This is when the best players played, the game required the most skill and 90% of 'good' players now are only good because all the high skillerz have already left for greener pastures
The notion that players back in the old days had more skill is generally bullshit. I see people claiming this in near enough every game I've played. In reality, the skill level gradually increases across the board. If you transported the current best back 2 years, they'd have 2 more years of playing experience over whoever was playing at that point. If you learn new tricks and keep improving (even slightly) for a few years, you will be better than you used to be. People don't magically become worse at a game just because they didn't play it during its 'prime'.
To illustrate this point:
I used to play in a dominant TFC clan and we had a reunion match for a laugh. Most of us hadn't played TFC in a good 1-2 years. We played some middling top league team (for their league position, it was the sort of team we would've dominated about 150-0 when we were active) and were lucky to draw with them. They had a few new tactics we hadn't seen before (despite us thinking nothing would've changed), some new tricks and the skill level was generally higher than it used to be for a team at that level.
Given a few weeks to get back up to speed I think we'd have won, but the average skill level amongst the top players was higher than it used to be when we were active. It's only natural that as strategies, tactics and tricks become widespread, everyone learns them more readily. Of course if our clan had continued for those ~2 years we would've been better than them, but the point is that we didn't continue, and the world doesn't stand still when you decide to stop.
Last edited by Arnie_Ze_Austrian (2009-01-04 02:09:21)