I might sound flat while asking the question, but anyway:
Why is only Shootmania Elite played in tournaments like the ESWC?
Since Shootmania is all about different gamemodes and such, it is a shame to see Elite only be played there. As a spectator, Elite can be really cool to watch, but only in 30 % of the cases : When both teams are equally good at attacking. Only 20-40 % of the rounds are successful-attack rounds. The rest is about running head-on to a wall of defenders with total of 12-15 ammo per 2 seconds (the first 2 seconds of shooting).
Enough critic about the Elite gamemode, as I believe most of the people enjoy it more than I do; and I respect that obviously. My appeal is about featuring other competitive gamemodes like Combo for example. Combo is the best example for a second Shootmania gamemode, since it is all about what spectators love: Stress, Fast gameplay, intelligent strategics and - most importantly - many shots plus more percentage of actual hits to opponent players. Not that in general the inflation in ammunition is better, no. It is about the gamemode itself. It is all about beeing at the right spot in the right time, aswell as having the skill to defend your "ammo-status". I've been watching alot of combo some months ago and I find it sad that the community there doesn't get recognized, as this gamemode is at least on about the same competitive level as Elite.
Before someone points out the low amount of teams in combo, I wanna take a look on why this is. What if there is a competitive team mode like BattlePro and it is simply not advertised / played in competitions? Right. It won't be played. For that, the Krazy team (for example) organized Combo cups in favor of their own community. Even though there was - most of the time - not much to win, teams registrated and played. And it was fun to be a part of that (even though my team lost D:) and also to watch. What I believe is, that when competitions are beeing pushed, players will be active on that gamemode (maybe even play cross-gamemode => e.g. combo, elite,...). It would follow the same priniciple as in Trackmania United Forever: Trackmania Stadium competitions were held on big tournaments and alot of smaller cups, while United had its own cups. Some players were able to compete successfully in both games (successful = you could remember the name of that player afterwards). As far as I know, the United Cups I knew about never gave away real money; therefore they were less popular to attend than Trackmania Nations. But still, many did and it was always fun to watch these cups - same goes of course for Stadium.
As big as I shed light on Trackmania too, I hope I could point out what annoys me a bit in Shootmania. Simply the gap between those communities is too big. TMUF vs. TMNF was already not healthy. Shootmania Elite vs. Shootmania Combo is friendlier inbetween, but still, the gap is there and only one gamemode (of the many others) in Shootmania will be known forever to the rest of the world, even though Shootmania was all about "the game with the many community gamemodes". Instead of opening the wings, we get nailed onto the ground. Good to have the hand (of elite) still reaching out to give a sign of beeing alive.
As much as I ranted here, I obviously wish the Elite players and spectators a great and exciting match and I'll make sure to check by on the ESWC live stream!
Greetings,
Myself
