Tuesday Morning Mythra — 5/9: NA = Near Airport????????
neo. patreon. i need to start making headway on this and booking his flights rofl. everyone wish him well wishes resting up from covid!
Hey everyone!
I’m back — thanks to Kenniky for taking over for me last week, and writing up about Golden Week probably better than I could have. I’ve spent it doing a lot of work, of course, but I’m also practicing up Persona 4 Arena Ultimax for Combo Breaker — another game that happens to coincidentally take place during Golden Week. Funny how that goes.
Of course, I was pretty hyperaware of how the Western talent was doing in the three brackets they entered, and I’ve ultimately seen these massive debates ignite about one question: is NA bad at Smash Bros?
Now, before I continue, I want to just talk about how this sort of regional phenomenon isn’t…really new. In fact, Smash is pretty unique for having North America as its epicenter, given that it’s historically had multiple players from Japan, Sweden, and [sigh] Chile be on top. Despite the existence and proliferation of international top talent, though, the overall sentiment within Smash involves needing to come to America for Smash to “prove yourself”, with the implication that international scenes, as a whole, were not as strong as in America. Maybe it’s visibility bias, but it definitely comes from some level of truth — America, historically, has had the most extensive Smash infrastructure.
This is in sharp contrast to most other esports, and none highlight this like international League of Legends, an American game whose top level American competitors are not even considered within the same order of magnitude of ability as their eastern counterparts in China and Korea. Despite some isolated strong showings — Cloud9 at Worlds 2018 — ultimately, NA remains the perpetual underdog.
Shoutout to NAmen, btw, definitely the coolest thing I was made privy to this past summer.
So Smash has always been an anomaly; Japanese players have always been strong in Smash, but even up through the pandemic there was always the understanding that NA’s players — and more importantly, its events — were the epicenter of the scene.
Then, acola happened, and you probably know the events of the past year pretty well.
So that takes us to this past week: a bunch of top level North American players came to Japan, and their overall performances have been found to be…controversial.
Let’s talk about it. Is NA bad? Is Japan better now?
Short answer: NA’s not bad. Calm down. But the week was a little embarrassing, overall.
In particular, Spargo’s win at Kagaribi 10 should be proof of the former. It’s very clear that skillwise, top level North America and top level Japan are pretty much neck and neck. The fight for the best player in the world is back alive, and Spargo and Acola — and really, them alone — will be gunning for it at Battle of BC.
Or, of course, Leo, Tweek, Light and Miya [damn, it’s crazy to see Leo as an underdog] could just win and make this discussion more complicated.
Right now, North America’s top level and Japan’s top level are neck and neck. It is a very engaging rivalry to watch.
I’m not going to dwell too much on the macro results, partially because I don’t want to be mean to MuteAce because I love that guy, but more so because “did NA do that badly?” is a question that ranges from “god yes” to “not shambolically but it definitely wasn’t overall the greatest showing and overall Japan looked stronger even past some strong isolalted runs”
Let’s talk about the high and mid level with regards to Japanese players though.
I really do think most of the top fifty is going to end up being populated by Japanese players and I think this trip was pretty good proof of that. Even ignoring the extremely weird losses taken — Mao > Dabuz, Ikari > Cosmos — Japan’s high level talent pool runs really deep. Players like Toriguri, Harasen, and Neo showed that pretty well. I think Japan’s ability and capacity to hold these larger events densely packed with top talent is good for them; it ends up providing a spotlight to depth. [Come on, Yamanaction-MASA grands?].
Rankings wise, I get the shaking feeling that UltRank will be accused of Japan bias [again, thanks Ron] when the 20–50 range has a majority Japan, but it is what it is. It’s pretty clear that Japan’s playerbase that stays in the nation is just as strong. Japanese players do not need to travel to “prove” themselves, since the events and infrastructure there now carry weight to them among NA audiences.
There is, of course, one thing North America’s talent can do to fight this narrative.
Look, Japan isn’t going to slow down hosting events like Kagaribi, MaesumaTOP, and Umebura. These massive, prestigious events are going to provide Acola with the resume he needs to build a number one case, no matter what happens in North America. And if we’re going to be so real here: these big events are, for the most part, going to be won by Acola. Let’s be realistic here. Even past that, depth players are going to find these amazing wins at Japanese events on top players, and those top players are going to then come to America and show their dominance. The transitive property seems to hold up to this extent. Going forward, Japanese events are going to be — and stay — just as relevant to rankings as American events. The strength of the top level and the breadth of the high level have pretty much ensured that, especially given the events of the past week.
I think in hindsight, MkLeo “who is Yoshidora”-ing was probably a larger symptom of NA serving as Smash’s center, and not that I think Leo was being malicious in anyway, but I think that sort of mindset no longer can really hold in 2023. Players like Yaura, Yoshidora, and Hero have carved top 15–25 bids for themselves without stepping foot out of the nation [thus far!], and I think that looking at Ult’s landscape going forward requires equal attention on Japan and North America.
So if I’m a high level player who wants to show how they’re the next big thing, how they have what it takes to take the next step and hang with the best, I’d advise buying a ticket to Japan. Of course, it’s not easy — you’ll have to stomach the costs of flying, hotels, and more, you’ll be nine to twelve hours jetlagged, and you’ll be in a foreign world where you might not even know the language.
And I guess you’ll finally get the uphill battle generations of players have gone through for years just to be respected.
Look, this piece comes off as a little aggressive. It’s really important to note that I am extremely pro-NA, especially with regards to our depth talent. Anyone actually in UltStats could probably tell you as such. I lost like three unique sidebets throughout the week with my NA hopium.
But I do ultimately think that this past Golden Week marks a really significant turning point in the NA vs. Japan power dynamic. If Americans had come over, and our top players had ended up making up a majority of the top eight, then it probably would have been very different, but the reality is that everyone lost to depth. Every single American player over the week took at least one set loss to a player who had not traveled to North America prior. The reality is that these Japanese brackets are hard as shit, because once you get past pools, you’ll need to contend with a higher baseline difficulty to even make it from there to top eight.
EDIT: I forgot about Lima! Lima made it through the weeekend with Shuton/Acola/Riddles/Scend losses. Good shit buddy for clutching up against Smash Twitter’s most toxic Falco.
In the end, though, I think North America will be just alright. Just don’t be surprised when you start needing to download the Start.gg tag romanizer.
Besides, Japanese Smash is an enigma in-and-of-itself. There’s a lot of really, really meaty storyline stuff that’s yet to be explored there.
See you all next week!
Best wishes,
Trade War
