Hey everyone, I found this article by Kotaku really interesting, mainly because it covers a wide variety of situations that have been common with fighting games as of lately, specially capcom's, see most people always tend to pick up the most popular/high tier characters in fighting games and I believe a lot of potential is lost due to that, since in the end we rarely see some of these interesting matchups or the true potential of these believed-to-be lesser characters in the game, and some people just tend to try and replicate what they see that other pro's are doing, and I believe thats not the optimal approach, take for example RISE | MenaRD, he never stopped believing in his character Birdie since the beginning, even when it wasn't considered to be top tier by the comunitty, yet mena managed to win 2017's cup with a mid tier at best character against some of the strongest pro players in the scene, specially evo 2017's champion tokido who uses Akuma, which is believed to be one of the top tier characters in the game.
Take a look at the matches described in this article, TIGER | Luiman20's Dalshim vs eSPR | Mono's F.A.N.G., really entertaining and different, 2 characters commonly overlooked in the scene, yet these 2 amazing players managed to get to top 8 and face each other. I personally believe this is one of the best aspects of fighting games, and that is the magic of identifying with your character, me, for example, always been a Ken main, and I dont care if he is considered strong or weak, I'll always main him, because I identify with my character, but lately we see some players dropping their fav characters and gravitate towards those characters that are considered better, even Daigo who has been rocking Ryu since SFIV, had to drop him and use guile, most of ken's players are droping him and using akuma instead, and I believe that is not healthy for the game, since we will all end up just having cammys and akumas in our top 32/16/8s. So I am really glad Kotaku is picking up on this story and showing people that it is possible to get to top 8 with low tier characters and also enterteinting for the public to watch new exciting matchups on scene.
And here is where the other situation comes around, lately a lot of these players that try to pick up different characters are from Latin America, a region that as this article states:
Being from the Latin America Region myself (Dominican Republic) yeah I also believe capcom could do a better job at servicing the latin america comunitty, for example there are official capcom usa and japan channels, yet I believe that as of now there isnt any channel for spanish speaking players. As Mena and other highly skilled players from latin america have shown, there is a lot of really strong players around here and capcom should try and give this region much more well deserved exposure.
So what do you think fighting era? do you tend to use the more popular/high tier characters? or do you go with the one that you feel more identifying regardless of their possition on tier lists? do you like matchups between lesser tier characters like this? or do you rather your top tier characters matchups? do you think Latin America is getting the exposure it deserves by capcom? Don't you think SFV top 8 in tournaments would be better for the audience if there was a highter variety of characters shown? let me know what you think.
Link to the article : https://kotaku.com/rare-character-matchup-punctuates-dominican-street-figh-1829506196
Bonus: top 5 moments of the tournament:
Take a look at the matches described in this article, TIGER | Luiman20's Dalshim vs eSPR | Mono's F.A.N.G., really entertaining and different, 2 characters commonly overlooked in the scene, yet these 2 amazing players managed to get to top 8 and face each other. I personally believe this is one of the best aspects of fighting games, and that is the magic of identifying with your character, me, for example, always been a Ken main, and I dont care if he is considered strong or weak, I'll always main him, because I identify with my character, but lately we see some players dropping their fav characters and gravitate towards those characters that are considered better, even Daigo who has been rocking Ryu since SFIV, had to drop him and use guile, most of ken's players are droping him and using akuma instead, and I believe that is not healthy for the game, since we will all end up just having cammys and akumas in our top 32/16/8s. So I am really glad Kotaku is picking up on this story and showing people that it is possible to get to top 8 with low tier characters and also enterteinting for the public to watch new exciting matchups on scene.
And here is where the other situation comes around, lately a lot of these players that try to pick up different characters are from Latin America, a region that as this article states:
Despite being underserved by Capcom, the Latin American region is full of incredible Street Fighter V players, most notably reigning Capcom Cup champion Saul "MenaRD" Mena. Fighting Fest, which takes place on MenaRD's home turf of the Dominican Republic, played host to 112 competitors
Being from the Latin America Region myself (Dominican Republic) yeah I also believe capcom could do a better job at servicing the latin america comunitty, for example there are official capcom usa and japan channels, yet I believe that as of now there isnt any channel for spanish speaking players. As Mena and other highly skilled players from latin america have shown, there is a lot of really strong players around here and capcom should try and give this region much more well deserved exposure.
So what do you think fighting era? do you tend to use the more popular/high tier characters? or do you go with the one that you feel more identifying regardless of their possition on tier lists? do you like matchups between lesser tier characters like this? or do you rather your top tier characters matchups? do you think Latin America is getting the exposure it deserves by capcom? Don't you think SFV top 8 in tournaments would be better for the audience if there was a highter variety of characters shown? let me know what you think.
Link to the article : https://kotaku.com/rare-character-matchup-punctuates-dominican-street-figh-1829506196
Bonus: top 5 moments of the tournament: