At some point this entrenched narrative about the Fighting Game scene being a legitimate "community" needs to be dropped. Both by the people trying to grow the scene, and the people reporting on it.
Mostly because, as the end of that article points out, it allows for people to treasure the "moral victories" they get because they're doing pretty good "For such a small community," in the face of the repeated stumbles and obstacles that continually prevent Fighting Games from securing bigger audiences. Stumbles and obstacles that often come precisely because it's such a small group of people who often put more weight behind the mythology of being an upstart community than they do the actual growing of the scene into something profitable/sustainable.
Stop pretending it's a real community and it'll probably grow. Stop paying lip service to being open to newcomers and new audiences, and actually
be that.
If he would have saved this till evolution and had it fail it would be tragic for him. He opted to test it out now and see how viable it is against Chris.
I've always thought this "save the secret tech" shit was a little overestimated, myself. Look at Chris, for example. People know what's coming - still can't stop it. A lot of the best strategies are known, and counters ARE developed, but by hiding your best stuff, you're tacitly admitting you're relying on some gimmick shit. And gimmick shit only lasts for so long. Let people get a look at what you're trying out - so what? They still have to beat it, and getting a glimpse at it in a tournament isn't really going to give them that much of an edge when it comes time to counter it. Not if you're hitting the training room as hard as you should be to really get that strategy down.
That's not to say that keeping some things close to the vest doesn't have a value. It very obviously does. But it's not like Phil Jackson HID the triangle offense from teams before he busted it out. Yunno? Just because I let you see it, even let you PLAY against it, doesn't mean you have the ability to effectively counter it after a couple looks - or even a whole SEASON worth of looks. And even if you can wrap your head around HOW to beat it - you still have to play BETTER THAN ME in order to do it.
(the me in this case being a hypothetical top level player, because the me in real life is a fuckin scrub)