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xd1x · 7 years

Text

11_1_2017

Hey tumblr,

It has been a while since I’ve decided to post my inner thoughts on here and I’m sorry for that.

I’ve been doing really well as a commentator since I’ve decided to take the big leap and expand beyond Melee in 2014.

I know most of my audience knows me from Super Smash Bros. Melee, but I never was a sole Melee fan to begin with. If you really want to know what kind of fan I really am, it would be a Nintendo fan.

Back in my high school days I’d remember spending free periods engaging in console wars on the IGNboards with fellow gamers instead of going outside to play handball. In my first year at Sheepshead Bay High School, I used to spend countless hours playing Gold and Silver with my pals. When I transferred to John Dewey High due to how dangerous the aforementioned school was, I met a bunch of friends who were Advance Wars enthusiasts. These friends along with the ones I met in SHBS helped foster the growth of my adoration for gaming.

These friends also helped ease me back into fighting games when I first thought they weren’t accessible enough for people like me. I was more into Smash Bros. at the time, but they tried to get me into Tekken 3/Tag and Third Strike. Once Soul Calibur 2 came through with Link, somehow someway I was pulled in even if I mained Kilik and not Link. It was awesome to finally read frame data, combo guides, matchup discussions, and more to actually level up as a player. I never knew how much joy one could actually get doing research in fighting games.

I really wish people understood the amount of meticulous care that goes into finding out all the minute details in a fighter. Seeing the viewership that fighting games gets in comparison to the bigger esports titles is always something that I am constantly researching to figure out. One thing that I think it goes back to is the ever prevalent view that they are just hard to get into. I was there before, and I will have to sit and really figure out ways to make them easier for people to digest.

One thing that has worked with getting more people into our scene of course are the dedicated commentators that weave together storylines for the rest of the world to follow. It is a job that is not easy, but it does come with heavy responsibility. I am happy that nowadays we have more live broadcasts, archives of videos, write-ups, and podcasts in an effort to get more people into the scenes...but there is still more work to be done.

The scary thing is that back then, some of these scenes looked like they had no future. Nowadays we have over-saturation. With every win for the betterment of the entire scene, there is always another monster that we have to overcome. In an age where corporations are propping up events with big budgets, the smaller grassroots event organizers are starting to hurt more. I am seeing trends of dedicated tournament organizers who’ve ran events for many years being forgotten because their events don’t have the same prize pool as a new untested event that has corporate backing. The cool thing is when these big companies outsource people from the community, because then they are allowing these guys to make an honest earning from their work, which they can then give back to the scene.

Speaking of giving back to the scene, one of the things I realized was that in the past I’ve done a lot of grinding to level up my social media presence to be one of the lighthouses that can get more people into the Smash scene. I won’t say I’ve 100% accomplished that goal, but I will say that many people come to me at events till this day thanking me and my co-casters for getting them into the scene. What makes it even better is when they say that they’re now doing something for the scene thanks to our patronage. This is one of the biggest wins.

Lately I’ve been taking more risks, a risk that many content creators try to avoid. If you have an established audience somewhere, it is usually best to not deviate from what you are known to specialize in for fear of looking like a “sell-out” or “disingenuous.” I’ve had people that were close friends of me who actually mocked me for being a “blind Nintendo zealot”, the same friends who constantly got put down from other scenes for being a Smash enthusiast. Why must be make fun of each other when others hurt us in the past for loving what we love?

As a person that’s a big Nintendo fan since my first NES system, and soon after SNES in my youth - I’ve always been a person that fought hard and pushed for Nintendo. Being a Nintendo fan can be rough, I still remember when we lost many 3rd party developers during the Nintendo 64, GameCube, and so on. Regardless of this fact I always took my sword and shield to wage war on the IGNboards. Fast forward to 2014 where I finally started getting opportunities to work with my favorite video game company, I realized this was a chance to do more than just Smash. Smash 4 wyearsas the first game I’ve commentated outside of Melee officially. It was tough casting an Invitational with items and a ruleset that is nothing near what I am used to. I still decided to fight through this, because I know at the end of the day if we get on their good graces, we can see beautiful things for our scene in the future.

I know there are many that may see otherwise due to the sacrifices made. Fan-made alterations were all the rage, but those have died in popularity due to fear of the legal ramifications. I will touch on this more in the future, but I will say that it is awesome to see their respective scene do their best to keep the hope alive. At the same time, many of the members of that team have moved on to an awesome project that has a ton of promise, Icons: Combat Arena is going to be the future...stay tuned.

Tangents...I must learn how to not have diarrhea of the brain.

So for the people that have always questioned why do I commentate ARMS, Smash 4, Pokken Tournament, and etc. besides solely Melee...I’m just a fan of video games in general. I gravitate heavily to fighters, but I do love random Nitnendo games. I tend to stream variety games on my twitch (@ xD1x if you didn’t know.) The interesting thing is, if I weren’t streaming I’d still be playing variety games. While I frequented many Melee events in the past, whenever I went back home, I’d be out there playing the next AAA title, or under-appreciated sleeper release at my leisure. Live broadcasts and current commentary/hosting gigs have finally allowed me to come out and tell the public that I am just a gamer, who loves not one game, but many.

My hope is that all of you amazing people that came across me outside of Smash, decide to follow me on my constant journey to see Smash succeed. My end goal is to help the scene succeed, and if this means taking the hard road to start creating content outside of Smash in an effort, to later on show people the wonderful world of Smash Bros. then hopefully we’ll have a bigger scene at the end of the day.

Regardless of the outcome, this will be a fun journey.

Lastly, when I get hired to do commentary at events...tournament organizers choose what they want the casters to commentate.

See ya.

#real talk smashbros nintendo xd1x d1 twitch youtube realtalk

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