i call BS on all these. Nobody will ever forget about Wong, Sanford, and Yipes.
Marvel going online will only keep the Big 3 going more since they(Especially Wong) will have a new generation of scrubs to make money off of.
Chris Schmidt is one of the FEW people in America right now that have managed to actually play at that level, and it only has happened BECAUSE HE LIVES IN CALI, where marvel is serious business.
Location is very important to marvel because it equals competition. Online will not replace that because it will only be a scrub hub. Unless you sit down, everyday, for at least a year(a year is what i saw it take yipes to get where he is at, which is why i set that as the example.) play against people of that caliber, you will most likely not Beat the Big 3.
Look at J360, 6 months - year ago, WHO THE FUCK WAS J360?!?! Guy comes out of nowhere and starts bodying everybody. Why? where does he live, who does he play? how long has he been there, and playing those people?
New people will have a hard time getting into marvel because it takes so much time, and requires, most importantly, Competition that motivates.
How long did it take us all to learn Rom back when we were scrubs with Mag? hell we only learned it because the competition forced us, and that was when we finally came to the realization that ryu/ken/akuma wasn’t gonna beat scrub. IMO Marvel is too hard for new players to learn because most people, Probably 80% of the U.S. Doesn’t have the luxury of competition.
Disclaimer: Competition doesn’t mean just people to play(Online play would make up for this) It means physically having companions to play the game with. It’s the difference between random players that can do combos, but won’t win. Having physical people to talk to, and train with gives you insight into what your doing wrong that IMO online won’t make up for.
This has just been my long blah, blah, on a boring saturday afternoon.