Omocho said:
Tourney players tend to be fighter veterans.
Say it with me, people who are used to fight sticks. They may even be kids 'tricked' into using fight sticks because they 'are better'. (AKA, people fooled by other poor fooled saps that say sticks > controllers)
The fact is, fight sticks are not better unless you absolutely suck at a controller. I can do moves with 100% accuracy on the crap wiimote+nunchuck combo, same with a GC controller. I can play equally good on my friends stick (hahaha). But i'd never choose the stick over a controller if I had a choice, because making moves is just that much faster and easier on a thumbstick.
If we think about this from a logical standpoint as well, is it faster to move your entire hand (fight stick), or your thumb (controller)? I'd say 9 times out of 10, and especially in a long tourney, you'd want to just be moving your thumb.
I'm sorry to crap on your fantasy that fight sticks arhttp://gbatemp.net/style_images/2/folder_editor_images/rte-quote-button.pnge actually better, but unfortunately they aren't.
tourney players tend to be vets? uh no. there's plenty of teens(and by teens i mean 14+) entering tourney's Who all use fightsticks.
you have way more control using your entire hand than your thumb. and playing in long tourney's? guess you haven't been to any, depending on the game, they go for 2-3 minutes max and depending on the size(evo anyone?) you'd be playing up to 10 matches in a day. unless you're a fatass it shouldn't affect at you all.
analogs are hardly stiff and are made to go in every direction, they don't have a particular gate as compared to arcade sticks (square or octo), in that fact they feel way better and are much more accurate for fighters. with any fighter, its generally not about how fast you can move your directional input, everyone gets to that same level sooner or later, its about how accurate you can move it at that speed. you don't want to be doing a d, df,f and magically presssing up. or trying a d, f, df and the analog registering d,df,f.
also pressing buttons faster on a controller than a fightstick? its like typing with a single finger compared to using both hands. watch players like daigo or j.wong e.t.c and watch how their hands move. there's no way you could pull that off using a controller. let alone keep up with the speed of some games.
like i said, the controller is the easier to use for casual level of play, heck button layout for games is designed for it to be that way with certain buttons getting macros (ex mode, focus, lp+mp+hp) but at higher levels you do want to be using a fightstick.
when i was first introduced to fightsticks, i hated them with a passion, i couldn't get the hang of them cause i'd been playing fighters so long on the ps1's dpad. eventually i got the hang of them through going to arcades a few times and haven't looked back. the games are designed ultimately for use with fightsticks, not for use with a controller. though TvC leans towards controllers more with only Light medium and heavy attacks.