My Two Cents
I’m sorry for the wall of text below, but hear me out.
When WNF first started, we had a bunch of scattered little stations which people would walk in and out of, and play a few matches here and there. They were casuals in name and in identity.
When we got to the station A-F, we got a little bit more organized, but as Valle said when we were there-- there needed to be a lot more focus than was given.
When we got to Ban matches, people got their shit together(most people anyway), and took things seriously. Or at least there was a little bit more of a “no more bullshit” tone present at every session.
So we came back, and for the next few months we were professional, even though we were still playing out of a garage. There were still problems because we were crowded, the set ups took a little while to go through before you got a turn, and we lost the station A- F feel. Even a few weeks after super we were still in that mode.
So flash forward to now. What you guys have done is step up the organizational and professional aspects to a level which I really didn’t think anyone expected. You pretty much rectified most of the complaints and critiques labeled against you and now we have a fairly solid venue every wednesday night(not that SHGL’s garage wasn’t legit. Because it was.)
I think in order to recognize what you need to correct, you need to look at what LEVEL UP LIVE is hoping to accomplish. So to my knowledge, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, the goal of WnF’s is this:
A) Level up Southern California to a degree in which we are significant if not the primary contenders for top placings in tournaments. Bring our player base up to the point where we’re, so to say(and forgive the expression because it’s kind of shitty but I can’t really think of anything else right now) "On the map."
B) Widen the player base of SSFIV from a competitive standpoint, and bring more people into the world of competitive gaming. Simultaneously, introduce it in such a way where it is both a welcoming and sobering experience A.K.A. "Going tournaments, playing at majors and all is amazing… but it takes a lot of hard work."
SIDE-B) Push that player base up to POINT A 
C) With the stream, introduce a legitimate view of Street Fighter as a competitive exercise-- and help widen it’s appeal professionally to help it gain a sense of(I’ve used this word too much but screw it) legitimacy.
D) And maybe this is just a side note for A (I should have planned this message out better :/) Eliminate the fears of the competitive circuit in most players, and instill a sense of consistency and confidence in the player base.
To be honest, I think most of your goals here are going fairly well Alex. and if there’s any criticisms, I think preparedness amongst a good number of newcomers is an issue. Especially ones playing new characters. The way you’ve structured WnF’s training regimen is like a “Tournament simulation”. To be treated seriously. Now the problem is, when we were doing round robin, somebody loses 1 or 2 games, and the sense of urgency they had drops dramatically. They aren’t getting to Station A, that’s fine. They’ll just pick it up next week and do better. And what do they do to prepare for next week? They train a little. But they still walk in on Wednesday with aspects of their game needing work in one area or another, or incomplete. They’re missing certain combos, they don’t know how to deal with certain strategy’s, and they stick to textbook play after they eat a combo to the point where their predictability rises dramatically. You’ve addressed it before but it hasn’t been corrected.
And then on top of that we have the new characters. Believe it or not, I stilll see some people treating Super like it’s a “new game” and not taking these match ups seriously enough. I remember a friend of ours who goes here every week(I’ll keep him nameless, but I’m sure a good number of people remember seeing this) who played Balrog against an Ibuki. He got hit by the Ultra 1 I think twice in one round. He didn’t press a button or do anything.
Full damage… he lost because of it. He came up to me and said “Man, that Ultra is ridiculous.“
I told him:
“You know you can jump out of it, right?”
”… You can jump out of it? Are you serious?”
^^ This is kind of unacceptable. Another example? Last week I got my ass trashed by a Balrog. I know you can throw him out of his ex Dash punches. I know after a whiffed upper you can do anything you like. But I walked in last week going "Okay, well, I don’t think my reaction timing for it is perfect, so It’s cool, I’ll just work around that."
NO. Before I walked through that door I should have known how to deal with that match up. I got trashed the first round, and the second round I got close to winning and lost because of it. And I can walk away and go “Pffft… I didn’t know the matchup, it’s okay… I’ll be ready for a tournament setting” or “I know what I need to do, it’ll be okay.” but that doesn’t make what I just did acceptable.
So many of us lose to Cody’s and Juri’s and Adon’s and act like it’s not really a problem because we just “didn’t know the match-up.” And there are so many people who PLAY those character who conversely, when they lose, say “Well, these characters are new, so obviously we’ll have problems.”
No. That’s not okay, and that’s still a prevalent attitude with a lot of people that has to die. WnF’s is a training session, but that doesn’t mean it’s where you go to do your homework. You have to work outside of this session to get up to snuff, and go there to test what you’ve learned. It’s your pop quiz every single week telling you whether or not what you’re doing is sufficient enough in a tournament setting. You can’t be that one kid who walks into class on the day of the test without studying and acting like he’s going to get an A. Oh sure, maybe he’ll pass, but will he be the best he can be? Would he have done much better if he took the time to study? There’s no doubt.
Maybe I should get off my soapbox, but this is something I just notice amongst people, and it’s kind of killing their game. Alex is giving you guys all the tools you need to place at tournaments… now you do your end of the bargain and maybe it’ll start working in your favor.
Yeah. That’s pretty much my two cents. Sorry for the wall of text.
