The Elite Championship

http://community.primetimecentral.net/showthread.php?t=40525

Craig, former head of the PTC Unified Title division, has announced the start of a new title in the community. The Elite Championship will effectively replace the Unified Title, a title that died under some unpleasant circumstances that I certainly had a role in.

For the record, I never thought Craig did a poor job with the Unified Title. I did, however, take exception with how certain aspects of the division were permitted to appear. Appearances count for a lot in this game, especially in an era where we lack truly neutral leadership. Fortunately, judging from Craig's introductory post, he's taken some of my advice to heart, and he's clearly taken input from a number of sources to create a new and improved title division. Everything I wanted to see from the division before appears to be accounted for now, so props to Craig for learning from the last division and applying that to the new one.

I've got a few gripes, though... neither about Craig's introduction, but about a few elements surrounding it.

First is... this title division doesn't seem to be all that different in spirit from the Unified Title. So why is the Unified Title dead? I guess the answer to that is that the Elite Title is not an official PTC belt, it simply exists between the feds. Well, fine, that makes sense. But with PTC still being the meeting ground of choice, will things really be all that different? My criticism here is of Ross's decision to kill the Unified Title. Again, I'm not trying to be confrontational here with regards to Ross; I'm just trying to make an honest analysis of the situation.

If I have a criticism of the PTC community, it would be the community's unflinching support of Ross. I'm certainly not trying to start some sort of revolution here; rather, I'm suggesting that any leader needs people who will challenge him to make sure his ideas are the best. Ross has earned the respect he has, and deserves it. When he makes a decision, it's good that the community falls in line and doesn't fight. But at the same time, it's completely acceptible (and downright necessary) to question your leader when you don't understand what's going on. And in this instance, I don't understand. Unfortunately, many of the responses to the death of the Unified Title thread were in support of Ross's decision. Why? Because he's Ross, and people don't question him. That's a criticism of the community, not of Ross. Ross can't help that people love him, they just do.

I did have a point... And that point is that the Elite Title feels like a bit of a rehash to me. I'm not suggesting there's anything Craig could have done differently to change things, because it was out of his hands. But the Elite Title will forever be compared to the Unified Title, as they're effectively the same thing. I just don't understand why the entire division had to reset just so that it would no longer be an "official" PTC title. There doesn't seem to be much "official" about PTC any more at all.

My other gripe comes from this notion that the Elite Championship, or any interfed title, should be considered "bigger" than the "regional" championships.

Ryan, you know I love you, but in this instance, I want to strangle you.

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE this idea, I always have and I always will. And I think this idea is symbolic of the fundamental philosophical problem with PTC right now. There's this inherent desire to make interfed competition more important, more heavily weighted, than what happens in the feds. People support the idea because, logically, winning a title that spans all the feds should naturally mean more than a title of only one fed.

But why should that be? I work extremely hard to raise the importance of the GCW World Title. It's an extremely difficult title to obtain, and we've had some great champions lately. Why should this new title, which has zero history whatsoever, mean more than the GCW World Title? Frankly, I think an interfed title is a hell of a lot easier to obtain than the GCW Title (or any other fed's title, I assume), and therefore I will always consider an interfed title to be an entirely different type of belt.

To win a fed's title you actually have to dedicate yourself to a place, you have to invest a lot of time and work with other people. These are, to me, among the biggest parts of being a successful e-fedder. When you win an interfed title, you bypass all the teamwork, all the storylines, and you win with a one-off writing contest. Sure, you usually end up with some stellar writing talent, but does that make it more prestigious? I think not. If given the choice between a Shakespeare-calbier writer that has no clue how to write a segment and a solid writer that writers killer segments every week, I'll take the latter ten times out of ten, because that's how you run a successful e-fed.

Personally, I think this sort of thing should be organic. Why do people have this desire to put labels on titles, to issue some edict as to where everything lies? Again, I think it has to do with the state of the game today. The community has had this instinct in the past few years to put a great deal of emphasis on interfed competition as a way of getting glory. Fair enough; I was happy to be Global Champion a while back, it was a great experience. But when everyone from every fed gets together to compete for individual glory, you no longer have an interfed; you have a fed. PTC, to me, has begun to look and operate more and more like its own fed over the years, and that's not the proper direction for it to be heading in.

To suggest that the Elite Title, or any other PTC title, is inherently more important than the GCW Title doesn't fly with me, and I'd never support such a move. And that's not sour grapes, it's because if you're not dedicated to your home fed and trying to make it the most important thing in the community, what the hell are you doing? Again, this is my biggest criticism. Home-fed loyalty is on the decline as people spend more and more effort trying to build up PTC. But the entire purpose of an interfed is to take a handful of stellar feds full of enthusiastic handlers and pit them against each other in fed vs. fed competition. Because competition drives us to do better. If your motivation isn't to represent your fed and make your home base look better, you're not helping the community.

Now, I'm not trying to point fingers here (Ryan). And I'm not trying to guilt-trip anyone for wanting to accomplish things for themselves. That's all good, you should want to do that. But the most important place to compete is in your home fed. If people chased their home fed titles the way they did PTC titles, think of how much stronger that would make the feds. Well, that's what I try to do with the GCW Title, and that's why I think it's ludicrous to declare that any interfed title is superior to the rest. An interfed title is no more than a place to test your writing chops against others; but at the end of the day, an interfed should be about feds pushing one another to be the best, not individuals.

The Elite Title could be good, and I hope it is. I'll support it however I can. But if anyone tries to suggest that it's bigger or better than the GCW Title, I'll feel a whole lot differently. I'm glad it's getting a good response so far, but I firmly believe that the entire community needs to shift directions, otherwise the entire game will suffer.

Anyway, another long-winded post, I apologize. But I haven't been on the radio in months, I needed an outlet. Feel free to respond.