In the past tournament players had to travel sometimes hundreds or even thousands of miles just to meet each other in a tournament. Oftentimes these tournaments were a once a year thing for the player or sometimes less than that. So the players may have spents hundreds of hours and dollars just to get to where they were at preparing for that single match in a tournament. For them the match was the culmination of a way of life, and a lot of time and effort.
It is customary in such a situation to recognize that your opponent and yourself have most of these qualities in common. You might would even be friends if you knew each other or lived closer together.
The handshake is a mutual greeting of respect between players the shows the recognition of this relationship. It also shows the importance of what is on the line, $$$ and respect. It is a ceremony that tells both players “this is a serious match” and they are saying to each other they are going to bring their A game.
Among players who know each other personally this means that they are temporarily removing all restrictions. The mentor player will not go easy on his apprentice, and the brothers who have grown up playing together will use every dirty trick they know to win. Top tiers will be played. It also means that his match is a bragging rights match. This one matters.
After the match the handshake also has a lot of meaning. It is a way of accepting the outcome of the match. It is a way of accepting defeat for the loser, and offering respect to to loser for having fought bravely. It is also a means for both players to exit “tournament mode” and go back to simply being fighting game enthusiasts and considering each other friends again.
If someone doesn’t want to shake hands before and after a match that is fine, but I would consider it their loss. They are missing out on one of the the greatest aspects of the tournament experience: the notion of being a “pro”. Professionals always respect each other, even when they are on opposing sides of a conflict.
To simply stare at the screen and refuse to acknowledge the efforts of a worthy opponent is egotistical, and sad. True top players would consider it childish. To refuse to shake the offered hand of a beginner opponent for that reason is even worse. The community doesn’t need that. That is pure elitism, and I would caution you to not let the door hit you on your way out.
I recently spent some time in Hawaii, when you play a match down there casual or tournament the other player always comes over and gives a fist bump I like that a lot better than hand shakes.
While I’m on the subject I don’t like people that try and do that slide hand xx fist bump shit and some black people tend to grab my hand in awkward ways. I’d appreciate just normal hand shakes, thanks.
I usually try and just give a thumbs up to the guy, with a clinched fist they normally don’t go for the handshake, after tourney I always give a shake. I never understood it, being at an arcade is already unsanitary enough.
so i wasted my time to google tourneyfag, and read up to the different types, which is mostly about smash kids, and by one of the definitions, anyone good at any fighting game above the casual standard is a, tourney ***. lol! maybe you should understand your terms better. here let me quote a couple for you
how am i living in my own little world. fight gamers are vastly different. some of the best players in the u.s have been known to talk shit, or get a little too upset and just walk off after a win or loss. some of the BEST players that people want to see at tourney after tourney have done this before, past, present, and not to distant past, but the scene didnt die just because a couple egos, or a couple randoms that took a win or a loss, and just kept his hands to himself. i mean, thats weird to me to get upset because someone is not in the mood for one reason or another to shake your hand. maybe they just dont wanna touch you. sounds weird, but who am i to judge. at the end of the day, i dont know you.
i mean at the end of the day, for some people, a stranger is a stranger. okay, we played, next. but, again, its cool if thats your thing, so i dont know why your still arguing. i was just posting a poll out of curiosity, not to create a riff with the community, and have people beefing over handshakes. i think its a reality for a lot of gamers who dont want to shake 100 hands at the next evo, and just wanna plug up and keep it movin, so i was just curious what the overwhelming majority actually is. thats it.
If someone offers you a handshake, you take it, unless you have some hate for the person. That’s just what a decent human being does. You don’t have to be the one to offer the handshake, but you better return it.
There’s truth to this, but there’s a much more glaring problem at hand. The very fact that this topic is even being brought up shows why people might think of competitive gamers as douchebags.
Seriously, is a handshake that big of a deal? I understand that the previous statement goes both ways, but in the time the OP spent vacillating on this topic in preparation for posting this thread, he could’ve just shook the damn hand. Congratulations, that’s time you’re never getting back.
If a guy has grimy mitts and goes in for the shake, tell him to wash that shit! Otherwise, you’re probably making yourself look like a shithead for no good reason.
People will do anything to make themselves not seem like they’re at fault.
Was my kill yourself comment dickish? Hell yeah it was, there’s no denying that.
But the fact that this guy is trying to make it seem like it’s the person trying to shake his hand that’s the one at fault, when he’s the one showing the sign of disrespect, then getting on his little internet soap box like he’s some kind of revolutionary, that’s just a whole other level of dickery.
I don’t like handshakes, if someone comes up to me and gestures for a handshake and I turn it down does that make me a jerk?
No.
Its disrespectful, but if you cared that much about it you’d talk to me about later on and I’d explain how I used to be a germaphobe (I still use hand sanitizer CONSTANTLY especially at the arcade) I’m pretty sure the other guy would be understanding, if he still wasn’t even after I explained it and he was still “mad salty” then I think he would be the jerk.
Honestly I just dgaf and do the handshake when someone puts their hand out, and I grip it firmly so you feel like a fool when you try and slide your hand out to do a follow up fist bump. I just clasp that shit and look you straight in the eye.
To be clear, I don’t care about people not shaking hands, or spouting off ridiculous remarks online. I think the threat it poses to the image of the community is minor. There are people that display bad sportsmanship in every competitive event.
What I’ve observed is that people who feel obliged to shake hands instead of earnestly doing so to express they felt it was a good game will give you the most half assed, minimal gesture possible. It makes the gesture lose meaning. Maybe I just draw the line at a different place than some people though. I can’t say I approve of all post game antics. Certainly dancing around your opponent and saying they suck to their face is out of line to me, and maybe not shaking hands is out of line to others, but to some people, I think shaking hands is an acknowledgment of a good game, and it makes sense to me when someone doesn’t want to make that acknowledgment.
I read that first post twice, and I still have only a bare idea of what it’s trying to say. Goddamn.
Handshaking is found in almost any competitive sport. I’m not gonna do it after a casuals match, but i’d do it after every tourney match. The handshake just represents shit like “we might have been trying to kill each other in the damn game, but I respect how you beat me/lost to me.” Nothing more. If you don’t want to shake hands, nobody’s going to make a big deal about it.
This thread should just be renamed “I don’t understand the concept of sportsmanship.”
ill respond to you more tomorrow, but i think its funny how hostile a few people are, while also claiming themselves to be so much better for some reason because they like to shake hands before and after a match. all i said is i dont want to shake hands. i didnt say anything negative towards the person. im just not into handshaking. why dont you reply to my pm rather then keep talking shit. the hate is high over something so simple. funny. if i dont shake your hand im a dick head, or i need to explain to you why i dont want to shake your hand. that sounds like your way to serious. i dont need to explain anything. that sounds dickish, but thats just how i feel. i dont know you, want to get the match done, and dont really want to just be dappin mad crazy people all day out of some odd obligation a lot of people feel thats not so deep as people want to make it out to be.
but thats just me. no big. im not asking anyone to be like me. which is why i find the hatred so funny. lol. if you wanna dap, cool, there are many that dont mind. i just stated my opinion, and i was curious of the others. srk is a funny place sometimes. some of us say we want to be this and that of the gaming community, but dont actually display that on the forum, because of course everyones mr nice guy face to face. i may have dropped a couple f bombs, but no where did i ever say someone is wrong, a douchebag, a prick, or anything for wanting to shake my hand. i didnt say i would even be rude to someone wanting to shake my hand. if your so sensitive about something like that, then maybe you need to check yourself, and maybe youre more of a problem then someone like me. brush it off, baby.
i mean, there are gonna be people that arent like you or your friends out there. news flash. so you react to them in a hostile manner? lol! think about it. i find it funny everyones calling me all kinds of names now, but at a tourney if i was like, nah im good, lets go, you would hit start and just be like, whatever. thats not tough guy talk, im just saying its not that serious, and you know it like i know it. calm down. so we’re not the same type of guys who want to shake hands before or after. okay. are we gonna really get that mad over that? are you serious right now?
me and chris creecy aka magneto x have met in tourney play 3 times and he’s beaten every single time. When chris was still living in new orleans, we would visit them once every 2 months or so. After the first time he beat me, I was like gg and gave him a hand shake. 2nd time, never did it or the 3rd time. Chris is my boy now, he helped train me when I was still learning the game. One of the FEW og’s to sit and play 20+ games with me just so I can have practice and learn.
Tourney time though, no respect. After that first time, not shaking his hand really fueled the fire from then on. Chris knows this and he acknowledges it. There’s no hard feelings. Just 2 people who want it trying to get it. We don’t need to shake hands to show respect, as long as we both play our hardest that is all thats required.
Matter of fact, I believe beatsofdevil was sitting behind me and creecy during casuals @ SB3. I beat him off the stick and talked SO MUCH SHIT to him. He walks away and like 30 mins later, we’re outside laughing about some dumb shit. Chris is a good winner though. He never gets in your face and talks shit.
I think the handshake is unnecessary, usually a good games will get the word across. Also, The fact that some of you guys actually care whether people think of us as tourneyfags is completely retarded. Who gives a fuck? it doesn’t change shit.
