A lot of people have kinda had their heads in the clouds with all the recent stuff going on. Dr. PP's rise to power, the fall of HBox, new names staking their claims all across the globe. But every time somebody says this to me, sorta forget to note one thing.
They forget that I haven't really been around much.
Who's fault is that? Really, mine and mine alone. The thing is, there have been a lot of things going on with me that's affected my current outlook and standing on melee.
"Dogy, you gettin ready for Pound (5)?" "Dogy, you're so great!" "Dogy, we need you to come to this tourney." There's so much that's said about things that aren't really happening. But again, most of it is my fault. I just brush too much stuff off. I give a lot of misleading answers. And sometimes, I straight-up don't put much thought into it.
But, I'm kinda tired of wasting people's time. I'm tired of wasting my time and effort beating around the bush. And that, is what brought me to sit down and throw this out there to people who give a flip (which is apparently a lot.)
*****
The Interest of Playing
*****
Now right here, I would normally say "No, this does not mean I'm quitting Melee", but this is where the different starts to come into play.
Being upfront and honest, the spark and the interest of playing the game is all but dead. Today is February 3rd, 2011, and I can truthfully and honestly count how many times I've picked up a controller and played Melee since Tipped Off 6, which was in November. The answer is 7. In the past 3 months, I've picked up the game 7 times.
Right here, I could go into the "why's" of why I don't have too much interest of playing right now. Some of it is the same stuff everybody knows; I have to bend over backwards just to get practice, there's no real call for playing in my entire state (Read: No big in-state tourney scene), and there are some reasons that people haven't heard. But quite frankly, that's nothing new. It's the same shadow that's been following my black ass around ever since people started telling me I'm good at stuff OTHER than melee. I've always second guessed dedicating myself to a game that I knew was going to be a dead-end game. (For the record, Melee being a "dead-end game" and the whole "omg melee is dying" thing are two completely different topics.)
All blibity-blobity aside, here's what I think is important.
In spite of how I feel about playing the game, the more I think about the commentary aspect, the more interested I become. Why? In short, it's the next best thing. Originally, I didn't like the idea of doing commentary. I actually was somewhat upset at the idea of being a good commentator. "You know why I'm so "good" at commentary? Because my ass is never sitting on the main setup." I've always wanted to be the guy everybody's watching, not the guy talking about it. However, as I've sat around and kinda let the whole concept of commentating marinate in my mind, it's starting to sound like a good thing. It also helps that I was damn near spoiled in the trip to APEX by VideoGameBootCamp and Alex Strife (A GOOD SPOILED)
Without dwelling on the topic till the end eternity, lemme say it like this. Commentating is sounding like a good idea, and I'm trying to figure out ways to get around, do more, and make it worthwhile to myself and everybody who listens. Playing the game itself, though, has gotten old. Again, I'll save why I don't care to play for another blog on another day, but here's some ideas to wrap your head around. "How long is it going to be before we get to the stage list Japan had for years? Why are we BSing around to get there, that's where everything is going anyway? Why do people have to whine about everything getting there, knowing we don't play with half as much stuff as we did years ago?" That's really just tip of the iceberg.
*****
Tournaments
*****
OK so the next, and probably the biggest, question right now is "Dogy, are you going to Pound 5?"
No.
Here are the cliffnotes to this. First and foremost, everything that is above plays into it. I've played melee 7 times since November, and really didnt pick it up all through January even though I was assuming I was going to go. The thing that killed it was this interesting money problem I had. Without giving you details (it's really not bad), I "have the money" to go, but I don't physically have it as I don't get paid till AFTER February. I thought about asking to borrow money, but I would have only borrowed it from family. I had no desire to somehow wind up as the next "Guy who borrowed a shitton of money and didn't pay it back." And yeah, I had people who offered to lemme hold some money. (I actually had a Melty Blood player offer me the money no questions asked)
Does it bother me? Not at all, that's part of the reason why I let it go so fast. It's Pound, ok. Only one I've been to is Pound 2. I've got other, bigger stuff planned and there's more organization behind it, so I can let this one go.
NOW, FOR THE STUFF THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY (if it happens.)
"So, what are these magical plans you're talking about? We know how you're Mr. Wait-til-the-last-minute Samich!" This is what's goin' down.
Starting this month, I'm trying to make an effort to go to at least one tourney a month JUST TO DO COMMENTARY. Don't care about playing, just care for commentary. With that being said, I have to start looking at tourneys in advance, trying to work it out so that it's worth my time to go (I'm not looking to score money every time I go, but I don't really care to like, drive to CFL and then have to fork out money for everything), and I'm gunna just try to work on my commentary. I just have this hunch that gaming is going to take a turn in the near future, and one of the things that will be called upon is a line of good commentators/analysts/stuff like that. I'm going to try to go and enter at least one tourney every TWO months. To enter. Lastly, I'm going to try and make it to one major per season.
There is a catch to this, but with what I have planned so far, nobody should be hurt. The kicker is that all of that is across the board (read: for anything I play), not just melee. So like, my major for this season? Final Round XIV; no questions asked. So if people are thinking to ask me to go to the next G6, it's gunna take giving me more than I'd get for going to FR (which right now, I have a free hotel room). This summer? I'm already looking at CEO2011.
This isn't to say I'm completely unwilling to change, and it's not to say I'm trying to walk off and never come back. But it is about me, and I'm not going to sell myself short. The end result I'm looking for is pleasing myself. If people want to help me do that, that's fine. If not, -shoulda shrug-, I'll figure out how to do it on my own.
*****
Tournament Specifics
*****
So, with that being said, lemme talk about a few tourneys I'm looking at in the future.
The first one down the road is GG! Only reason I started to look at it is because... it's going to be the first GA Melee tourney that people attend since Tipped Off 6. That's kinda sad when you note that there has been one tourney in January, and there will be another in February that I'd bet my wallet won't happen, but whatever. I'm looking to go do some commentary at GG! as all of my playing efforts are going to go towards another tourney the week before. I'm kinda assuming SleepyK is going to have his recording setup there, but I need to thumb around and see if one's going to be there or not.
The next one that I can think of is something Alex Strife wants me to get up to in May. I think it's called Zenith, but I'm not even sure, I need to get back in touch with him. The only reason it even blip-ed on my radar is because it's Strife; he has a way of taking care of people. He asked me to do commentary, and with the ways things went last time he asked me to, doing stuff for him always sounds like a plus. So, I'm gunna try my best to get up there.
With Strife again, he asked me if I'd be willing to come back and do commentary at APEX2011. I had a blast last year, even in spite of some of the Brawl community being the Brawl community (mostly Brawl stream monsters, but eh). So yeah, I wanna go back to that. I need to talk to him to see what all is going down. I have some ideas for that.
Now, the only other thing I'm really looking at is a longshot as of now, but I have alooooooooooooooooooot of ideas and some hope going into this one. I wanna try to get over to Genesis 2. The thing is, in my current state with melee, I'd be going to do commentary..... I'm not too keen on the idea of shelling out a crapton of money to fly across the nation to talk on a mic. However, what I'm thinkin' 'bout is tryin to get in touch with HomeMadeWaffles and talking about a few ideas. As greedy as it sounds, I'm kinda wondering if people would chip in to help pay for a plane ticket for me (or maybe some gas if I find people crazy enough to drive). I'm not so full of myself that I expect people to pay for an entire ticket, I'm really just looking for a little bit cause the idea just sounds crazy in my head atm. Beyond that, I have a handful of interesting ideas for the stream. I just need to get down and talk to him.
*****
Ending Statements
*****
That's pretty much everything smash related. I'm sorry if I made some people sad, but that's just how it is. I have some hopes for the whole commentary aspect as of now, and I'm hoping that something will happen to make me really give a flip about playing again. But as of right now, I just don't see a reason to constantly journey through Hell to practice a game that I play in tourney once every 4 or 5 months IN MY OWN STATE. Especially when I've been playing the game since I was in high school.
I'll keep you posted on what happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment