I'm stunned to think that I came into this thread and found contructive, thoughtful, and worthwhile contents oozing from every post. When I first started reading Josh's post, I was thinking "Uh oh, someone is going to start a flame war" but, instead, introspective discussion followed. Wow.
From what I've read, it seems that most of us have come the the realization, or at least brought to attention, a few major points:
- Oregon sucks
- There's too much sandbagging
- We have potential
For those of you who are already knowledgable of the steps to improvement, you'll note that the first step is to realize that you aren't the best, thus "Oregon Sucks". It seems we've pinpointed the obstacles, such as the good players being scattered, lack of time to practice, and the ugly sandbagging mentality. Third, and most importantly, we realize we can overcome said obstacles and show that Oregon does indeed have potential.
Interesting to note that Oregon has
already started working on overcoming some of these points. The first that comes to mind is that interest in tournaments is becoming more widespread - we're seeing tournies in Gresham, Salem and Corvallis whereas in the past if you wanted to go to a tournament there was only TANG and SF:E. This gives players in those areas a better chance to attend, play, and improve.
Also, the "newer" players seem to have a more determined mindset, which lets them improve more quickly and pushes the competition to also improve. Everyone loves playing against MCS, not just because he is good, but because you know that he's not going to hold back on you. Trust me when I say your level of determination is contagious - if you play without energy, you will have a lackluster opponent; but if you fight with determination, your opponent will rise to meet the challenge.
Although Oregon is clearly behind in the competitive scene on the West Coast, you have to realize that California has some of the best players
in the world and not everyone in CA is Ken & Isai. Washington is the same way, Ka-Master and Silent Wolf did amazing at FCD/0C3 considering the level of competition at those tournies, but not everyone in WA is a Ka or Wolf. Certainly Oregon can follow suit and produce some high-calibur players that rep the state. People who are interested in attaining that level of skill just need to address what's holding them back and then work at it.
I think that since we're comparing ourselves to the best of West Coast that it's obvious we're setting our goals to at least that standard. We don't have the luxury of having a huge population like SoCal, nor having top players at close proximity like WA, so what we need is to keep Oregon connected. We need to think of Oregon as a crew and all the smashers as members. We need to make honest attempts to go to tournies and play with determination and resolve. We need to appreciate our opponents and remember that the game is only as good as the players.
I think that sandbagging is stupid. . .
