r/esports

No brainer picks:

Asia: Faker (LoL)
Europe: ZywOo (CS)
Australia: Mrekk (Osu!)

For North America I honestly have no idea who to pick. Some initial contenders include Justin Wong, SonicFox (FGC), Hungrybox (SSBM), GreenSuigi (SM64).

For South America I think it would be a tough conversation between Coldzera and FalleN (both CS). FalleN is probably favored overall due to his insane longevity, but Coldzera’s peak was insane.

For Africa it’s probably Dralii (Rocket League).

Note that I could post this to r/SSBM or r/smashbros instead, and I've already criticized Mang0 to the people on those subreddits in their faces, but the people in the smash community can't handle any criticism of him (including, of course, his personal issues) so I'm posting this here instead.

One of the prevailing notions in the Super Smash bros Melee community is that Mang0 is either the GOAT or the second GOAT to Armada. I'm making a post to voice and explain my opinion that, no, Mang0 is not the GOAT, or the second GOAT, or even the third GOAT of SSBM. He is, at best, the fourth greatest SSBM player of all time.

When I rate players in esports, I tend to always weigh peak over longevity. For a player to belong in some kind of GOAT contention, they must have a defining era (or eras) where they were the clear best player in the game. Mang0 definitely had years of being the best Melee player in the game, but let's compare his eras to the reigns of the people I'd definitely rank above Mang0: Armada, Hungrybox, and Zain.

• Armada: Definitively the GOAT of SSBM due to his overall dominance. His best years were 2011-2012 and 2015-2016. Note that 2011-2012 were, in some sense, the revival of the Melee scene after the release of Brawl, right at the peak of the era of the Five Gods. Meanwhile, 2015-2016 was, historically speaking, at the absolute height of Melee's public popularity and visibility, smack dab in the middle of the platinum era. Armada was praised not only for the number of tournaments he won, but for the pure consistency in his tournament placements. He boasted winning records against all the other Gods as well as Leffen and Plup, the next best players of this era.
• Hungrybox: Super underrated in SSBM GOAT discussions because of his polarizing choice of main in Jigglypuff (a very defensive/campy character). Nonetheless, he was the best player in the world in 2010 and in 2017-2019. The 2010 peak I don't really value again because the game was kind of dead due to Brawl but 2017-2019 was again, during the platinum era of Super Smash bros Melee. He was so dominant (and hated due to his dominance) during that time that, after winning a major, someone from the audience literally threw a live crab at him. Hungrybox fell off after the Covid pandemic but the main foundation to his GOAT case is, again, his dominance during 2017-2019
• Zain: Plenty of Melee fans weigh the post-covid years (so 2021-present) the most heavily in legacy discussions because the Slippi online tool made the game so much more accessible to practice and improve at, and people were able to improve so much, as a result. Personally, I would do so as well, but not so much more than the platinum era years (2015-2019), because Melee also lost a lot of public visibility and popularity due to the pandemic and the negative reputation the smash community gained due to sexual violence and sexual harassment related controversies. Anyway, Zain's dominance and consistency is nowhere near Armada's, and his longevity nowhere near Hungrybox, but he has been the undisputed best overall player of the Slippi era (though not continuously--he has often been contested by Cody Schwab).

Meanwhile, what are the years Mang0 was considered the best player in the world? He was considered best in the world in 2009, 2013-2014, and 2021. Okay, in 2021, this one is debatable with Zain, because Zain was overall much more dominant over the full year, but Mang0 arguably won the most important SSBM tournament of all time in Smash Summit 11 (the first in-person Smash tournament since the beginning of the pandemic, and the largest prize pool of all time). But even if the 2021 year is debatable, I still value that year so much more than the, let's be honest, mickey mouse years of 2009 and 2013-2014. In 2009, Mang0 was best in the world, but SSBM as a game was rather dead due to the recent release of Super Smash Bros Brawl. And 2013-2014 were overall very publically popular years of Melee, but not quite as much as in 2015-2019. However, the biggest asterisk for those years is that Mang0's main rival, as well as the best player of 2011-2012, Armada, was soft retired for those two years. Armada really didn't attend much tourneys during 2013-2014. Imagine you're in an alternate universe where prime Faker in LoL went to play DotA in 2015-2016 and some other LoL player won 2 world championships during that time and then claimed they were the GOAT. That's Mang0.

Anyway this post is already getting kind of long but anyway I find it absolutely hilarious and mind boggling how much the smash community worships him despite the objective flaws in his overall resume as an esports player AND how they've twisted the undeniable fact that he was banned from competitive play due to sexual harrassment into a narrative that he is serving a one year ban from alcoholism. If we're talking about greatest video gaming accomplishments by North Americans, don't ever compare Mang0 to real legends like JWong, Rapha, Peterbot, or GreenSuigi.

Servus Leute,

ich muss mir das jetzt mal von der Seele schreiben. Wir leben im Jahr 2026. Global gesehen ist E-Sport eine Milliarden-Branche. In Saudi-Arabien (EWC) werden 60 Millionen Dollar Preisgeld rausgehauen, in Deutschland ist E-Sport bald gemeinnützig, in Italien gibt es die eSerie A... und was machen wir in Österreich?

Wir drehen die eBundesliga ab.

Es ist absolut lächerlich. Da hocken Politiker in Talkshows, reden von "Digitalisierung" und "Innovation", aber wenn es darum geht, junge Athleten zu unterstützen, die 7 Jahre lang den Grind durchziehen, um mechanisch auf Weltklasse-Niveau zu spielen, ist plötzlich "kein Geld da" oder es ist "zu professionell".

Aber für den Eurovision Song Contest oder irgendwelche veralteten Projekte werden 50 Millionen+ verballert, als gäbe es kein Morgen.

Ich spiele selbst auf kompetitivem Niveau (Top 100/65 Region), bin bei einer deutschen Org untergekommen, weil es in der Heimat einfach keine Plattform mehr gibt. Wir haben so kranke Talente hier, aber der ORF zeigt lieber die hundertste Wiederholung von einer Abfahrt, anstatt mal über die Zukunft des Sports zu berichten.

In den Wahlkämpfen hört man nur PR-Talk von wegen "Brücken bauen" und "Zukunftschancen" (schaut euch mal die NEOS-Flyer an – alles nur heiße Luft). Aber wo bleibt die echte Anerkennung als Sport? Wo bleiben die Förderungen für Gaming-Häuser oder nationale Ligen?

E-Sport IST der Sport der Zukunft. Ob die Anzugträger in Wien das wahrhaben wollen oder nicht. Aber anstatt die Welle zu reiten, lassen wir uns lieber von Nordamerika, Italien und sogar unseren Nachbarn in Deutschland komplett abhängen.

Wie lange wollen wir noch zusehen, wie unsere Talente ins Ausland abwandern müssen, nur weil man hierzulande denkt, Gaming wäre immer noch nur "Zocken im Keller"?

Bin gespannt auf eure Meinung. Habt ihr die Hoffnung für Ö-E-Sport schon aufgegeben oder glaubt ihr, da kommt noch mal was?

#Esports #Austria #F124 #FC26 #eBundesliga #Politik #Digitalisierung #Österreich #Riad