Talking in regards to the SBO thing and not the other situation, I can personally use my own fight against Mago in NGBC in 2007 to discredit SBO in addition to what I have heard from other Japanese players in regards to SBO itself.
All it is is a glorified Super Regional tournament with games mostly that appeal for promotion and change every year. This stuff is from the Japanese players themselves, so totally taking out the Xian situation, I still feel the way I feel after again beating Mago in NGBC and talking to Japanese players in depth (Hummer, Fujihara-san, Dune, Bata, Danke, and others) about SBO. People don't need to look at SBO as THE tournament, just look at it is a glorified Super Regional that changes it's games every year, this is again not just from me, but from the ACTUAL JAPANESE PLAYERS THEMSELVES THAT GO TO SBO. According to them, Duelling the KOF actually holds more weight than SBO in regards to KOF, because it keeps the same games so we can truly see who is the best IN THAT REGION EVEN because the games are there over a longer period of time.
You can't truly judge who is the best I say in that Region over a long period of time if you just keep the game in for one year. It could change in that one region from year to year!!!
Hopefully this is the end of the SBO discussion so you guys see why I have my POV the way it is on that.
Now what do we need to do to make a good show in EVO 2012? Well these areas below need to step up their game so that we all can be on a respectful competitive level when KOF13 hits consoles and there won't be serious gap levels of skill from other parts of the USA:
1. North Carolina (Ex-Triad member P-Soul, I talk to him on facebook, I'm depending on him to take KOF13 to the next level to represent North Carolina!)
2. Ohio/Chicago
3. NYC (If some how we could get the Flushing FOBS to travel or people to get them to play KOF13 and others play to get to that level, but hey I know how hard that is..yes I know trust me...been there tried that with Arturo)
4. Minnesota (Desmond, Sina, lead the charge, if no one else wants to join, hey that's THEIR LOSS! If Minnesota can get on Sina's level you guys will all do fine!)
5. Texas in general (There's a huge gap between just myself and the rest of Texas!!!)
6. The South (Oklahoma, Atlanta, etc)
7. The NorthEast (NYC/Philly, NEC, etc)
Again guys I've traveled to these places over the past some on a consistent basis (NEC, Final Round, MWC,) so I feel qualified to tell people about the level of skill I have seen from going to these places, and that we need to make sure all these places are on the same skill level as SoCal or rather close if we want to avoid that ranking I was talking about because it can be a 60 man tournament, but if the gap is as wide as I have seen in my travels,
Then again the top 10-15 ranking spots will be going to:
1. SoCal
2. Me
3. Mexico/Latin America
4. Japan/Asia
5. Maybe one other person or so from another country
Again, I have seen these other places guys, I would like to hear from someone that has also seen all these other places as I have, tell me is my justification and reasoning wrong?????? The opinion and POV of someone who has traveled as much as I have in regards to SNK and has seen what I have seen I feel will hold more weight.
With all due respect, if many of you have not seen these different areas, how can you comment on the level of skill there is there?
I understand the optimism trust me I understand it for many reasons (PC/PR and not), but I'm actually getting to the nuts and bolts, the constructive criticism the soul searching that truly must be done to make sure this prediction doesn't happen.
I will be making a video addressing all this, but also guys remember as I have said, if you want people to take you seriously (The other parts of the USA), then you have to be able to defeat non-serious players (like Justin Wong)....
I feel that pretty much one of the only other people that I would feel is qualified to give their impressions of what they feel on this other than me would be Oscar, because he has traveled around the USA about as much as I have...before settling in SoCal right now (which again is another topic entirely guys, which I completely understand why!).