3 ms·
Wow this was really interesting. As a semi-competitive player during the Tekken 3/TTT1 days one of the under appreciated parts of getting good at an internation
by bane 3y ago
Wow this was really interesting. As a semi-competitive player during the Tekken 3/TTT1 days one of the under appreciated parts of getting good at an international level is diversity of arcade "cultures".
What this means is that your arcade generally provides the same players again and again, and performing well against those players provides little guarantee against players in another arcade who've developed entirely different techniques and playing styles.
So you have to play, a lot, against a huge range of players. You can't really just play against your arcade's local players and get to a level that's competitive on even a regional level. I remember the first time I emerged, after a few months of heavy playing, into an arcade in a neighboring city, and getting crushed the first few matches.
I've since played TTT1 in arcades around the world and I've always found somebody who does something I've neve seen before.
That these guys can pull off winning, against ultracompetitive leaders in ultracompetitive hypermarkets like Japan or Korea is absolutely incredible.
It'd almost be like Pakistan fielding a Superbowl winning American Football team after only getting together enough guys for the offensive and defensive lines and only playing those lines against each other.
- dclowd9901 3y agoWell it works both ways though doesn’t it? The isolationist nature of Pakistan also means outside players have a hard time playing _them_ as well, and thus, something of a blind spot in their own skill set. Granting your point that having more exposure is better than less, maybe the Pakistani players have just developed some really keen play styles that work really well against the unadapted.
- distantaidenn 3y agoThis is exactly what it was. As more people have began to adapt to the Pakistan meta, they are not as dominant. It was just a new skilled style that no one outside of Pakistan was aware of. You see similar things with Black players in the US. They are often isolated and hyper-competitive, and thus are over represented in the top tier based on population numbers. Edit: Interesting. Why was this downvoted? Any competitive players here? I'm speaking from my own experience playing in US, South Korea, and Japan. Also, just take a look at the current rankings. For some reason, Tekken is huge in the Black American community. Downvote all you'd like, but it doesn't change the facts: 3 of the top 6 professional Tekken players in the US are Black.
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- mannykannot 3y agoI cannot speak for anyone who downvoted you, but your second paragraph recapitulates the sort of 'just-so' stories made up to explain away the successes of black people in athletics and more generally, and similarly for people of the 'wrong' gender, nationality or social class (when the future Kaiser Wilhelm II started winning yacht races at the prestigious Cowes Week regatta in Britain, he was dismissed by some as "trying too hard.") The frequency with which this sort of thing has happened suggests that, for some people, anything is preferable to the simple acceptance of the superior abilities of the people in question. The fact you state in your final paragraph is consistent with a number of hypotheses, including simple chance.
- blululu 3y ago>>The frequency with which this sort of thing has happened suggests that, for some people, anything is preferable to the simple acceptance of the superior abilities of the people in question. American society has made a huge effort over the last 70 years insisting that deep down we are all the same and no group is inherently superior to any other. So when we see some group doing better than another group we need to explain it away as being due to some cultural phenomenon. Suggesting that a specific group of people does in fact have superior abilities is a very ugly thing.
- mannykannot 3y agoThe idea that "American society" speaks with one voice on this now, let alone consistently over 70 years, is preposterous.
- snarfy 3y agoI made it to the round of 8 in Namco's TTT1 world tournament. This is all absolutely true - you must travel and play against the best to improve further once you reach a peak. And you have to play a ridiculous amount to keep your skills up. I recall playing with friends starting friday night after work at 5pm and not stopping until late Sunday afternoon, nearly 48 hours straight with no sleep! Dedication... Seeing Arslan win EVO was such a great underdog story. His play style was different than most - not the most flash but incredibly strong fundamentals. He could have done well with any character.
- 99_00 3y agoI'm not sure your analysis holds water because the population of Pakistan is 250 million. Almost double Korea and Japan combined.
- Agingcoder 3y agoThe number of players is probably very different