I dunno if the Women Only SSFIV tournament will achieve the desired effect, but I wish the Evo crew the best of luck with their Master Plan (yes, there is a plan behind this; it wasn’t randomly chosen at all). I just hope enough women enter to make it worth the effort.
However, for once I agree with watson: The ideal thing would be to have (possibly in place of, but could also be in conjunction with a women’s division) tournaments for different divisions, i.e. amateur/intermediate/pro, with tournaments being discriminatory in reverse order of skill (i.e. the pro players can only compete in the pro tournament, the intermediate can compete in both pro and intermediate but not in amateur, and the amateur players can compete in any tournament). But that’s really a more long term thing, since you would have to establish a definite way of determining what player is in what skill bracket. I with them luck with Apex 2.0 as well.
Why should we patronize women by making a women only tournament? They enter the main event. That’s it. What’s next, we create tournaments for different skill levels at Evo too? Hey guys check it, I got 1st place in the “OMG ur a fuckin scrub” skill level SF4 tournament at Evo. Gimme my respect mah fucka! Naw man, that belittles the women and the men.
I feel it’s awesome to have females playing fighters. Women definitely think in a different way then men for the most part and I really think they could add some cool playstyles, tactics, strategies and shenanigans that maybe us guys didn’t think of. There’s nothing that we could do that they couldn’t in terms of executon and it would all come down to “how good of a player are you?” I just don’t think we should patronize them by letting them have a gender specific tournament. So they won the women’s Evo SF4 tournament. Great. What’s to say they wouldn’t get scraped in the “guys” tournament and what’s to say they wouldn’t destroy the guys? Nothing really. Let them play with everyone else. I can’t see any serious gamer, guy or girl, wanting to get that kind of a handicap on their potential fame for doing well in any tournament because it was gender restricted.
They’re more than capable of doing what we can do. I just don’t think there are as many female gamers as there are male gamers. That’s the only difference.
Yeah I’m sorry but even if it was my first year at Evo I would never want to enter an amateur’s tourney. I went 2 and out at the first Evo and that was after recently winning a local event. I just told myself “I know I"m better than this and next year I’m making it to semi finals and fighting a Japanese player.” Which is basically what happened. WTF is the point of going to Evo if I have no shot of testing my skills against great players who I’ll otherwise never get to fight the entire year? GTFO with that skill set shit. SFIV ain’t that hard to play.
SOME women ARE going to join the main ssf4 tourney for everyone…but some DON’T want to play those ‘great players’ because they’re shy and scared and just want to play where they’re COMFORTABLE.
That’s the whole point of this people…why can’t you realize that and just accept it?
I realize that…I just realize that shit is just not for me and I personally don’t think it’s good for anyone who really wants to push themselves in the game. Obviously there are people that have no intentions of doing what a lot of other players try to do every year at Evo and I respect that…or not really but I’ll try. For me…unless you have no local or major scene around you and the only place you have to test your skills at is Evo…maybe.
Other than that man woman transvestite whatever u should be getting ur ass out to some major tournaments outside of Evo so you can be warmed up and surprise people with some shit by the time you get to Evo. It isn’t just women that are scared to go to Evo…men are stupid bitch scared to even go to local events 40 minutes from my house. You’re not gonna get over that and truly become a better player by playing with people who are as scared and ignorant of the game as you are. You gotta put yourself out there and see what really makes SF interesting. Why do people have to get warmed up and babied at Evo? They should be practicing for the big event beforehand. Why do people have to go to Evo to come out of their shell? If it’s not the only place where you can play SF against anybody else then get comfortable locally and regionally so you’ll be comfortable when you get to the big time. That’s what everyone else has been doing for years no matter their sex.
Where else would it be? It’s the biggest tourney of the year, and the most people show up. So it makes sense that the tourney should be where most people are gonna be (Likely most women too).
I understand that a lot of people might be against it, and at first I kinda thought it was a stupid idea…but again it helps the girls who are too scared to step up otherwise.
If not at Evo it’d be at another tourney and people would be mad. Same thing.
People would be less mad if something like this to break people in was at a smaller event like even a regional major or a local event. People should be getting comfortable before Evo. I was pumped and hype as shit to go to Evo my first year and still went 2 and out and that shit happens cuz Evo is different but I knew I was way better than that shit. The training I got locally and through regionals ensured me that the next time I went to Evo I was gonna hurt some people and I did and almost made top 8 the year after that. U just gotta be hungry and get comfortable before you get to the big time. What’s the point in getting comfortable at the biggest major there is that only happens ONCE A YEAR? You get a day and a half at most to get comfortable. Other than that you get to be comfortable with Vegas. Get comfortable before you come out. Find your local scene and get ur shit together there.
i just think it’s ironic that you want to be less competitive in what is, in your won words, the ‘biggest tourney of the year’. if you want to win an award with strings attached, or basically have an asterisk next to your win, then cool, but i think it sets females back when they condone events that basically patronize their abilities.
chances are a lot of the girls going will be going with their bfs, and enjoy sf4 but are just shy(Another guy mentioned something like this earlier in one of his posts)
She may have gone with him to other tournies but was too scared to compete with the guys cuz, … again…, she didn’t want to get facestomped and owned terribly and then be embarrassed.
An all female tourney, at Evo(Where EVERYONE is) is a good start to get girls into tournies. 1 female tourney to get them started and then they meet new people and find places in their area. Won’t open them all up right away but it will help.
How so? Is their a spiritual connection, some kind of “tradition” of what evo is and should be about? It seems like a lot of peeps in this thread are getting at that sentiment (ON NOEZ my precious evo is going to be watered down due to 1 of 7 featured tournaments!11!1!!!caps)
Please, gtfo with the shit that evo is only for the best of the best. I and the roughly 1000 other people who fucking suck (ie have no realistic shot of winning, making top 8, or hell even making it out of our pools) still attend evo every year and still have a great time. “Evo” is basically what a handful of this site’s head organizers and their friends decide what it should be and people either show up if they want to and can go or they dont.
Honestly, if you are not a girl or know any girls who play fighting games, how is your evo experience going to be significantly altered by the inclusion of an all girls ssf4 tournament? Even if you are one of the girls who attends evo year after year, how is this tournament (that you dont even have to enter) going to change your experience from last year? There are still going to be just as many weird, socially awkward, not very good looking, smelly guys oogling, heckling, asking to take your picture cause your a girl and you play fighting games. Hell, you might even be heckled less cause there’ll hopefully be more than 20 girls at evo this year do to this potentially terrific idea and maybe they can share the burden with you as well.
Evo is still gonna be the same as it was last year, really fucking awesome.
I think it is a chance for woman to play their peers and see where they match-up. Men are their peers too in this game, but they are free to enter the main tournament as well.
Giving women a chance to see where they match-up against the other girls around the country sounds like a fun opportunity and a way to strengthen the female player base by giving them something fun to be a part of together. It is an opportunity for girls who play SF to make friends and help build the community. It is a reason for any girl who is thinking about taking up SF to look forward to coming to EVO and hanging out with other girls who share their interests.
You may say that EVO isn’t the place for it, but EVO is one of the pillars of the fighting game community. Things that happen at EVO matter. The fact that EVO would hold a tournament for woman like this means their is a reason for there to be a girls fighting game community in the first place.
In short, it can create a common ground for women in an activity almost completely dominated by guys. It’s about building community, which is one of the most important parts (and in my opinion, THE most important part) of playing SF.
Man, I have an amazing story about beating some guys at KOF 2003 at Otakon and having weird guys come up to me afterwards. And I’m terrible at KOF 2003.
Just speaking for myself here, but I don’t think girls are actually afraid to face off against guys at tournaments as rivals, so I don’t personally see that as a credible argument for an all-female tournament. Joystick execution is not intimidating, as a rule, compared to physical strength.
another mentioned that they had the all female tournament out at AI where it turned out to being a few serious female players and others just being ones trained by their BFs…only to never pick it up again. Not saying that EVERY guy’s gf is just a bystander who plays casually. But usually if they’re that interested in the tournament, they’ll join. I think you’re not giving enough credit to females here. Yes most are shy, but you’re making that the main fallback on why they don’t enter the tournament.
I still say it’s a good idea, just badly implented/timing. I personally think throwing them at EVO is kinda like tossing a complete new rookie quarterback to the Super Bowl without having to go through the playoffs. No idea what to expect or how the crowd/bystanders will react to anything they see. I just think EVO is somewhat of a leap to start such an event. Hell have some type of workshopish event at EVO for females (or better yet, newcomers) on the basics of either SF4 or just fighters. There are other ways to ease some new players into the scene that doesn’t involve an all out tournament like this.
Add me to the line of thinking of “good intent, very probably bad execution” for the women’s tourney idea.
I don’t believe there is anything wrong about more women in the scene; I’ve met plenty of hardcore female gamers over the years in a variety of genres. They’re not really uncommon anymore, since they’ve been coming out of the woodwork as society considers it more acceptable - hell, back about 9 years or so, local player “Super Jen” was a serious competitor in Marvel 2 and GGX (still pretty good, too). And I understand wanting to highlight female competitors in a community that has had only a few serious ones over the years. That said unless this is pulled off exactly right it’s going to come off as quite sexist and patronizing.
That’s not just the tournament itself - the buildup, the commentary, and yes, even the crowd, those are all factors here. I think you’ve already misstepped on the first bit with your announcement, and the ensuing off-color humor. Really, winner get’s some dude’s dick? You may as well have joked that if Daigo wins he gets some Kung Pao chicken. That made it out to be a joke from the get go, and now that’s an image you have to fight. The notion of there needing to be a bigger prize than just money is also important, and I think the idea of being seeded into the semis of the main Super SF4 tournament is a good idea. Hell, a free ride to E3 or PAX or TGS would probably heat up the competition there, and highlight women competitors even moreso. I’m just uncomfortable with the idea of having to show off the female competitors in their own event, particularly when they aren’t clamoring for it in the first place. Is it going to draw in any women who weren’t going to Evo anyway at this point? I doubt it, especially with the “sideshow” stigma attached to it now - hence the need for a better prize.
Really, women who game are already ogled by all the guys who don’t get out often enough to see it on a regular basis… if you want this to really work, you’d have to market it as showing off the strongest woman in the world(at sf) rather than just showing off that hey, some more girls play street fighter now. I just don’t think we’re at that point yet.
Edit: Also considering how poor a reaction new players have gotten in the past year, I don’t have high hopes for a friendly debut for this event. I understand you guys want to make the community more inclusive, but geez, that’s a high wall to scale.
speaking from experience… I was scared shitless my first tourney, really shy…I didn’t even play in the first one I went to. I only started playing after I started talking to some of the guys and got comfortable with them.
It’s just a good way to get girls comfortable. Some might not even wanna play other girls. But trust me There are a lot of shy girls who are scared to be criticized.
And…it is pretty much the fallback, cuz a lot of girls are. The ones who aren’t will already be planning to play in the main ssf4 tourney.
But you want to try and open it to all the girls, I’m glad the evo team is throwing this out there to support them.
A seperate tourney for any reason just sounds like its catering to someone in some unnecessary ways. The way I see it, if you can’t stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen. Wait, we are talking about broads right. I am confused.
I think there are shy/intimidated girls out there, but I suspect that the problem is actually not “playing against males” but “not having other females around” and “machismo-enhanced behavior.” When I was at Northwest Majors for SF4, I was literally the only girl playing in the tournament, and that was intimidating socially, but when you’re actually fighting it doesn’t really matter who’s on the other end. That’s what makes fighting games have such potential for breaking gender roles here – they’re a great equalizer.
So in my opinion it’s actually a social problem that needs a social solution. An all-female EVO meetup (or something similar) is going to be much more successful, and I suspect also respectful, than an all-female EVO tournament.
That sounds good, but you would have to coordinate it online and determine who’s really there to play and what skill level they are at. You know, put effort on your part instead of saying " hey guys can you make a side tourney so I can feel comfortable leaving my house?" The reason why Evo is successful in the first place is because the players put so much effort in their coordination with each other. Even as far as getting hotel rooms together and sleeping in the same beds(homo’s)
