>>11849954
NTA but what the hell kind of larp is this? Even today competitive players make up a very small portion of many fighting games, especially shit like MK. There was always competition, and a lot of it was arguably better than what would come years later, but even in '09 muh fight money wasn't as big as it would become with the release of SF5. Before that most of the money came from shit like money matches at majors, and competition pools were minuscule compared to today if you weren't constantly hopping planes (and could even afford to actually do so.) Fighting games as a genre evolved substantially in both regards over the years, but it has always lived on the backs of casuals, and competitive beginners/intermediates who wanted to improve up to those levels for reasons other than money. For a lot of people it was just about getting to play people better than you so you could then get better. Best set I ever had in a newer KoF was getting obliterated by a former Evo champ from an older one. Took maybe a handful of characters off of him the whole time, but learning from matches with better players is better than money if you take the knowledge from it. And I'm a nobody.