<@MrWizard> man
<@MrWizard> thats why i said no
<@MrWizard> to a live camera
<@MrWizard> you wouldnt have wanted to see my face
<@MrWizard> when i was talking about sfxt lol
Mr. Wizard is holding his nose/grinning and bearing it when it comes to SFxT. Given his previous IRC bitching about Capcom pressuring Evo to include TvC (another joke of a game) that one year, we can assume this is because he is a straight bitch incapable of being weaned from the teat of Mother Capcom. Any after-the-fact justifications given for why this game was included or why other games weren’t are simply that - easily-dismantled justifications that have nothing to do with the real behind-the-scenes machinations. There is no legitimate justification for the inclusion of SfxT in Evo, and, as demonstrated by the IRC log above, Wiz knows it.
Evo is more interested in pandering to the fair-weather casual players on the fringe of the community than creating the best tournament for the hardcore players who understand that some games just suck for competitive play. See all the people who post on SRK about wanting to go to Evo, even though they have never even been to local casuals? That is the audience Evo courts, and the reason it can pull four or more times the people of the next largest major; most of the attendants are not even real members of the fighting game community.
I’ve seen people refer to eSports as a “cancer”, but you fail to recognize the cancer in your midst. It is Evo that put Adam Sessler on the mic during grand finals. Tom Cannon writes articles about preserving the fighting game community’s unique culture, while plastering James Chen and UltraDavid, the most white bread commentary team ever, all over the Evo stream and preventing Yipes from appearing. Evo chooses to submit to the demands of Capcom and casual players, rather than throwing its promotional weight behind an older or less played game; the kind of games that every top player, if caught in a rare moment of honesty, acknowledges are superior to the current crop of popular games.
Discuss.