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"It's the only thing," but no, not really.

Let me prep by saying this -was- going to be another one of my rants in the venting section, but I felt like this is a topic everyone should take a look at, and maybe even weigh in on.

Now, we thrive in a community where winning gets us further, to a degree. We win a few matches, hopefully a booker notices and gives us a shot. That's been the norm for a number of years. That's a norm I'm actively trying to break.

Winning isn't everything, that's a statement we can call agree to in some respects. I don't mean "Hey, you can still lose and a get a world title shot," because that's not always going to happen (-cough- HIRO -cough-). But people often get discouraged as hell after a loss. Whether it be a normal match, or a title match. I hear it all the time. "Oh, I should've won because I dominated like the entire time," or "I should've won because I haven't gotten any titles in a long time," or even "I should've won because I'm the better guy."

If you look at every loss like that, you probably don't belong here, to be as blunt as possible. Some losses are bullshit, yeah. But not every single one is. If you're here just to rack up all the titles you can because you see all the veterans with huge title histories, I'm here to disappoint you. You're not gonna get that. What guilds are around where you can just walk in and win a title within a couple of months? There's not a ton of 'em around anymore. If you want to look good 24/7 and never wanna look like your opponent could remotely beat you? Sorry. That's not gonna work.

Let me give you an example, dear reader. Let's say you're a character that's 6'10" and screams "domination." Your first couple of matches, you beat the hell out of your opponents and they job willingly to you. You come across a guy, let's even say he's the world champ. You dominate a good bit of the match, and you really think you got it in the bag. But when the booker makes a call on the match, it's against you. You've lost. You're outraged! How could you lose? You're on a winning streak!... but then we take a look at the match. Each time your opponent went for a move, you laughed it off or reversed it. Each time they tried to get momentum going, you stopped it short. Sure, you had fun dominating the entire time, but judging by the posts, your opponent hated the match. That's on them though, right? You're having fun, why aren't they?

It's not because they don't wanna lose. It's because you refused to give them a single inch in the entire match. And that's why the booker gave them the win for putting up with you.

I'm losing track of my words, which tends to happen with these rants... but I think the message I'm trying to send here is this. Winning is great, titles are awesome. But that's not why we're here. We're not here to look good in every match, to be THE top dog when EVERYONE ELSE wants to be THE top dog. We're here to have fun. We're here to have great storylines with people we want to work with. We're here to make each other laugh, to grab each other's attention with compelling angles, and have a great time while we do it. I would trade almost all of my accomplishments away (ICW world titles and FFA US title are MINE. GET OFF) just to have amazingly fun stories. I'd like to think that all of you would do the same. I'm not saying job, god no. But if you're only goal is to look amazing and win everything, well... don't ask to work with me.

In closing, try to remember this in every match you go into, because it's something even I have to keep in check from time to time. Don't go into it trying to get the last word each time. Don't go into it trying to one-up each other for hours. Don't go into it with the mentality that you HAVE to win. Go into it wanting to have fun. smile

If anyone has any thoughts to share, or anything related to this topic, please feel free to post! Let's not make it a call out thread or anything like that though. I will delete your posts, damn it. heart

I blame John Cena and Xbox, but mostly John Cena.

Work with your opponents to make a great match. Matches are a lot more active when both parties are having fun with it, and victory tastes a whole lot sweeter when it's won this way.

"Winning isn't everything, that's a statement we can call agree to in some respects. I don't mean "Hey, you can still lose and a get a world title shot," because that's not always going to happen (-cough- HIRO -cough-)."

Also, I didnt even ask for the match to be a title match.

I was just lucky as s**t.

We don't respect Canada 'round these parts.