The Vikings are coming
Originally posted by duffistuta
I believe there is an article in this month's PGi on just that...
Yes, it was the best article I have read in PGI for a long time, very insightful.
It basically echoed what a lot of people have felt for a while. In the UK we piss and moan too much and don't want to win enough.
There is a screenwriting analogy called 'Crap plus one' - the idea is that you should never expect to sell your work simply because it is better than the worst film out at a point in time.
How is that relevant? Well, in the UK tournament scene (or perhaps it's just a UK personality thing) it is too easy for teams to feel they are doing well becuase they are just a little better than the other teams in their division (or at least their equal).
Therefore 'crap plus one' holds back the teams' (and the individuals within) evolution - they only need to be better than the best (which in the reality of swimming with the big fish is piss poor) they compete against.
Now if those teams suddenly go up against much better teams on a continual basis they will either evolve and get better or die.
This is perhaps why there is such a disparity between international players who do NPPL/Mill only and domestic players (who do NSPL/MM/S2K/PA etc) - they just don't get enough of a kicking on a continual basis. Sure some of the great players play in those leagues but you don't get to go against Shockwave/Tigers/Nexus on a continual basis.
For those that care enough, it's like getting into an arms race - you either develop to meet the challenge or you don't - but if the challenge isn't the average UK ballers will continue to settle for 'crap plus one'
The 'rec' player at tournament scenario is relevant due to the prevalent mindset - most 'tournament' players don't want to get beat up by the best teams and would rather enjoy their day and get 'their money's worth' beating up as many teams as possible (the laughable amount of experienced UK teams in Div 3 at Campaign gives some weight to this).
