I agree with you hxc, this game just doesn't posses the ability to be an Esport. I'd say the luck aspect and its lack of meta, No one person can ever be so much better than the other that they would stand out as a pro. I just made this topic because in the Akido server someone said "What if this game got on MLG" I think we were discussing greenlight. Also everyone on this game, stop with the MLG, its not even good.

TB does have a meta - shoveling anyone?!

That's not true, most pro gamers now days switch games. A lot of SC2 players played SC1 or Quake or CS and a lot of them also play LoL.


Even in SC2 or DOTA2 or whatever, it's possible for a less skilled person/team to win. This is why we play best of 5 games!

In other esports and IRL sports sometimes it's first to 10 or 15 or 20 or more.

I second ImmortalPig's sentiments.
@Arglax: I, for one, enjoy watching people play games, sometimes more than playing them myself. I spend a lot of time on twitch.tv for that reason. The same can be said about athletic sports.
As far as respect for people who play games for a living, again it's entertainment just like other sports. I don't understand the social stigma against it. "Oh, you just sit around and play games all day, what kind of life is that?" It's an awesome life.

But I digress, this is about Toribash being an e-sport. I don't see it becoming one any time soon, but I think it's competitive enough to be one. As far as shoveling goes, why not go with wushu or lenshu or something? Those mods would be more fun to watch than aikido anyways.

i have to say i kinda dont hope it does... cause honestly its true if it does people will shovel make counter and a better shovel.. just thats all toribash would end out to be.. just something that community has lowered the amount of fun that can be brought from the game because everything revolves around 2 moves.. idk its just something i truly do see happening and do agree with that it might not be smart to go on steam. just my thoughts

Every fighting game is annoying like that, watch a SF4AE tourny, they fireball spam for days, but since they are pros they just call it zoning.

IRookie, Swexx, Chazer and Nate.

I played CS 1.6 against a couple of big FR teams back then (GG mix and JaS), even tho our team was just a bunch of pretty decent skilled friends and nowhere near "pro", we ended up scoring 2 or 3 rounds (game ending at 15-3 / 15-2) against some players way above us.

In any game, e-sport, or normal sport there's always a chance for the "lower tier" players to score, or even to win. There would be no point holding a competition if there wasn't any possibility. A pr0 can make mistakes, an average player can have pr0 moments. Or else why would someone sign-up for a championship if he knows 100% he's going to lose ?

______________________________________

Also I wanted to open a thread about toribash as an e-sport but it slipped my mind D:

The idea was to discuss a "competition format" that would represent the most played mods of the tb community. The Clean League 2013 is a good basis but I think it could use some brainstorming.
Imo, the most played mods are aikido (+variations), wushu (+variations), Tk (+variations), Lenshu(+variations), Judo, and closely following : ninjutsu/rk-mma/stabjutsu
The point for team leagues would be to have each player of one team specialized in their own mod.

There are many possibilities but I'd see something likes this :

1 random fun mod to decide who pick the "ghost" mod. (knife round for sides in CS)
5 aikido
5 wushu
5 Tk
5 "ghost mod" : The winning team of the fun mod picks a mod in a list of official mods.

There could be some individual leagues specialized in one mod. (Aikido league, Wushu League, Tk league etc...)


BUT, before all this happens Toribash must "suffer" a few meta game changes to make it more "strict" and suitable for competition : removing running from the striking mods.
The problem is matchs and wins being based on time instead of being based on a fixed goal (a life bar for exemple), that aspect offers the opportunity to score a minimum points and go for a run and avoid fighting, which is pretty "ironic" for a fighting game.
Unlike classic 2D fighting games (FG), moving in the game area is more difficult in toribash and requires particular skills. Classic FG have time limited rounds as well, lets say 2mins for exemple, but during those 2mins you can pretty much attack every 2s, which make avoiding the fight a difficult thing (the opposite of tb). TB have very short matchs in which moving takes a lot of focus and time, it's harder than just pressing forward and jump... and if you don't know the opponent is gonna run you quickly are 1 or 2 turns late on his movements and catching up becomes a whole different story, even more when you're limited by (short) time.
Rings/Dojos are a partial solutions : it makes running harder but it's still here, you can still use the same tactic of scoring low points and avoid fighting.
I think it would be judicious to either make the matchframe limit a lot longer, or give the players a number of points to reach, a goal that would prevent them from running from the fight, forcing them to engage.

THAT would make interesting matchs.

Are you daft? The games are becoming the future. There was a thread on this. Most military artillery will be just machines being controlled by a person a thousand miles a way same with jets. I can only imagine what mainstream gaming will be in the future. 15-20 years from now. The people playing games and working hard right now will be creating the games of the future
Which will be veins the average keyboard and mouse aswell as the controller.
The motion controls now compared to 5 years ago are ridiculous. The more people get off their asses to play game the more mainstream it will become. People are already exercising with the kinect.

Gaming is still a new and growing media. E3 an Comicon and other festivals are just the beginning of something even larger.

Just wanted to comment on this idea from my perspective.

To me huge/high level competitions are about seeing the pros play against the pros (or legends). Sure, a great pro player or team might lose a round but by the end of the day no-one really cares that they lost a round to someone fresh. They care more about the match where the undefeated legend gets sent to losers by an underdog (Who is also a pro, but still expected to lose).

Also regarding tourney sign ups for those who go in expecting to lose. I'm not sure how your non-toribash related tourneys go, but the draw to tourneys for me is that they're pretty fun to be at. For some people tourneys are the only chance they get to play against other good people (Or people instead of CPU's for that matter). And even if you're going to lose against a pro, getting to play against an actual pro is legitimately cool.

That being said, if TB tourneys are considered fun by the mainstream they'll be much more likely to succeed. But my current experience with TB tourneys has been really lackluster compared to the other tourneys I've attended so I don't really see that happening. Particularly, spectating a TB tourney is pretty lame.

Also, I couldn't agree more about the SF4AE scene myself. PR Balrog being one of the worst proprietors of fireball spamming.

No Good "fireball zoning" . also I chances are when pros play nobodies they usually don't try that hard. Also no offense but JaS was real bad. They were like the equivalent to a main team. Toribash just lacks something can't put my finger on it. And there is luck that happens on all mods.