I’ve read online a lot lately that people are really complaining about Mr.SNK being a representative of the US at SBO Tougeki 2011. And how he doesn’t deserve to go.

A lot of people say, “Oh, Mike Ross should’ve gone instead, they should swap him. He’s the better Honda.” But people don’t realize, that’s just an opinion. Sure, even I think he is worse than Mike Ross, but in a team tournament, I believe it is better to have team synergy than to just pick up the best players. It’s about being able to play with your teammate and understanding each other’s abilities. It’s not just easy to pick up anyone.

Mr.SNK did not give a good showing at SBO Qualifiers, but he’s done a lot for the community and he’s done a lot for the game. I believe that if he didn’t go with Latif and drive with him, Latif would have not came to SBO Qualifiers, and would a better team have won? That’s still and will forever be up for debate. But like Latif told me at qualifiers… If you can’t beat him, then that means he has the best team. Latif also told me he didn’t want to drive 8 hours by himself with no teammate three days before qualifiers. I didn’t even think he was going to show up, so he picked up the teammate that believed in him. Congratulations on getting to Japan :).

What people don’t realize is that there were many teams in the tournament, trying to keep away the top players from winning that had no intention of winning. Do I think that’s more of an argument than Mr.SNK? Yes. I do. Why would you purposely enter a tournament that had no prize except a plane ticket, but had no passport, no money to go to japan, or not even having the intention of going to Japan? There’s no rules against it, but then again, it’s what everyone calls, “Gatekeeping”. But in the end, is it really worth the hassle to keep everyone who actually plans on going from going? Is that a nice thing to do or a straight up dick thing to do?

I found it to be retarded that Justin and Valle played me and ClakeyD to keep us from going to Japan, and that’s cool, but in the end, Justin would have just let EG win if they had gotten to them. No, Justin didn’t tell me this (we don’t talk that much fyi), and, of course, this is all speculation… Blatantly obvious speculation. You could have a bad matchup against one person, and that one person who has no intention of going just beats you and laughs. They don’t care. Is that sportsmanship? Isn’t that just being straight dirty? Is that really sending the best team to Japan, that could potentially lose to other teams, but those teams are being wiped out by one team that has no intention of going, just knocking out the competition of their teammates? Probably not.

For example, look at how teams ComboJack/HungBee took out… They had no intentions of going just going. But in the end, justice is served, and the man who had intentions on going and the best man at the tournament, Latif took out everyone ^_^

Let me know in the comments homies :).

Now, usually, I’m all for sponsorships, hell, I’ve been looking for sponsors for the longest time… But then people approach me and go, “Why don’t you look for our own sponsors instead of getting on a team? You’re worth way more than they tell you.”

So let’s look at the pros and cons about being sponsored.

• Pros

1. Free flights and hotels
2. Exposure
3. Sense of a family
4. Salary (Only for some players)

• Cons

1. Contracts
2. No salary (Most players)
3. Stuck within a company.

Ok, it’s like 3:41AM so I can’t think of that many. But to cut it short… You’re not able to be sponsored by a big company like Intel without going through you’re sponsored team first. If someone approached you, gotta go straight to the manager first. And at first, yeah, a person like me can’t just talk to someone high up and expect results so you just have you’re team do it because that’s what you’re there for… Right? But if you just sit down and look at the facts, it’s all nonsense. Teams are sponsored because they promise views, they promise videos, they promise just content for the sponsors to get exposed. If you could do the same, why go through basically a talent agency?

I’ve been following my favorite player in all of gaming for… almost 8 years now, and to this day, I still follow him just because I am a big fan. And one of the reasons I got sponsored in the first place was because I idolized him. Some of you guys may know him and some of you guys may not. His name is Grubby, a world famous WarCraft 3 player turned StarCraft. After I made my departure from my team, I noticed a few weeks after, he also left… But he left and decided to manage himself and make his own team. It startled me quite a bit, I was like, “Really? Why would he do that? Wasn’t he happy with his sponsor?” And all this news kept flashing up about him finding his own sponsors, and getting everything he wants to do done… Himself, without the help of a team. He made his own team.

Why does that matter? It matters because in the end, the PLAYERS is what drives the companies that sponsor them. If you make the right decisions, and play the right moves, you’ll be where Grubby is. Why be under someone else? Why not be your own boss? I envy this guy because he CAN do stuff like this. He took a risk, and in the end, everything paid off, and he still is able to do what he loves to do.

Being tied to a sponsor means they basically own you. They tell you no when they want, and they tell you yes when they want. I’ve been looking through a lot lately, a lot of teams, a lot of individuals who are just like, “Well, I can pay for your flights and hotels…” But really, SO WHAT?! What’s that going to do?! They can shell out probably like $800 a trip maybe once or twice every few months and hopefully you’ll be happy with it. The $800 is worth it to them only when there’s lots of viewers, lots of exposure, and $800 just looks like shit to them, it comes to the point where it’s all worth it. Free flights and hotels may seem great to a lot of people, but those days are over. It’s all about the money. You can’t just get that, not have a job, and hope to win tournaments to survive, how is that going to work? It’s definitely not. It’s a gamble. It’s never guaranteed.

The Fighting Game Community isn’t as big as I would hope. But I know where I stand. I’m a pretty solid player, with a very solid background. Can I do what Grubby did right away? Probably not. But if I could just do my own thing, make my own streams, make my own blogs, and put out my own content, maybe some people will come along and be like, “Well, I’m interested in what you have to do and what can you do for me?” Everyone has to start at the bottom, and eventually, people who work hard enough will get to the top. Hopefully one day, there will actually be a Team Marn. :)

Gangster.