Nintendo prepared for the pandemic well with Animal Crossing.
But they did the opposite when it comes to Smash Bros. EVO is going all online and Nintendo’s online is far too shitty to play competitive Smash online. They’ll just be left out of EVO altogether. Nintendo does actually seem to care somewhat about competitive gaming, but I doubt this will give them the necessary incentive to fix their shit.
I’ll admit I’m enjoying the extremely salty SB community reaction.
Sure, love your game and be passionate about it. But admit to its flaws people. Smash doesn’t work online. It never has. It doesn’t even work with wireless locally. Never has. Probably never will. You threw your fighting game passion lot in with Nintendo. What did you expect?
Why would they be salty at EVO? They should just be salty with Nintendo. Not EVO’s fault.
You expect fanboys to understand the source of their pain?
Look at all the weebs complaining that Funimation ruined the subtitles of an Aniplex show last night. Or the people who complained to Otakon that Baltimore was scary. Who complained to Connecticon that there isn’t food in Hartford. To PAX that Square ran their booth poorly. To any convention that they had the sheer audacity to sell out of badges.
For all their passion, a lot of nerds don’t actually know much about the thing they profess to love. That would be fine if they didn’t get so MAD about it all the time. And then so VOCAL about being so mad.
Also of note is that much smaller games like Skullgirls and Them’s Fightin’ Herds are going to be included. Since, you know, they work.
While this is definitely true with regards to nerds and anime, it also applies to just about anyone. Sports fans who don’t actually understand the rules of the various leagues and sports, people who don’t understand how government actually works, fanboys who have no idea how movies are made or the creative process behind them, etc.
In general people love to give their opinions about stuff they don’t really understand and get angry about it.
I like everything about this tweet except that they are putting down Them’s Fightin’ Herds.
I feel almost sorry for the Vancouver Titans. They are bad enough that teams are now fielding backup players against them. League leaders Philadelphia Fusion benched their two best players (Carpe played one map, Alarm played none) and put in Chipsa for a map, who is basically only an emergency option as a Doomfist one-trick and his involvement in OWL at all is little more than a meme.
Is this the largest fine in eSports history?
Even worst for Daniel Abt: fired from his Formula E seat at Audi.
https://www.motorsport.com/formula-e/news/daniel-abt-suspended-audi-controversy/4796782/
This is a big move because Abt is one of four drivers to take part in every Formula E race so far, was a multiple winner, and also his father is the owner of the Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler team he drove for. To be fired from your own family’s racing team is a pretty harsh penalty!
This is great for the integrity of virtual racing, though. It might be the best-run eSport there is so far?
Considering that the average fan’s experience is probably better watching a virtual race than a real one, and how the spectator heuristics are very simple, it’s easy to see how this has professionalized so fast.
Esport Hockey still looks like a videogame, and watching it on TV is very different from watching a “real” game. But Esport car racing? I feel like the games could replace the live version for a lot of casual fans without much issue.
I wanna see the series where they race every physical F1 track.
And then race an F-Zero type “dark version” of the same track. Dangerously long straightaways, chicanes in terrifying places, ridiculous obstacles, etc… But still driving under realistic physics. GLHF.
F1: The Lost Levels
It has to be possible to make it around the course, though. Otherwise, it’s just boring to see everyone crash.
I think what these esport-stand-ins for Motorsport series has that other esports don’t is that they have real power over their drivers that any other esport doesn’t.
We’ve discussed before how esport leagues have super lax enforcement of rules. If someone is caught cheating, they just load up a different FPS game, the skills transfer pretty well, and they join a different league.
But Formula E has the weight of the FIA behind it. This year Formula E is a world championship level series, with the title being held at the same level as an F1 title or a WRC title. To get a drive in Formula E is super competitive. Also there are seven manufacturer teams like Audi and Porsche and Nissan who are backing the series, so there’s a lot of money and prestige on the line.
So being kicked out of your real Motorsport team for cheating or other violations is a big stick to wield. Other esports have nothing like it.
Last weekend the Overwatch League played the “May Melee”, a knockout elimination tournament, the games of which also count for real standings which ups the stakes. While it is a bit of a marketing gimmick but a very good one as the tournament was very interesting and had some great matches. Unfortunately the last rounds of the tournament ended in the early morning of monday my time and with work and other things I wanted to do it took me until today to finally finish watching.
OWL is currently organized in two regions due to where the players are located. There is an Asian region of teams playing from team houses in Korea and China which includes the four chinese teams, Soul, New York and London, while the rest of the teams are in the North American region (which therefore also includes Paris). Each region had a separate tournament, and the finals that resulted from them were both absolutely fantastic to watch, and quite different from each other.
I tend to watch the games after-the-fact rather than live. But I do enjoy me some OWL.
