The OPEN! Internet Championship! - Hot Potato!

(big deep breath)

Okay, last night, I wrote a big long thing, with full intention on posting it, but after a lot of reading of this stuff, I have an actual migraine (like, an ACTUAL migraine, that I had to take Advil for) and I'll just give a much much shorter summary for my opinion on this whole situation.


I don't like this situation, or the handling of it, and I'm going on record with saying I don't support banning a banned user's edits from Community events unless the user committed some heinous criminal act in real life and/or has advocated actual real-life hostilities/violence against other members of the community, or the Community comes to a consensus on banning a banned user's edits, or both.
That being said, I'll abide by this decision, remove Voodoo's edits from the Cruiserweight Title Trials and any other Community events I might have him booked on that I'm recording, and vacate the Internet Championship from Wendell Chromm.


And for those of you who are saying (and yes, some of you ARE saying that, because I saw it in the Discord) that I'm just "doing FM things" concerning this whole matter (like having Chromm be in a championship match at all, much less winning the belt AND defending it), I had a whole thing about THAT contained in the big long thing I wrote, and the summary of THAT is that I very much don't appreciate any accusations that I'M unilaterally doing things just because I feel like it.
ESPECIALLY considering things that have literally just happened here over the past 24-36 hours.

Hell yeah, this is a belt worth fighting for, I want a shot book it universe

You could always rebrand it if it causes too much drama I guess.

This feels like a headache that has been pulsating for the last week and it just won't go away.

I understand that there's a rumbling going on concerning the current regime, and that some how allowing Professor Voodoo's edits participate in Critical Club events is a matter of "sticking it to the man," in a way. That's the only logical conclusion I can personally arrive too considering Brick and maybe to an extent, Maikeru, has ruffled the feathers of some in their attempts to simply encourage more positivity on the forum where there's been a lot of the opposite as of late. It feels like since the inception of the board there has been *something,* in some matter or another to prevent our collective community from being happy. Some, if not most, miss the Arena which I understand. The sudden change of scenery sort of forced people to swim when they weren't ready to and maybe we didn't really allow ourselves to really soak in what happened and mentally allow ourselves to prepare for a future afterward. We practically moved overnight, with some distancing themselves from a friend they thought they knew. That scar still exists and chances are it won't ever go away.

The community as it stands now is full of new people. Professor Voodoo is one of those new people but his attitude has always been putting himself first before others. He's been a constant topic of discussion because of his "holier than thou" attitude and his never-ending narcissism that continues to this day. I'm a frequent member of streams and his presence alone is enough to really put a damper in the discussion. From his unwillingness to adhere to the rules in place, to his constant need to claim he has a "master" of ground-style, it was aggravating and never lent anything positive to the discussion. Especially when his own edits would maul over another's in less then ten minutes and he'd be annoyingly upset at his own creation instead of apologizing to the person who he practically destroyed in a match because of his serious lack to properly understand logic, moveset and it's relation to parameter usage. In relation to this board itself, he refused to listen to warnings he garnered and instead used to further create controversy and attention to his own edits. Hell, we're *still* talking about him and he's been banned for what? Over a month now. It's like he's a bigger matter of discussion now than he's ever been before and it seriously will not go away.

He's banned from the board. He's banned from the Discord. He's generally disliked by everyone who actively participates in chats. He brings nothing of value to the community unless you consider negativity to be valuable. Defending him is pointless, and only further makes things worse. Can anyone actually consider him a friend? And if so, can he actually name who your favorite edits are which you've created?

The Internet Championship has the Critical Club branding, and thus the title holder should be someone who's actively on the board/Discord since the holder represents our forum on whatever show they're booked on. If you're banned from the board, you can't represent it. Because you're banned.

When it comes to Community Branded events, people hoped that with the forum change, it would reflect current edits which are currently involved in the community. Instead, Community Branded events feel as though they're a decade behind and feature characters which no one really can get behind or find a connection with because the people behind those edits are scarcely around anymore. For instance, isn't Sy next in line for the World Championship? Considering he's still active in the community and participates in chats, shouldn't he *finally* get this opportunity? Apparently he still has to jump through hoops to get his title shot. It's just... the whole thing is frustrating because the booking of the show doesn't reflect the community as a whole as it is in 2019. I feel like Community Branded events need a reboot, otherwise it's just a show where no one knows who to actually root for because the majority of the community doesn't really contain the knowledge or understanding of the characters involved.

I just want all of this to be figured out. All of it to just be done with already. I've honestly had enough of just....all of this mess. It's frustrating for all the wrong reasons.

They are, because his edit is the current holder of the internet championship. That's where ALL of this is stemming from.

I’ll start with I dont care about Voodoo. I dont care about his edits, his ban, or any of the drama around it. I also dont care about this belt, or any of these Officially Branded belts.

What I do care is everyone talking about what the community wants, and yet the decions dont seem to be involving the community. “Im booking banned edits cause fuck you” is not a community decision. Banning community edits without some kind of discussion first (or a more transparent understanding of the decision) isnt how a community should work.

Instead of making a bunch of antagonistic declarations back and forth, maybe we start figuring how we move forward in a way that makes collective sense (before Wondy starts helicoptering again)