Writing this mostly to vent about a problem I’ve noticed that's been around for years and honestly there isn't a huge way to solve it but just wanna speak some words into the void I guess.
Player accountability within the smash community is horrible and it's mostly hurt by the fact that TO’s are demonized if they put their foot down even a little, so people just don't care if they make problems because no TO will actually punish them. The whole hax situation shows if TO’s do anything to punish someone for diminishing the quality of their event they get a shitstorm to deal with online from people who don't even attend events, local or major.
I want to specify this isn’t about the Hbox chair situation, if GOML decided to invoice him for the chair (provided the hotel charges them) I think he wouldn’t have an issue paying it and It’d be no harm done, that is barely anything (though I do think in hbox has had issues in other events, such as at WEmad where he just walked up and took one of the few (i think it was like, 4 total) tournament setups the event had to his hotel room to “warm up”). The chair situation is mostly a nothingburger , though I do think he should be a bit more careful around expensive streaming equipment, while nothing may have broken this time, something like this could easily bounce weird and break a wire.
While players just kinda doing whatever they want has been an issue forever there was a specific situation at goml that caused me to write about this, because outside of this my event experience was fantastic.
**post doc edit: had a chat with maelstrom where he claims he checked with the pool captain multiple times and I believe him, leaving the rest as it was my POV but i don’t think they did anything specifically wrong within this situation. This isn’t an uncommon type of situation
This next bit is just my pov pre talking to them but leaving it for continuity sake:
During Doubles, me and my Teammate won our first round quickly and were called for our second set around 12:20 (pools started at 12). We go directly up to the pool captain and say we’re here and about 2~ minutes later the stream runner comes by and says we’re gonna be on main stream. Cool, we just played our last set so that's chill. Our next opponents were egg/maelstrom who checked in for the pool initially but got a dqwin for their first round. I’d never met either player so I didn't know what they looked like, but the pool captain was repeatedly calling them to no answer. Around 10~ minutes later the stream runner comes by again (12:35 ish now) and asks if we found them, we say they still have not shown so she says she’ll be right back in 5 minutes. At this time we do a complete circle of our pool calling for both players who are meant to be our opponent, to no response. The stream runner comes back, 12:40 ish now, 20 minutes after the initial set call, and says we’re no longer on stream but if they show up to just play. Another 10 minutes of periodically calling both their tags and asking other people in the pool if they knew them to no response, at about 12:50 the pool captain decided to dq them. Stream runner comes back a few minutes and says our next set vs Aklo/Maher would be on side stream, and to go wait by those setups. So we go up to the side stream and start talking about strategies and rest setups for playing against marth in doubles. We wait for around 20 minutes by the stream and just as we are about to get up and play (1:15 ish now) egg comes to the stream setup and says they were dq’d falsely and we have to play. So one hour after the set was called initially we end up playing them at around 1:20 and barely lose a game3 which is mostly whatever but slightly tilting. It turns out they were just at a different pool warming up the entire time. So essentially, me and my teammate were punished for being ready to play immediately when called and staying near our pool captain.
I want to make it clear I don't think egg or maelstrom are bad people in the slightest, they just should have had to hold that DQ. It's just an extension of the greater problem within the community where players just often will disappear from a pool for huge chunks of time without warning knowing they won't get DQ’d. This problem is especially bad with top players, who often will just be in the VIP room warming up upwards of half an hour after their pool is scheduled to start. Players will just go smoke, get a drink or do whatever without checking which is a huge reason events often run past time. While he’s been much better recently wizzy used to notoriously delay brackets with being late to sets and then also taking as much time as possible between games, simply because he knows no TO will be able to punish him, as the twitter storm wouldn't be worth it.
Which I guess kind of is a transition into my other big issue with the scene right now which is the way current VIP rooms work is beyond stupid. Them being “dedicated warmup for the top 32 seeds” is just ridiculous, why are we giving the best players extra warmup for round 1, it's not particularly fair. VIP rooms should exist as a room for like, the Mango/Hbox/Leffen’s of the scene who literally get lines formed whenever one person stops them, to chill and decompress. There is no reason for SDJ (I have no qualms with SDJ specifically, they seem great and i don't even know if they went into the room im just using them as an example) to need access to a VIP room. Most of the people at goml wouldn’t have been able to pick SDJ out of a lineup prior to top 8. Dedicated warmup setups for players who make top 8 is fine to make the top 8 a good show, but prior to top 8 there’s no reason that Frenzy and Faust get to warm up in the dedicated vip room but Kins0 and 2saint don’t. (though most top 50~ seeds would just walk into the vip room without a pass if they felt like it)
All it takes to solve both these problems is one TO to really put their foot down and DQ people for being late, disappearing and generally causing problems due to their expectation of favorable treatment to get everyone whipped into shape. While I understand other shit happens sometimes you can just let the pool captain know if you're running to the bathroom or literally whatever. A conversation I had with squid who was only spectating this weekend because he forgot to reg where he said something along the lines of “yeah i didn't want them to TPP me into bracket because I think there should be consequences for my actions'' really struck a chord in me that like, the community really does have a problem with self accountability for most people. The instant some people make like, even local pr’s they assume they should get away with more because more often than not they just do.
People need to understand that melee is *barely* esports. Our viewership numbers are not what they used to be, melee majors are held up by the regular average attendee and just because you “make top 32” or even are ranked doesn't mean you make the event any more money with your presence. When an organizer flies you out it's usually directly at a loss, simply because someone involved is passionate about the game and wants to see a specific player there or have a specific number of the ranked players. It does not make an event more money to have rank #2X in attendance, outside of the MASSIVE players like mango/hbox nobody draws enough extra viewers to a stream to make the money back for an organizer covering them entering. A huge chunk of large regionals and even small majors are barely making any money off Viewership and Sponsors. Its is ONLY the massive ones like bighouse, genesis, and goml making a large chunk off viewership numbers, and even then they are so prestigious they likely get the numbers regardless of whose in top 8, with notable but small bumps for the BIGGEST of players, but mostly the same either way.
Idk i guess i'm just ranting because I think some TO just has to put their foot down, but i also understand that it's a huge problem/risk to do so when the person you're punishing has 20x your social following.
Come to KoH 7 I’ll be treating all my attendee’s equally and making sure everyone has a good time from the top players to the 0-8er’s (its round robin pools baby! (for melee only)) https://www.start.gg/koh7
-NSFrog