This isn't really a complete article, but more like a reply and contrasting. This was so good, I figured I'd first put it in the articles section rather than sending it off to the stacks as secondary material. Maybe there are some players out there who actually think the same. Anyway, it was a reply at the shoryuken.com message board under a thread that read something like "should we give scrubs what they want?" Seeing a title like this immediately interested me in seeing what nonsense it would stir up among self-proclaimed legends and pros. Supposedly, the thread was designed to get feedback from self-proclaimed upper-level players or "pros" who are victimized by so-called "scrubs." This fucking thread enraged me; it infuriates me to see that the antagonists fail to see that the 'scrubs' they speak of lie within their carefully organized little groups. It's amazing how many people on a single site can be so completely oblivious to the fact that they are as average as they come. These motherfuckers come straight off the rack. I refuse to give credit to assholes that claim to be original, but are nothing more than a cheap clone of a good player. Here's the rant just as it appeared on the shoryuken.com forum:

Oh, it's great to hear the word scrub again, and to see people try to define it. Well, everyone learns sometime...and I don't agree that you should lessen an ass-beating on someone who doesn't have the ambition to practice the game, but does it mean beating the shit out of a 10 year old to get them off the machine. Does triangle jumping and pulling an infinite on a button-mashing kid get your rocks off? I do agree though...don't listen to fuckers who say this is cheap and that is cheap...fuck that shit. People who say every technique or move, or throw in the game is cheap...aren't scrubs...they're assholes. But...there's two sides to every coin, and the other side to this coin is that there's a lot of 'players' who just copy, copy, and copy more. It gets absolutely fucking old. I mean, look at the tourney stats from everywhere - so many of the same, boring fucking matches, and occasionally a match where someone actually picks one of the other characters or teams in MVSC2 or CVSS2. Is a scrub someone who asks for mercy, someone who tells you not to use an advanced technique, or is it someone who thinks they are revolutionizing the way a game is played just by picking the same teams everyone else in the nation is choosing? I already know there have to be some of you with dollar signs above your head by now, but I've been saying the same thing for years, since SF and VS games have been turned into facilitators for making money: fuck prizes...and fuck the money. That's not what the game is about. What about those who constantly choose the same characters and teams every single time they play...and continue to call themselves pros or bad-asses, when all they do is copy someone else's teams, strategies, and style? I give credit to those who originally discovered these infinites, strategies, etc. because they deserve it; it's amazing to see the things they have discovered; I don't hate them for finding these tricks out - but too many 'players' try to copy them. Sure, every motherfucker on this board can claim they have 'mad-skilz' and all this other horseshit...but we have to remember it's on a message board (with the exception of those who are on the tourney stats). I don't think the traps and all that shit that Capcom's lazy testers left in MVSC2 are cheap, but I do think that when you go to an arcade, you have 20 people, and 18 of these guys choose the exact same fucking teams out of the 50+ characters that are in MVSC2, it's cheap. Why cheap? Not because the infinites, or the traps...because it's sad to see that instead of learning something new, people would rather let the tiers guide their game. I do see a lot of cool shit, though...with some of the things in MVSC2, but this copying shit is for the birds. Is seeing the same few teams of Magneto, Blackheart, Cable, Storm, Spiral, and Sentinel fun? I don't hate the players because the game was poorly tested, but come on; does everyone that supposedly 'knows' how to play MVSC2 HAVE to have any one of those characters on the handful of worn-out teams you can make with them? Maybe these so-called 'scrubs' aren't so much pissed at the techniques? I don't call myself a scrub, I don't call myself some bad-ass motherfucker like a lot of the 'playas' on the SRK boards do - but I'll tell you one thing - I play the games (and I didn't start with the VS series). I've made posts about this kind of shit before, and it never surprises me to get those who defend cookie-cutter antics, get all pissed and bitter, then call me a scrub for saying such truth. Call me a scrub, call me a fucking liar. Everyone's a critic. Are scrubs people who DO NOT use Magneto, Cable, Spiral, Sentinel, Blackheart, or Storm? Are scrubs those who do not use infinites or traps in MVSC2 or Sagat, Bison, and Blanka in CVSS2?

So, there it is; my attack on those who consider themselves to be pros. Well, the fact is, I will not swallow all the bullshit and lies. I can understand when someone uses characters and innovates with them while mixing or using slight variations of what some of the top players use, but the self-proclaimed champion jerks are what I refuse to understand. They say they are so good, and they act like they've displayed some amazing thing that nobody else knows or can do, when what they are showing is that they are straight off the fucking rack. They show how easy it is to copy someone else (who's better at the game), and how much harder it is to be an individual, and innovator, a true fighter. There are many players out there who are far more innovative than the guys who copy things from others, but they don't get the respect that the followers get. It seems like just because some fucker at an arcade cleans house on a few 'lucky' challengers with an Magneto infinite he gets respect because he pulled off the same exact shit that someone else has already used (and pioneered). The sad thing isn't really that he is winning, the sad part is that this prick is classifying himself as an innovator, while others blindly follow this thief. It makes me fucking sick to see these bastard-ass motherfuckers that scoff when they see someone who breaks the ugly mold of tiers or other established narrowness by using either different characters or strategies. I mean, try bringing out some E. Honda, Dan, Kyosuke, or Maki at CVSS2, or Guile, Wolverine, Dan, Chun-Li, or Iceman in MVSC2; you can almost taste the sour looks you'll get for your tier deviation. We're not all robots, so that means we are free to innovate, experiment, and find new things with the deep fighters we have, but instead we have legions of 'players' who play their game according to a stupid tier. Don't get me wrong, a tier can be a bit of an interesting observation at the very best (and that's even pushing it), but the main thing is that these tiers are all made by people who think and play very similar to each other, so of course they'll agree on the results. Tiers are supposed to be so damn great because 50 guys agreed on the son of a bitch, but the thing is, if all 50 of these guys think the same and play the same, what does that tell you? I love how in some games the tiers from LA...I mean, the US, are different from that of Japan's because of the difference in preference and thinking. The point? Well, the same scumbags who copy every one of their fucking strategic aspects from others are the same fuckers who let the tiers guide their game blindly. I'm sorry, but unfortunately we're not all robots. I refuse to pick a character because a few guys probably decided over a few shots and a glitch that it is better than all the others in the game. It wouldn't be so bad, but then you got these same fuckers that smirk, and make these fucked up gestures to their friends because you didn't pick your team directly off a fucking chart of bullshit numbers that represent how many matches a character is supposed to win against another.

I look at it this way; shoryuken.com is probably the biggest meeting place on the web for Street Fighter and other fighters. There are a lot of great players on the site, many that can be seen on the videos of the biggest tourneys. In fact, I think one of the best (in my opinion) players, Jason Wilson, is a part of shoryuken.com. At first glance, the site is amazing; it has message boards with tons of SF and other Capcom fighting game fans like yourself, right? Well, almost. Shoryuken.com is a wealth of knowledge about the newest Capcom fighters, and when something new is found, whether a glitch or a new technique, it's usually always found on shoryuken.com first. The site has the most intricate tourney info that can be found on the web, and players can even organize to meet up with other players to battle it out like never before. It's amazing how many things the site makes possible, and how so many resources can be tapped from one site, right? The site also has an ever-changing, nice design and layout as well. A site dedicated to (popular new) Capcom fighters with tons of freely accessible information, and lots of new people to meet and talk about fighters with. This is great, right? Well, almost. I thought it would be great, until I noticed something. Something I tried to wait out, something I was hoping was just a phase, or at least a trend with a short shelf-life. Unfortunately, that trend never stopped, and seemingly got worse. Upon reading the message board threads, I noticed that a lot (and I mean a lot) of the posters were very similar in all of the most fucked-up ways. A significant portion of them not only have completely forgot or are oblivious as to how fighters aren't supposed to be played solely to make profit, but a lot of them also use all of the same teams/characters/strategies. Oh, and lets not forget how all of them are better and more skillful than you are (even though they've never played you before).

OK, well, some say you can just read right past it and continue with some other posts that aren't so ignorant. Not so easy. I tried, and tried...but it just didn't work. Before I knew it, I found myself in a whirlwind of shit, and before I knew it, had legions of fanboys on my ass for questioning imitation and ethics. So I get a few pissed off fanboys who call me a scrub, a few who defend filthy greed, and some asshole whining about how he gets shit for the characters he picks (because every other prize-hunter picks the same teams as him). It seems that not too many of those who post at shoryuken.com stand up against and question some of the stupid shit that is going on. Why not? Are they afraid? Are they afraid that everyone will come down on them for standing up against the shit? I couldn't just sit content and know that nobody else (that I could see) said anything. Anything at all. Goddamn it; I'm not gonna fucking stay quiet and let these assholes have their way. It was time to break them down, to break the fucking spirit that makes them label anyone with originality as a scrub, or as inferior. There used to be some ethics, some morality in the community of players who got together and played the games to get better and fight great matches. It used to be about finding someone on a machine, playing them, and seeing how well you fared against others, and in turn learning from and respecting the other player. But now, it's different, and it's changed not for the best. The respect is still subtly there, but it's been watered-down by greed and image. Don't get me wrong, prizes are cool, and of course winning new games and shit like that is cool; anyone would like to have free games and hardware, right? Sure, but now it's all been taken to a new, sickening level. Now, it's all about the fucking prizes, and less about the game. It just seems that most of the posters (but not all) at the shoryuken.com message board care more about the money than the game and the importance of fighting good players. Somehow, they've combined the immorality and greed of today's most popular 'pimpz and playaz' on MTV with my Capcom fighters. My take on this atrocity? It's a bunch of fucking bullshit. That's what I think. Why are they "my Capcom fighters?" Because it's the players who didn't care about the cash prizes and fame before before, that built this fucking scene...not those who just started learning MVSC2 with a dollar sign carved into the back of their fucking head. It's good to have prizes sometimes, and it's cool for those who win them, I understand, but I don't think it should be a leading factor in the way the game is played. Playing Capcom fighters is not an occupation. I'd like to see how many would show up to these tourneys if there was less money coming in for the prizes, or no prizes at all?

There's this whole image that everyone has to fit to be accepted as a great or respectable player, and I disagree with this nonsense. Who gives a fuck about the image? To be known is one thing, but to try so hard to make an image to push on others is stupid. Some of the posters are supposedly skilled at Capcom fighters because they get it from they "bitches" and "hoes" after a game of MVSC2. Someone please shoot me. A significant portion of these posters are carbon copies of one another, using the same characters and teams, and even the same strategies. Don't get me wrong, it's cool to use some different techniques you might have learned from other players, but a line has to be drawn between thieves and originals. I think it's cool to use several different styles of strategies, traps, and such, but some of these guys are completely worthless without a trap, strategy, or team they copied from someone else (most likely a higher-skilled player). At this point, some may say "well, how can you tell who is copying who?" Well, order the tournament videos like B4 or B5 and see for yourself; you have these higher-end players with distinguished play styles on the video, and then when you go to your local arcade and you beat the fuck out of some asshole who poorly emulates the exact same teams or characters from the video. That's how you tell. I've played several people that choose the same teams as Duc Do (this is just an example), but it doesn't mean I played Duc Do 20 times. The fact is that a copy, no matter how good, is almost always gonna be inferior. It's not the players who use the same characters and think up new shit that irritate me so much (just a little), it's the pricks who claim to be so elite but are only at the bottom of the pile because they jacked all their shit from other players. They think that the only teams or characters that can win are the ones that everyone plays - the most popular characters. And if you don't pick those characters, some of them have a mouthful of shit waiting for you. Just go to the message board at shoryuken.com and look at the avatar pictures under the names of the posters - there are so many collages made with Magneto, Sentinel, Storm, Blackheart, Cable, Spiral, M.Bison, Sagat, and Blanka, they all look the same if you visit the site regularly.

Some reading this may thinking "oh, this guy hates all these playas because they good & shit," or (for the optimistic) maybe something like "well what about the guys who are cool?" It's not the innovators, the guys who find this shit, that I hate; it's the self-proclaimed innovators I have the problem with. I'm not gonna sit here and watch some fuckers claim they are so damn great and innovative when they stole all their shit from someone else's bag of tricks. It's cool to see something in a video or whatever, then try it, like it, and mix it into your strategy and put it into a new equation; but when it is complete carbon copying, I think it shows laziness. Learning techniques and using them is part of any fighter, but I think learning is thrown out the window when there is no variation. Variation is key because it shows dedication; to copy another player almost completely (since copies are never as good as the originals) just shows disrespect for other players. It's cool to see people use things they learn from others, but it shouldn't get to the point where every goddamn match of a tournament is the same. If fitting into a bullshit group means that I have to play the game the way someone else wants me to, I'll walk alone. So, let me get this straight; I have to play the way some motherfuckers want me to play just to get a little bit of fucking respect? No. A player should be respected for his/her skill in the game, not because he/she doesn't use the same characters as some asshole group of "hardcore" players (that stole everything they know). There are a few players out there who walk alone because they don't fit into the filthy groups, and they are the ones that I truly respect. They show that the game is about something more than living out the bullshit MTV dream of being rich (winning prizes); they play the game because it's fun. Oh, I forgot not to say the f-word when referring to fighters seriously. I guess they're not supposed to be fun. Fuck. The antagonists mentioned need to be more imaginative, and need to show more variation in their gameplay before they can call themselves innovative, or even a skilled player. A skilled player doesn't rob things from others and call it their own.