It's possible for the theoretical "4th best player" to go 0-2 in a totally random, or otherwise horribly seeded bracket.
We live in an era with 50k pot bonuses, and where the top 8 gets paid out, not just top 3. I don't think this argument is as valid anymore when 4th-8th gets a good chunk of money. Proper seeding is absolutely needed nowadays.
In addition, top 8 holds the prestige it does at any tournament due to the top 8 being the "finals" where you compete on the big stage. It makes sense that people would be shooting for that, and the most respect would be given to those who make it to that stage.
these are reasonable points, yes. i'm not saying the OG attitudes are 100% practical for the current climate. i definitely think the overall level of play is stronger nowadays, and the pool of potential top 3 players is much deeper.
what i *am* saying is that people on this site put way too much stock in top 8 given the variance involved, and not enough emphasis on overall body of work. but then i also think people put way too much stock in the super bowl and that's not exactly ever going to be a popular opinion.
what i am also saying is that i'm not convinced you can accurately seed the top 100 or so players, which is what people on here seem to expect. this is why i don't necessarily mind the 16 number that evo used; especially this early in a new game, you can't go far beyond that without getting into subjective arguments over which wins mattered more and which scenes are stronger.
think i said this on here sometime during injustice, but i truly believe that hazy, guess-based skill seeding is worse than no skill seeding at all. surely you remember all the arguments over kombatnetwork's seeding and whether it was bracket rigging! you need strict objectivity to remove the potential for that, period.
what all fighting games really need is a more refined version of the capcom cup system: say straight up that tournaments of x size are worth x amount of points for the given placings, with some sort of system that increases seeding strength for newer games as time progresses. even then, there's always a good chance of unbalanced pools just because you don't have an even number of top players...and evo is extra nutty because the enormous number of "casual" players *guarantees* some number of free pools. that's what i'm trying to say, though i didn't do a good job of that before.
tl;dr don't let perfection be the enemy of the better, but don't expect perfection either
