Reflecting on MWC 2017 and the State of Myth
Posted: 09 Jul 2017, 22:21
Since MWC has now concluded, I just wanted to briefly reflect on this tournament experience, and in particular how it relates to the current state of myth.
Overall, I would say the tourney was both good and bad. It was good in that there was relatively little drama. Some people are upset with me, but every TO has that, and it was still only a few people. It was maybe just about the lowest drama with a TO in a tourney almost ever. A lot of that is because no one really cares enough to beef anymore much these days I suppose. But I also try to prevent as much drama as possible. Some people may like the drama, but I think most don't care for it, at least as it pertains to the TO themselves.
Of course, the bad is that the tourney did not pan out quite as anyone had hoped. That has been kind of the story of myth for some time now though, hasn't it? But still, even with more conservative and dwindling expectations, the tournament still fell a bit short of what I had hoped for as well. This was mostly due to both the team rosters and the way some of the matches panned out. I had hoped Dragon Army's roster would have been a bit stronger to properly contend with my team. And I also had hoped that Dragon Army would not drop the ball against Berserkers (but props to berserkers as well for that win). I can't really control some of these things though, so I am not losing sleep over it.
There is something else I could have controlled though, which is probably the most valid criticism of my handling of things in this tournament. And that is for the tournament to have more marketing / promotional work done leading up to it starting, and having a tournament website. I still don't think this would have mattered at all, as I have never felt this has mattered for a nearly 20 year old game. I have hosted several tournaments previously, all which I would consider solid successes in their high levels of participation and quality of matches, and none of them required marketing or a website. This was the first tournament that I hosted that felt a bit "meh" to me. However, the important thing here is that there are some people that do think it matters. And there is a contingent of the community that really focuses on this issue. Some might even think the whole point of organizing a myth tournament is the promotion and the website.
Of course, I disagree. So I am unable to do this sort of work because I don't care to do it. And also because I find it highly hypocritical and irritating that the people who want or expect this sort of above-and-beyond effort the most, are also the ones that never volunteer to do it themselves. So for that reason, I will just say that the haters can rest assured that I will go ahead and disqualify myself from hosting any future tournaments. Maybe there is something valid about the marketing and the website that I am missing, who knows? I just found this disparity in expectations rather surprising in this day of myth, and wanted to mention it as a fair warning for any future TO's.
That is not the only reason I am disqualifying myself though. It isn't even the primary reason. The real main reason I am disqualifying myself now is that given the current state of myth when we can barely field 4 teams anymore, I am beginning to question the possibility of decent tournaments in the traditional format at all. I think it may be better to start thinking about all-star match formats instead, where the best 16 players that show are put into two even teams on the spot. I have been questioning this sort of thing for years already, which is why I did the first all-star match in 2015. Draft tournaments are an okay alternative solution for some people too. But that has its own set of problems as well, so that should not be the only option we are left with.
Therefore, if I have any future energies for organizing anything in myth, I will likely devote them to such all-star matches instead (either a single week, or a short series of weeks). I have kind of lost faith in the traditional formats now, but I understand that some of the myth community may not quite be there yet in their expectations. So I am happy to leave the organizing of these more traditional tournaments to whoever thinks that they are still worthwhile to do so.
Hopefully, there is someone else out there that still wants to host tournaments, with all the proper marketing and websites that some people still expect. I would be curious to see if the results are any better. Then we can find out the answer to whether it really matters or not. Whose expectations are right or wrong these days? Was this tournament weak on participation due to my lack of promotion and a website? Or was it just because it is myth in the year 2017? We won't be able to tell until the next tournament, or perhaps until the next myth world cup.
Overall, I would say the tourney was both good and bad. It was good in that there was relatively little drama. Some people are upset with me, but every TO has that, and it was still only a few people. It was maybe just about the lowest drama with a TO in a tourney almost ever. A lot of that is because no one really cares enough to beef anymore much these days I suppose. But I also try to prevent as much drama as possible. Some people may like the drama, but I think most don't care for it, at least as it pertains to the TO themselves.
Of course, the bad is that the tourney did not pan out quite as anyone had hoped. That has been kind of the story of myth for some time now though, hasn't it? But still, even with more conservative and dwindling expectations, the tournament still fell a bit short of what I had hoped for as well. This was mostly due to both the team rosters and the way some of the matches panned out. I had hoped Dragon Army's roster would have been a bit stronger to properly contend with my team. And I also had hoped that Dragon Army would not drop the ball against Berserkers (but props to berserkers as well for that win). I can't really control some of these things though, so I am not losing sleep over it.
There is something else I could have controlled though, which is probably the most valid criticism of my handling of things in this tournament. And that is for the tournament to have more marketing / promotional work done leading up to it starting, and having a tournament website. I still don't think this would have mattered at all, as I have never felt this has mattered for a nearly 20 year old game. I have hosted several tournaments previously, all which I would consider solid successes in their high levels of participation and quality of matches, and none of them required marketing or a website. This was the first tournament that I hosted that felt a bit "meh" to me. However, the important thing here is that there are some people that do think it matters. And there is a contingent of the community that really focuses on this issue. Some might even think the whole point of organizing a myth tournament is the promotion and the website.
Of course, I disagree. So I am unable to do this sort of work because I don't care to do it. And also because I find it highly hypocritical and irritating that the people who want or expect this sort of above-and-beyond effort the most, are also the ones that never volunteer to do it themselves. So for that reason, I will just say that the haters can rest assured that I will go ahead and disqualify myself from hosting any future tournaments. Maybe there is something valid about the marketing and the website that I am missing, who knows? I just found this disparity in expectations rather surprising in this day of myth, and wanted to mention it as a fair warning for any future TO's.
That is not the only reason I am disqualifying myself though. It isn't even the primary reason. The real main reason I am disqualifying myself now is that given the current state of myth when we can barely field 4 teams anymore, I am beginning to question the possibility of decent tournaments in the traditional format at all. I think it may be better to start thinking about all-star match formats instead, where the best 16 players that show are put into two even teams on the spot. I have been questioning this sort of thing for years already, which is why I did the first all-star match in 2015. Draft tournaments are an okay alternative solution for some people too. But that has its own set of problems as well, so that should not be the only option we are left with.
Therefore, if I have any future energies for organizing anything in myth, I will likely devote them to such all-star matches instead (either a single week, or a short series of weeks). I have kind of lost faith in the traditional formats now, but I understand that some of the myth community may not quite be there yet in their expectations. So I am happy to leave the organizing of these more traditional tournaments to whoever thinks that they are still worthwhile to do so.
Hopefully, there is someone else out there that still wants to host tournaments, with all the proper marketing and websites that some people still expect. I would be curious to see if the results are any better. Then we can find out the answer to whether it really matters or not. Whose expectations are right or wrong these days? Was this tournament weak on participation due to my lack of promotion and a website? Or was it just because it is myth in the year 2017? We won't be able to tell until the next tournament, or perhaps until the next myth world cup.