灯台守gahouの手記 - BPLS2 DDR (英語) / Memoirs of a Lighthouse Keeper, gahou - BPLS2 DDR
(前書き: これはこのgahouのnoteの英語翻訳です。)
On July 1, 2023, the FINALS (semi-finals and finals) of BEMANI PRO LEAGUE SEASON 2 DanceDanceRevolution (BPLS2DDR) were held.
I had the honor to be on the stage as a bilingual commentator for BPLS2DDR, but in fact, I was involved in BPLS2DDR in various ways beyond that.
I believe that professional players and their owner companies are the main actors in BPLS2DDR, but since BPLS2 has just reached the end of its run, I would like to write a little about myself in this article.
Before the DDR Pro League launch announcement
Almost six years after I announced my retirement from official tournaments, when I made the decision to leave my position as a player, I envisioned that I would become a hub, creating an opportunity to connect someone to someone else.
https://twitter.com/gahou/status/830417891887456257
I had a vague idea of a world where people who loved DDR could connect with people who loved different games, and through that synergy, such a world would expand more and more.
But I was too ignorant and helpless to do so. Still, I decided to do something rather than nothing, so I decided to start a YouTube channel.
Not just DDR, not just music games. There are all kinds of content out there, and I hoped that even one of them would leave a lasting impression on someone and lead to the next one.
I remember thinking that starting to do "something" was such a naive idea, but it was better than doing nothing.
Even so, with the help of many people, I was able to start making a variety of content. Thank you very much.
At the same time, I saw the beatmania IIDX professional league had already started and thought that this might be an opportunity.
A professional music game player or team has a fan base, and there are people who see them, admire them, and aspire to be like them. I thought that there was no way not to take advantage of those predecessors.
Of course at that time, I didn't have the slightest idea that DDR would be held (I was just thinking that it'd be great if it appeared in Season 5 or Season 10), so I thought that when the time came, I'd be happy if even one word of DDR came out of their mouth.
I also knew that if I was going to ask for their help, I should be able to show them an proper attitude, and I should be able to do so without being impolite.
I think that being a professional player is a really difficult position. You have to take on the responsibility of the company, the team, and the fan. You have to do things you don't want to do, you can't run away even if you want to, you have to make tough decisions at times, your every move attracts attention, but you have to show and talk about what you "should do" as a professional rather than doing nothing, and you have to talk about your dreams for the game.
It is a really, really difficult and challenging position to watch. They are in the middle of such a tremendous storm, and I'd ask them to help with another storm as well. I think it would take a lot of courtesy and preparation on my part.
So the boundary I set for myself was, "I posses the level of ability to have a conversation with a potential draft candidate on that game."
When talking about scores and options, if the points of reference are off by 100 or 200 points, there is no conversation. If abilities are too different, the options are out of sync. Professional players cannot explain why they are great in their own words. If you can't explain it in your own words, they can't understand it either.
I thought it'd be rude to talk to a professional player with a high opinion of himself just because they'd been a little famous in other games. I felt that way about myself.
With that in mind, I've been putting a lot of effort into IIDX and trying to get better at it for the past two years or so. It felt like it was selfish thinking and considered rude, but I thought that there might be a world where it'd be a win-win situation.
To be honest, the level of IIDX BPL is getting higher and higher, and it's very difficult to catch up, but I'm proud to say that I'm just barely at the level where I can talk about it.
(I feel like I've been able to avoid saying super crazy stuff while commentating at tournaments where professional-level battles are being fought...)
After the DDR Pro League announcement
After that, it was announced that three games would be eligible for Season 2.
My feeling at the time was that there was no connection between IIDX and DDR.
The order of events is IIDX→SDVX→DDR. Because IIDX and SDVX's seasons and SDVX and DDR's seasons happen one after the other, it overlaps the period of time that they're professionals on the same team. If it's a year-long contract, that's a different story, but if the contract expires shortly after the season ends, there is no period of time in which IIDX players and DDR players overlap. If the periods do overlap, then each team can hold an exchange event between games. But if they don't, they can't even be invited to the same event.
If I could create a bridge between IIDX and DDR, the only relationship that does not exist between the three games, I'd be able to create more synergy in the BPL as a whole. With this in mind, I decided to do an interview project with IIDX professional players and DDR professional player candidates.
I'm truly grateful that I was able to contact the owners and players of each team and received sincere answers from many of them. As a result, I was able to publish four interview videos. Thank you once again to everyone who contributed.
What I had to do at the same time was to share what professionals should follow. Again, the guidance from our predecessors was a big part of this.
To be honest, I think I was the one who had the most conversations with the most IIDX pro players at the time of DDR's professional test application. And I shared that as a basic guide for those who want to become pros. That was the job I could do as someone who was pretty sure he wouldn't be a pro, and beyond that, I believed the goal was the implementation of an trouble-free professional league.
To be honest, I think to myself, "Who the hell am I, then?" But even if I had to do such an embarrassing thing, I wanted to protect the DDR pro league and the BEMANI PRO LEAGUE initiative, because I knew that the baton that IIDX and SDVX had passed on to us must not be dropped here.
Once the DDR season starts, the pro players will be on stage, and I'm sure they'll do something about it. We must do something until the beginning of the season.
DDR is a first year, pro league beginner. If that's the case, we would do our best to use the wisdom of our predecessors. And then we'd carry that further into the next season.
With this in mind, I was going to do my last job.
My duty as a DDR pro league commentator
Yes, I thought it was the last. Then a surprise job came along.
"Commentary for BPL ZERO DDR at JAEPO, MC and play-by-play is bilingual (mainly in English)."
Panic. Major Panic. From this point on, my involvement in BPL changed a lot. We ran into various problems during BPL ZERO, but thanks in part to the smart reactions from all the players, we managed to finish the event, and I think we were able to identify a lot of issues for the real thing. Thank you very much. I would also like to thank all of you who gave various feedback at the event. The survey is very very important, so please fill it out everyone.
I felt two things at the time I was invited to BPL ZERO: "I will probably be asked to commentate the real thing as well" and "I have to look after both a domestic and international audience."
However, the players take center stage. We can't ever get in their way. We must bring them out and tell the viewers how great they are. For both domestic and international viewers.
It was the most difficult order I'd ever received. My response was as follows.
Focus on professional players for the domestic market, players' thoughts and accounts are mainly in Japanese.
Focus on the competition for the overseas market, with English more for the technical aspects and reactions during the game.
I don't think I was able to follow it 100%, if anything, maybe not at all. But it was with these thoughts in mind that I served as commentator. Finally, I was able to focusing on commentary and play-by-play because of the strong support of Max and Ali.
Max was flexible to abrupt changes on the spot, and would even make suggestions on the fly about the script flow and how to make it better.
Ali wrote so much that the materials she had at hand were completely black, went so far as to check the charts on video during intermissions to study it, and in the latter half, gave us more detailed explanations and spirited reactions than I could.
I believe that it was because of these two that I was able to realize a stream and broadcast that managed to connect both domestic and international audiences without completely leaving them behind, even if I had, to some extent, become more Japanese than they were.
Thank you very much.
I would also like to thank Stuart O., the substitute pinch hitter who had to quickly respond to our last-minute commission and complicated rules. He was extremely spirited and helped us with his happy-go-lucky mood.
There is one more thing I had in mind when I decided to do commentary.
That is to reduce my involvement with professional players to the bare minimum possible.
The commentator is to be unbiased and provide information to boost the professional players and give the viewers a better viewing experience. To do this, they'll often have a very large amount of information. As a result, situations involving commentators and professional players may create the impression of "unfairness" or "favoritism". This makes no one happy.
Therefore, throughout the season, I tried to avoid chatting with the players as much as possible, except for those moments when the amount of information I had aligned with the players. I ranked this as the most important thing I could do to maintain balance in a professional league, and I stood by it.
I am a former player myself. There are many players I am familiar with. I want to talk to them about many things. There are many new players who have joined us. I want to convey them my appreciation a lot. But that will come after everything is over.
What's next
So, as of this writing, it's all finished.
I believe that the 24 who became professional players this time will still be moving forward with the sign of "professional player" on their shoulders, even though the season is over. It'll follow them for a long time, even if they don't become professionals at the next opportunity.
Putting it the other way around, DDR already has "professional players". They will surely lead DDR in the future. In order to create such a world, I've been running for the past few months to prepare them to start running. I've specifically had this thought since I decided to retire from official competitions. I would move on so that everyone else could shine, because that would surely be my way of giving back to DDR. When I look back on these thoughts and actions, the word "lighthouse keeper" came to mind.
A lighthouse keeper is a person who stays at a lighthouse to maintain and manage the lighthouse, or a person who holds such a position.
As someone originally in the ocean, based on his knowledge and experience, he keeps the lights on so that those who are now struggling in the ocean will not get lost as much as possible and will be able to act accordingly.
I'm not an official, but I'm a person who holds an official-ish position. After being a commentator at official tournaments for such a long time, I have to admit that this is how I'm viewed. However, I believe that from now on, the 24 professional players and new players who will become professional players will push DDR more and more as this "not an official but an official-ish" player.
This is something I often say to myself: "If there is a better choice, take them. It's nice to known as an option and to be chosen, but it doesn't have to be me."
As a more extreme argument, I don't have to be here. If someone else comes along who can do a better play-by-play commentary, someone who is a better match for the event, then that person should be the one to do it.
I think the challenge left to me is to find the right person to delegate this task to. To create a world where I don't exist. This might sound like a backwards remark, but I believe that this is necessary for the future of DDR and is the final goal that one player, gahou, will be aiming for. I'm not trying to actively erase myself, but rather to create a state where people can say that it is great without me. To accomplish this, I'll continue to think about what I can do, but a little more leniently than usual, and I hope to do other various things.
First of all, November. I believe that's when next the KAC is scheduled, so I'll try to slow things down a bit, at least until then.
I want to do the Monday game livestreams, which I've been away from for a while, and the INFINITAS streams, and I want to talk to everyone on the radio streams again. I'm looking forward to talking with the players, and I'm also looking forward to playing IIDX and SDVX (which I'm sure will be there) at BPLS3. I also want to do a variety of other hobbies and go on some outings.
I look forward to continuing to receive commissions to participate at events and other projects. If not events, then I'm looking forward to discussing any sort of "I'd like to do this-and-that" plans. It's good to have a consultation. I charge 10 cost for appearance and 1 cost for consultation. Please feel free to contact me.
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