best I (we) can do is throw our support behind Spooky, and throw him some bones when he streams. Every little bit helps. Tell your friends, too. Any leads professionally, I’m sure he’d appreciate it. Help him help us help him. Lastly - good luck, and a HUGE thanks to Spooky. Don’t listen to the haters. A lot of us out here in “stream monster land” really do appreciate and love what you do.