I am grateful for all the contributions from the top players back before my time (Tomo,Watson,Shaeffer,etc.) to the FGC. Without their determination to be the best, most of us wouldn’t be the player we are today.
I’ve been in the game for a long time and I think my true contributions were in 2009. I believe this community deserves much more than just being a good Street Fighter player.
I’ve focused my talents on Live Stream casuals since this is the most effective way to teach SF IMO.
If you were a top player in the FGC, what would you do to contribute?
Let’s be open minded on this because I would love to hear great ideas from brilliant minds.:lovin:
(you don’t have to be a top player to contribute great things of course, maybe your voices will be heard in this thread?)
Start a YouTube channel and post daily/weekly match footage of you playing (this is extremely popular in the Japanese Virtua Fighter community, there are loads of videos from top players uploaded to the web every day).
Once a week or so post something in the strategy section of any game just to show a greater sense of community. So stop by the HDR or whatever section and drop in a post to excite some of the people who frequent that forum. People would probably love seeing a post from John Choi or AfroLegends in the Boxer thread of HDR/ST for example.
Not charge people money to play against you…even if they offer.
Create a tutorial or write a FAQ, more in depth the better, or at least read the FAQs on this site and offer criticism or assistance. Jame’s Chen and UltraDavid have written some mammoth FAQs for example. Or if someone is writing a FAQ give it a cursory evaluation and see if anything needs changing.
Once a week pick a match, any match (meaning you could pick one that you aren’t a player in, like an SBO match), and analyze it, write an article about it and talk about all the little nuances that only the top players would pick up. So you’d say: at 0:43 this player is using a defensive option select technique that allows him to jump out of normal throws and low parry against low attacks simultaneously, for example. You could do just a textual write up, like take a video, and just cite a few parts of a match. Or you could get creative and do a video analysis (something that we used to do in the VF community quite often during the 4:EVO era). So you’d take a video of a match, pause it at a certain point, then overlay text like “this players knocks his opponent down and is in range for a safe jump”, the video un-pauses and you see the safe jump. This requires good video editing skills.
Support other communities and games. When VFDC wanted everyone to spam Sega’s facebook account, Valle was front and center helping us out, which was definitely a huge plus.
Good question. This is just how I see it. I’m sure there is a ton of other stuff too.
Locally:
Either regularly host gatherings or be in regular attendance of local gatherings.
If you always beat a local that is serious about leveling their game up, tell them why they’re losing. Helping people you play with regularly level up their game is not only good for them, but good for you.
Attend most every legit local tourney you’re able to, barring important non-fighting game commitments (of course).
Encourage other local fighting game fans to attend gatherings and tourneys, IE, promotion.
Honestly, this sort of thing is something every fighting game player should strive for, imo. I’m hardly a top player, but I make every effort do the above. The fighting game community starts with a strong local community and radiates out from there.
Nationally/internationally:
Attend every major you possibly can. Although it’s quite a commitment–both in time and money–for players to travel across the country for tourneys, it really does a lot to hype the tournament locally.
Try to get high quality locals from your region to travel more.
If it were me? I’d try to find a way to make a regional with top prizes being plane tickets to majors. Tickets can be damn cheap if purchased early enough.
I think an important thing too is–just like when fighting a match–play to your strengths! People like Ultra David, James Chen, Viscant, etc write well, so written guides from them are always helpful. The alphaism crew do a great job of putting together an entertaining, yet still informative podcast. The four bosses are obviously strong at event planning.
What I’m getting at here: ask yourself what your strength is. Do it. If you suck at writing but are good at one on one teaching, do that. If your home situation doesn’t lend itself to hosting, go hang out.
Just remember though, keep it light. If you find yourself burned out, take a breather. Even though the fighting game community is as close as it’s ever been to, well, “reaching the next level” it’s still really a hobby for most people.
kinda like films during football, recording matches and then analyzing them can help out, u know? point out mistakes, things that you could’ve done etc. etc.
i dont get to go to tournaments/ranbats often, but this has helped me out quite a bit during my guilty gear phase (not just in guilty gear, though). looking back at how i play now to how i played back then its a huge improvement.
i guess it also helps having someone better than you to kinda look up to, sorta like a big brothers thing haha…sounds a little lame, but honestly, you can learn alot about how you play from a few hard losses.
Something that would be kind of cool is have players submit vids that they have played in to get reviewed or something like that, and do a bit of commentary on what to change. Not so much an SBO vid, but possibly something from a tournament down there or anything of that nature.
If I were a top player in the FGC, I would contribute by beating your ass down. That’s enough contribution. You’ve raised the bar, and you’ve motivated people to beat you and get better by being FGC’s most wanted.
raise money.
look at what dana white did for mma.
get some rich dudes to put together a promotion and have serious prizes for the competitors to ensure high level play.
sf merchandise would be a good way to go.
i cant figure out how to get one of those chris hu “i dont scare” shirts!
I disagree.
The thread is about what you can do as a “top player”.
Some people are good at promoting and organizing events, and some are good at the game itself. The latter kind of people should help at what they do best and help the existing players of the community to step their game up. Not only that but a TOP player shouldn’t waste his time on helping total noobs (becuase every mediocre player can help with the basics) but he should help the higher level players go from “good” to “top”. That will be the most efficient thing players like Alex Valle could do. And of course have that information out in the open so everyone could read and use it when their time comes.
Since Alex Valle is the one who is asking for ideas than I’m gonna comment on him directly. IMO he has a unique style of play which can teach us all a lot about the game, and how to analyze it and use the tools we have. A unique way to look at the match. I think if we (good players but not top) were to understand a bit how the mind of Alex Valle works when approaching the game, it would enlighten us greatly.
Also please please don’t focus just on specific game knowledge, but also on the general aspects of the highest level of play. How to read your opponent, how to deal with massive mental pressure in tournaments etc. etc.