Ranting about Commentators for Legacy Tournament.

[Kayradis]

Greetings;

I will begin by saying that I used to watch SCG's Legacy Opens every Sunday pretty much religiously. But lately, well, in the past 8 to 10 months, I've noticed the quality of the commentators Star City Games is providing for the Sunday portion of the open is falling drastically.

Last Sunday was the final strike for me. I was playing at my LCS for GPT Calgary (not that I want to go, but x3 PWP is not negligible when grinding) and I wasn't able to watch. So Monday after supper, I sat down in the living room, looking forward to watch Mr. Cook himself play the mirror in round 5 and see the other match ups.

Deathblade.
Deathblade.
Deathblade.

OH SHIT!
COMBO ELVES! My all stars pet deck. I was looking forward to see that match-up against DEATHBLADE. Then I saw someone that major parts of the MtG community consider a PRO performs a combo I wasn't expecting to see. Combo-Punt. So I started the match from the beginning, looking at all her misplays and tried to learn from them. Then it hit me...

The commentator was bragging about the deck, announcing multiple time it was his, and by the way he was talking, I'm not even sure if he knew how to play it. Can't really comment since I never saw him play, but that's the impression he left me.

The whole Rd 5 comments were boring, uninteresting and misinformed to a certain level. I do agree. Bryant deck is pretty sweet to look at. Probably one I will never get tired of. But still. Is it an open or a deck pageant?

I was really hoping for Rd 6 to be highly entertaining with an Epic Storm mirror.

Deception, again. I had to turn the sound off and simply watch….Still an amazing match. I enjoyed every second of it.

I know some of the members on the board are somewhat influential in the worldwide Legacy community. I do strongly believe that we are not the only one watching SCG Legacy stream and that having more acknowledgeable announcers with a deeper knowledge of the format and the interactions could greatly improve both the quality and the audience of the stream. I am almost convinced that some members from The Source community would be more than perfect for the task, providing the audience with good, sound and valuable information on the matches as well as having a good time.

Multiple voice on this forum also complained about the fact that I mentionned earlier. I remember seeing different decks in feature matches, and I understand that the higher brackets are the one featured. But please, give us some variety.

Again, I want to thank StarCity Games for pushing weekend after weekend Legacy opens and helping the format to grow. This whole rant wants to be a constructive commentary on what could be improved.

[Koby]

Gerard Fabiano might be a halfway decent player (debatable after some matches I've seen him play on SCG Live no less), but man is he god awful at commentary. Same goes with Zack Hicks*. Basically, if the commentators are not good, the stream will suck hard. Simple as that, it doesn't matter what is being shown on the camera.

Commentators fill the dead space between the matches and make the matches interesting to watch. If they don't know what the hell is going on or provide poor/incorrect commentary, then the show is ruined. Same complaint about the GP coverage when Marshall Sutcliffe opens his mouth. He's really the worst offender.

If they get paid to do commentary, then be professional and do your goddamn homework.
If it's a volunteer gig, then there's more leeway.

I can't imagine any of the top streams are volunteer gigs.

* EDIT: got the wrong Zack mentioned.

[Kayradis]

I do agree. The british guy that I can't remember the name either also annoys the hell out of me.
But I can understand that WotC tries to make it understandable for the masses by bringing more "begginer-friendly" announcers, but for a Legacy Open on a Sunday morning. Jeez. Please provide us with good hosts!

[thecrav]

I think the problem is that they frequently have the same commentators for both Standard and Legacy. It's difficult to be an expert on both and many times, these guys barely know the format at all.

Gavin Verhey and Cedric Phillips have always been my favorite commentators. In addition to knowing the format, they had great personalities for live coverage.

[Megadeus]

Cedric does alright. At least he plays the format. It just seems like the announcers dont even play the format, or maybe they play it a bit, but they dont really know anything that isnt deathblade very well...

[alphastryk]

Gerard Fabiano might be a halfway decent player (debatable after some matches I've seen him play on SCG Live no less), but man is he god awful at commentary. Same goes with Zack Hill. Basically, if the commentators are not good, the stream will suck hard. Simple as that, it doesn't matter what is being shown on the camera.

Yeah, this past weekend was the absolute worst commentary I can remember. Both of them clueless and/or wrong 90% of the time, even for things that seemed obvious to me.

[Kayradis]

Like Kody said, if it's a paid position, I believe we should expect better quality in the commentators.
And, that's purely my own opinion, Legacy is a niche market.
People that are interested in Legacy are the people watching the Sunday stream, ordering staples, pimping decks. SCG got the biggest part of that market nailed down with their Sunday Open. The product is there. Now improving it won't be a bad idea.

[L0cke]

By far my favorite Sunday of coverage was the day of Cedric Phillips and AJ Sacher. Not only did they get the majority of interactions they were talking about, but they also worked really well together. Also, they both did a good job of letting people know when their comments were informed by personal bias, and not saying stuff like 'the best play here clearly is...' when they are clearly wrong or dont know the deck/matchup well enough to say what is optimal.

At this point if Cedric Phillips, AJ Sacher, or Osyp isn't listed as doing commentary I don't even bother turning on the stream because it will just be too painful to listen to.

[Esper3k]

Pat Sullivan is my favorite SCG commentator. Not only is he a great player of the game, he has an amazing read on the players even when he can't see the cards in their hand.

[Koby]

Pat Sullivan is my favorite SCG commentator. Not only is he a great player of the game, he has an amazing read on the players even when he can't see the cards in their hand.

This. He's also in game design, so it's very entertaining to hear his philosophy on how cards play out in a game or format. That is rare enough to hear from most player-commentator types that his addition makes the 'cast even more rewarding.

[Kayradis]

True.
It's fresh air when you get commentators like him. Unfortunately, there is only so few of those.

I don't know if swapping commentator for Standard/Legacy would be hard to do...?

[sauce]

I think it's obvious that most people would prefer to have someone knowledgeable and entertaining doing commentary.
If we could all chose, I am sure LSV would be the guy we would all love to listen doing Legacy coverage.
To be fair, most people who consider themselves Legacy masters (and actually are) do not want to either work for SCG/WoTC and fly everywhere doing coverage or are not outgoing/entertaining enough to do it.

[Kayradis]

We would all love to have actual good players in the booth.
But I'm sure there is a way to get better coverage and commentaries.

[menace13]

Pat Chapin is my favorite in the booth, PSully is up there too.

The GP Simon Goertzen covered was the best commentary I've heard yet.

[lordofthepit]

1. Get together with some friends (either IRL or over Skype)
2. Mute the feed
3. Take turns impersonating SCG commentators. Make sure to announce stuff like free premium give aways, mythic madness, and the invitational qualifiers (in Evan Erwin's fast voice).

[JanoschEausH]

My favorite SCG Commentator is Cedric Phillips. AJ Sacher has deep knowledge too, but he seems a bit big-headed sometimes, which annoys me. Last but not least there is Matthias Hunt. I think he has a comfy voice :)

[phazonmutant]

There used to be a stream like TrollsLive or something where some people restreamed SCG with the sound muted and them mocking the players. Does anyone know what happened to it? Did it get taken down for legal reasons?

If not, it's not out of the question for the community to try to do some redubbed legacy commentary on the SCG Legacy open stream.

[Koby]

There used to be a stream like TrollsLive or something where some people restreamed SCG with the sound muted and them mocking the players. Does anyone know what happened to it? Did it get taken down for legal reasons?

If not, it's not out of the question for the community to try to do some redubbed legacy commentary on the SCG Legacy open stream.

TrollsLive was a bit too harsh and offended some MTG brass. Those players (Martell, Sperling, etc) didn't want to get banned for upsetting folks publicly.

Redubs sound fantastic, but man that's a lot of work.

[Esper3k]

Didn't Bertoncini recently get an extension on his ban for something like that?

[Koby]

Didn't Bertoncini recently get an extension on his ban for something like that?

You can redub all you want. It's when you openly mock and belittle others that's where its grounds for sanctions.

[Megadeus]

Didn't Bertoncini recently get an extension on his ban for something like that?

I think it was something Twitter related but yes.

[Esper3k]

You can redub all you want. It's when you openly mock and belittle others that's where its grounds for sanctions.


I think it was something Twitter related but yes.

More akin to the Trollslive thing is what I meant regarding Bertoncini. I heard he was doing something similar where he webcasting himself making comments while watching the live stream.

[Dan Turner]

I have always wanted to do a MST2K type of commentary voice over for SSG events.

[thecrav]

Redubs sound fantastic, but man that's a lot of work.

There's someone doing this with GPs right now. It shouldn't really be too hard. One person with screen capture software and a voice chat client to hear the others should be all you need. Heck, I've got everything I'd need already installed from streaming Guild Wars

Coming soon: The Everyday Eternal guys overdub SCG commentary until they get a C&D?

[Shawon]

Coming soon: The Everyday Eternal guys overdub SCG commentary until they get a C&D?

+1 yea

[phonics]

I tuned in at the start of that elves match, I thought I was going crazy with what was on the stream. It looked like both players were handed the decks right before the tourney, and the commentators didnt know either.

[Plague Sliver]

Damn. I came in here thinking this was a rant against ranting about SCG commentary. If you guys want to do something about it I think you should provide the feedback to SCG directly.

Also, not to be an apologist, but these guys do many long hours of commentary. Brain turns to mush after awhile. Maybe rotating commentators will help.

[Sloshthedark]

Chapin and Phillips are good, rest is barely listenable...

[Kayradis]

Coming soon: The Everyday Eternal guys overdub SCG commentary until they get a C&D?
+2

I want to hear that.

[thecrav]

I tuned in at the start of that elves match, I thought I was going crazy with what was on the stream. It looked like both players were handed the decks right before the tourney, and the commentators didnt know either.

Didn't they actually mention that Jackie had only played Legacy once before?

This seems to be common. People go out for the standard open and pickup a random deck for the legacy open. Sometimes they're covered because they're doing well (which is fine with me; you're covering the top spots), but sometimes, especially early in the day, they're looking to cover big names because, well, what else are they going to cover?

[Kayradis]

This is not about how bad they played that match (but I can discuss with you hours about how great I felt for T8 a GP Legacy side event while loaded with Elves then looking at a semi-pro [she lost her pro status to my eyes after that match] punting games with the deck) but how horrible the commentators are.

I can understand the fact that they try to put known names on camera for the sake of the public, but letting individuals that should not be commenting a Legacy Open talk all day on the stream is still unbelievable.

My honest opinion?

Good Format should equal Good Comments.

[Finn]

Did any of you guys read the series by the guy pointing to bad coverage of grand prix events? I did not agree with everything he said, but he was certainly right about the unprofessional issues they have on camera. Well, SCG events are far less professional even than that. I would like it immensely if SCG would actually make it someone's job - a person equal to the task - to clean up their act. I would like the commentators to be better, of course. But it may be an easier task to simply improve their level of production.

[Kayradis]

Got a link for that? I'd be interested.

[sauce]

Got a link for that? I'd be interested.

http://www.starcitygames.com/tags/JohnButler

[thecrav]

I would like it immensely if SCG would actually make it someone's job - a person equal to the task - to clean up their act. I would like the commentators to be better, of course. But it may be an easier task to simply improve their level of production.


I'll be happy to quit my job and go city to city being the world's first all-legacy commentator.

SCG, get at me!

[Darkenslight]

I'll be happy to quit my job and go city to city being the world's first all-legacy commentator.

SCG, get at me!

Hell, I'd fly over the Pond and do it! But I'm not as presentable as Cedric and Chapin.

[nedleeds]

You can also just watch football in a couple months.

[Koby]

You can also just watch football in a couple months.

For once in my life, I am looking forward to American Football as an alternative to bad Sunday coverage.

*oh god what has my life become...*

[Megadeus]

Go dolphins!

[ScatmanX]

Coming soon: The Everyday Eternal guys overdub SCG commentary until they get a C&D?
+3. please.

[force_of_phil]

I just turned it off when they said something along the lines of "Elves, being such a simple deck to play, is probably not a bad choice for her first legacy open." Maybe sarcasm, but it didn't sound like it.

[Darkenslight]

I just turned it off when they said something along the lines of "Elves, being such a simple deck to play, is probably not a bad choice for her first legacy open." Maybe sarcasm, but it didn't sound like it.

Yeah, that was like, 1 "Yeahbuhwha?" combined with a "Well, that was idiotic!"

[Zombie]

Elves also apparently mulligans well. (The average list has ~13 initial mana sources). Oh, Glimpse is the key card of the deck (Not NO or Symbiote) and Engineered Plague is a good SB card against it (You'd rather pack Perish or Golgari Charm or anything ever)

[Kayradis]

What I really hope to come out of this thread is that someone at SCGLive will have a quick read of it.

[thecrav]

I'm casting Reanimate targeting this thread rather than hard casting a new thread.

I've decided that a large part of the problem with the SCG commentators is that they don't do it that often. As an example, Matthias Hunt just mentioned that, "We haven't seen this deck in a number of years," referring to Painter's Servant / Grindstone. Not only have we seen it recently, but it's top 16'd four times in the last seven opens. If he was working all these opens, he'd know these things.

That being said, I do think Matthias is one of the better legacy commentators.

[Griselpuff]

Ideally, it would be mandatory for the commentators to have watched every stream in the past few months and have at least an SCG open top 8 or some similar qualification. They are truly terrible.

[SirTylerGalt]

Not sure if that's the right thread, or if I should create a new thread for SCG Seattle, but...

In round 4 game 1, shouldn't Jacob's tarmogoyf have stayed as a 3/4? He grows it to 4/5 when he bolts SFM, but Delver was already in the yard, and there was no sorcery in any GY. Not sure if that changes much, since he had a Ponder in hand to grow it post-combat, but...


I like AJ Sacher's commentary :)

[Finn]

Thecrav, you are right to want them to do their job better. You are wrong to be so lenient on them. They are so unprofessional. It is not enough to say "They should get around to doing their job proficiently. one client one thing wrong one time, I have a big problem on my hands. I simply make it my business to study the details before I show up. That is what it means to be a professional.] These guys routinely say terribly unprofessional and stupid things, and thousands of people hear it. And, oh Christ, it is recorded and publicly saved. ~|we need a smiley for facepalm|~ Professional commentators or interviewers have to do this every single day. They memorize facts. They get to know their subject. It is a significant portion of the hours they put into their jobs. "Know what you are talking about" is among the very basic rules of being on the air. Just ask Sarah Palin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpJsQch9uZo) how lousy it is to not know your subject enough.

There is no excuse for the level of ineptitude of some of these guys. Not all, mind you. Notably, Cedric Phillips has gotten a lot better. I actually like listening to his views now. But even he delves into conversations about himself and the other guy in the booth when the airtime should...whatever. I could keep going. Just know this stuff, would you guys? The standards that Pete Hoefling or whomever holds these guys to are way too low. They represent your company, man. It looks so bad. Can't you see this?

[Valtrix]

They represent your company, man. It looks so bad. Can't you see this?

But that's just it--I don't believe that they do. I imagine that since the people that get hired to do commentary for the legacy events don't actually know that much about it, the people hiring them don't know much either. They think that they're "good enough" if they know some thing or are invested in Magic enough to have a broad knowledge or are entertaining enough to watch for an evening. When those who are really into legacy watch these people, of course we're think they are pretty bad, because well...they are. But I imagine the people hiring them aren't nearly as invested in Legacy, so they don't notice it like we do. At least, I would hope that if the people doing the hiring were more invested in Legacy they wouldn't let a lot of these commentators do some of the commentating that they have been.

[Phoenix Ignition]

I think the worst part isn't necessarily that they don't understand the decks being played, it's that they don't even pay attention to what is happening. I've heard multiple incorrect statements about very easy things to keep track of such as how many cards someone mulliganed down to.

Legacy is a difficult format, and I do find 90% of the things they say to be superfluous or just flat out wrong, but at least for a person who knows decklists (more or less) and knows Legacy (to a decent extent), if I look away from the screen for a second or get a drink, I want to know the basic facts like how many cards each person started out with, and can forgive smaller interaction errors. Getting stuff like that wrong is why I've muted every stream if I'm actually paying attention to the games (seems counterintuitive, really) and generally just turn it off if there isn't a deck I'm invested in playing.

[Griselpuff]

Okay to be fair though, AJ and Matthias did a fine job tonight. I still agree with everything else that was said though, coverage should be held to a higher standard.

[thecrav]

They are so unprofessional

I think a fundamental part of the problem is that it's not a profession to them. SCG rotates, so some of these guys comment less than once a month. It's just a side gig. Many of them write articles or play semi-professionally, but there's a big difference between having a week to write an article (which will go through an editor first) and talking for hours on end. I really think this reiterates my point:


I've decided that a large part of the problem with the SCG commentators is that they don't do it that often




I think the worst part isn't necessarily that they don't understand the decks being played, it's that they don't even pay attention to what is happening. I've heard multiple incorrect statements about very easy things to keep track of such as how many cards someone mulliganed down to.

This seems like something that's easily fixable but it requires the give-a-damn to do it. Watch any major sporting event. You don't see the guys nearly as often as you see the casters on SCGLive. Because the SCG guys are on so much, they have to look a lot more presentable. They can't both have a laptop or a notebook out to record plays so that they can easily reference what happened earlier. This seems like a very small thing that could have a huge impact.[/QUOTE]

Not that I would ever wish for his dream to end, but if Drew Levin ever gets fired by WotC, I'd hope SCG snatches him back up in a second. He knew the format well and was excited and passionate about it.

All this aside, I'm glad SCG is placing so much emphasis on legacy. I'm glad I get to watch relatively high level eternal play on an almost-weekly basis. I just wish it could be that little bit better.

edit: I don't always type long posts replying to multiple people, but when I do, I delete the entire thing and start over three times.

[Higgs]

Adrian Sullivan is my favorite commentator. He has these nostalgic old-school magic stories and a good enough understanding of the game states and the format. Him and Cedric are the best duo imo.

[testing32]

Adrian Sullivan is my favorite commentator. He has these nostalgic old-school magic stories and a good enough understanding of the game states and the format. Him and Cedric are the best duo imo.

Adrian Sullivan is completely clueless

[Barook]

I just wish they would cover more Legacy.

Standard gets full coverage with little to no down time, while Legacy

a) starts only at Round 3, sometimes even at Round 4, and
b) quite often only one match gets covered, even with half an hour left on the clock, while Standard gets coverage of multiple match-ups.

[Teluin]

People actually watch the Standard coverage on Saturday??

[cdr]

Adrian Sullivan is an awesome person and I've always enjoyed chatting with him and reading his stuff, but he is a terrible choice for a commentator because it's been at least 10 years since he's been the least bit in touch with competitive Magic. I don't really pay attention to SCG commentating but hopefully they've realized this and cut him loose.

I don't enjoy listening to AJ Sacher at all - just his speech patterns - but he clearly does think about and care about the craft of commentating, and that I respect.

Riki Hayashi is new to commentating, but he's a great color commentator. Color just needs to be paired with a good technical commentator. Someone on Twitter suggested LSV + Riki, I agree that that would probably be great.

And expecting commentators to know/care about legacy is maybe asking a little much, I doubt very many of the people watching are as invested in the format as Source posters are.

[thecrav]

Adrian Sullivan is my favorite commentator. He has these nostalgic old-school magic stories and a good enough understanding of the game states and the format. Him and Cedric are the best duo imo.


Adrian Sullivan is completely clueless

The problem with Adrian is that he knows about all these old decks, but he doesn't know dick about current legacy decks, many of which have been around for years.


I just wish they would cover more Legacy.

Standard gets full coverage with little to no down time, while Legacy

a) starts only at Round 3, sometimes even at Round 4, and
b) quite often only one match gets covered, even with half an hour left on the clock, while Standard gets coverage of multiple match-ups.

Agreed with all of that.

[gregtron]

I have a love/hate relationship with Riki and Shaheen. On one hand, they have very little Legacy knowledge, almost no individual charisma, and don't work well as a team at all. But on the other hand, when Riki starts naming obscure bands whose shows he's been to, or referencing video games that came out before Shaheen was born, and Shaheen looks like he actually wants to kill him? That, my friends, is quality entertainment.

[warfordium]

PSully is the best technical commentator of them all. I'll tune in to watch Standard if he's commentating. Its good when he's paired with either Cedric or Chapin, as they have a good rapport.

PChapin alongside him is really excellent, but Chapin has a tendency to get bored and flippant when he knows the game is over, or when he clearly disrespects a player's deck choice or skill.

Cedric has gotten a lot better but has been affected really badly by "fill-the-time-itis". as in "and we will see {Player X} untap, draw a card, and consider his options". no shit, Cedric. we can also see him cast Dissolve on his opponent's spell. was it a well-timed Dissolve? do you like the play? should he have played the scry land first? This is also the difference between North American and European sports commentators—the latter are fine with silence (especially in football), whereas the former have to flap their gums every damn second.

Osyp doesnt get out much but is solid both technically and from a color perspective—and dat New Yawk accent tho!!!

Joey Pasco just makes me turn the sound off.

[goblinsplayer]

Joey Pasco just makes me turn the sound off.

So I'm not the only one that thinks he's horrible...

[nedleeds]

If you are interested in Legacy you'd be playing, not commentating for a box of Theros or whatever pittance they get paid.

Every real time commentating effort on eternal magic I've ever heard has been awful. I can't imagine watching 20mountain.dec.standard battle 20island.dec.standard at all. Mountain go. Grey Ogre go. Shivan Oasis go. Large man go. Attack with some red people go.

[ESG]

And expecting commentators to know/care about legacy is maybe asking a little much, I doubt very many of the people watching are as invested in the format as Source posters are.

I agree with cdr. Disgruntled Sourcers, please feel free to apply and see if you can do better. There's obviously a lot of institutional knowledge among us, so maybe someone from The Source would be a good fit. That at least would be more productive than a rant thread. I'm just happy that SCG runs a stream.

[danyul]

Commentary is extremely difficult to do, let alone do well. I was asked by my local shop to help with commentary for a very small little event they were running and now I have all the respect in the world for those SCG guys. It is way harder than you think to keep saying interesting and useful things for more than 20 seconds straight. Osyp and Cedric should get ESports Emmy's or something.

[Lemnear]

Adrian Sullivan manages to talk for minutes about GerryT trying to sneak in a griselbrand with Through the breach with BBD's Sneak Attack on the stack and completely misses that Gerry can draw into counters for the Sneak attack but rather suspects GeeryT doing combat math .... this is so sad stupid

[Ziveeman]

So I believe that Chris Pikula is commentating for Eternal Weekend. Too bad I'll be playing in SCG LA at the moment but I have high hopes for him since he was one of the original commentators and from what I've seen, also knows Legacy quite well.

[nedleeds]

Well that also means Meddling Mage signing. Win. Win.

[cdr]

Adrian Sullivan and Joey Pasco for the invitational, seriously? Blergh.

[Einherjer]

"Brainstorm from Adkins, looking for a Fetchland..."

NO YOU DON'T LOOK FOR AN FETCHLAND WHEN FACING A COMBODECK WHILE YOU ARE HAVING a) SERVERAL FETCHLANDS AND b) NO DISRUPTION!!!

[JDK]

Is Sullivan A. still doing his stupidly annoying 'best kind of Brainstorm'-thing?

[thecrav]

Is Sullivan A. still doing his stupidly annoying 'best kind of Brainstorm'-thing?

The best brainstorm is the one not played, which is why it's a four of in every blue deck and restricted in vintage.

[Darkenslight]

Is Sullivan A. still doing his stupidly annoying 'best kind of Brainstorm'-thing?

He's sounding like someone pretending to be interested in all these Cheatyface decks. :p

[[SLAYER]chaos]

Adrian Sullivan does not have a voice for commentary, he's so fucking irritating to listen to.

[Megadeus]

Im so tired of hearing about "BRAINCESTRAL RECALLS!"

Also Whoever was commentating the Elves vs Bant MU, after Reid Duke Draws an extra card paying the life off of Sylvan Library, he casts a Brainstorm and the announcer was like, "I don't know why he is casting this brainstorm since he didn't pay any extra life from library and is seeing all of the same cards!" Then a Minute later says, "How did Reid Duke get so low on life?" SO MUCH FAILURE

[Megadeus]

They just said Braincestral Recall... RAGE

[Tormod]

Call me old

But I find Adrian Sullivan amusing :wink:

[Megadeus]

He just doesn't seem to know a lot about legacy.

[Tormod]

He just doesn't seem to know a lot about legacy.

Sullivan is cheesy and harmless, some of us old guys will find him humorous. I understand there are different strokes for different folks. However I find when someone is pretty in depth on a topic they can make lots of silly cheesy jokes about it.

[lordofthepit]

I am amused that Adrian Sullivan took like six guesses on the creature type of Noble Hierarch before getting it right. :tongue:

[ESG]

So I believe that Chris Pikula is commentating for Eternal Weekend. Too bad I'll be playing in SCG LA at the moment but I have high hopes for him since he was one of the original commentators and from what I've seen, also knows Legacy quite well.

This is good news.

[Darkenslight]

I am amused that Adrian Sullivan took like six guesses on the creature type of Noble Hierarch before getting it right. :tongue:

Isn't Hierarch a Centaur? :tongue:

[Kage]

I recall Adrian Sullivan not recognizing a foil Misty Rainforest in reanimator at the time when Zendikar was in standard for more than 1 year.

[alphastryk]

Well that also means Meddling Mage signing. Win. Win.

victory.

[Shawn]

Lately I've found most of the commentary to be pretty good, but this weekend was rough. At one point there was a conversation about a player Daze being the only target for Spell Snare in a match up and yesterday a player main phased a Brainstorm turn 2 before playing a second land after casting a Delver turn 1 and the commentator was asking if this was a end of turn Brainstorm. Forgetting what a player did the previous turn when the game is only in the second turn is very frustrating. I've been liking Sullivan's commentating more recently, but I think he needs to be paired with a player who can do the play by play and with doing the color commentary.

[cdr]

I don't think Adrian Sullivan is even good for color, he's just too out of touch. Rich Hagon at least makes sure he knows what cards printed in the last 10 years do. And Adrian's "color" is talking about bad decks from 15 years ago.

At one point I tuned in and it was Riki+Adrian, that was just a really poor choice. Riki is good color but bad play analysis, and Adrian is just clueless. Their wasn't a clue in the booth about what was going on with the game.

[Jay_Gatz]

The back and forth when Friedman plowed his own Geist last night to win against a batterskull was just awful. They kept going on and on about how both players misplayed or timed things wrong when they didn't even know what had actually happened. Then they blamed the positioning of the cards in play for confusing them about the target for STP.

Edit- also it would be nice if the commentators actually looked at the cards before naming what was in a player's hand and what they should do with them. The number of staples they misidentify is ridiculous.

[Barook]

Edit- also it would be nice if the commentators actually looked at the cards before naming what was in a player's hand and what they should do with them. The number of staples they misidentify is ridiculous.
That's something that actually annoys me:

"If Player A had card X in hand, he could do some stuff" - except Player A already has said card in hand and it's very distinctive.

[lordofthepit]

I'll give them more credit. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on, especially when players often hide their hands from the camera. They're nowhere close to perfect, but it's a hard job and we don't have a MODO log keeping track of every move.

[mini1337s]

While I can appreciate that SCGLive doesn't always have optimal commentary, people really need to give the hosts a break. They stream 16-20 hours of footage over a weekend and you can't expect them to detail the perfect play everytime. They have small production crews, little lead time, and stream from morning into the wee hours of the morning. I'd imagine that most of their fumbles are from fatigue.
Would I love to see 100% accurate commentary? Sure I would, but it simply isn't going to happen. It's not like the NFL, and those commentators are the best in their field working for a couple of hours at most.

[lordofthepit]

While I can appreciate that SCGLive doesn't always have optimal commentary, people really need to give the hosts a break. They stream 16-20 hours of footage over a weekend and you can't expect them to detail the perfect play everytime. They have small production crews, little lead time, and stream from morning into the wee hours of the morning. I'd imagine that most of their fumbles are from fatigue.
Would I love to see 100% accurate commentary? Sure I would, but it simply isn't going to happen. It's not like the NFL, and those commentators are the best in their field working for a couple of hours at most.

“The best way to gain more yards is advance the ball down the field from the line of scrimmage.”

“If the quaterback throws the ball in the endzone and the Wide Receiver catches it……. It’s a touchdown.”

“If this team doesn’t put points on the board I don’t see how they can win.”

“Whenever you talk about a Mike Shanahan offense, you’re always going to be talking about his offense.”

“Some yards is better than none yards?”

“Here’s a guy, here’s a guy who when he puts his contacts in, he can see better”

“Usually the team that scores the most points wins the game.”

“Mark Brunell usually likes to soak his balls before a rainy game.”

“They’re either going to run the ball here or their going to pass it.”

“The Dallas Cowboys have 2 types of plays in their playbook. Passing plays, and running plays.”

[mini1337s]

“The best way to gain more yards is advance the ball down the field from the line of scrimmage.”

“If the quaterback throws the ball in the endzone and the Wide Receiver catches it……. It’s a touchdown.”

“If this team doesn’t put points on the board I don’t see how they can win.”

“Whenever you talk about a Mike Shanahan offense, you’re always going to be talking about his offense.”

“Some yards is better than none yards?”

“Here’s a guy, here’s a guy who when he puts his contacts in, he can see better”

“Usually the team that scores the most points wins the game.”

“Mark Brunell usually likes to soak his balls before a rainy game.”

“They’re either going to run the ball here or their going to pass it.”

“The Dallas Cowboys have 2 types of plays in their playbook. Passing plays, and running plays.”
Lol, point taken... still, these guys fuck it up on 6 figure contracts and it is aired to millions! We should give Adrian Sullivan a break!

[Jay_Gatz]

I'll give them more credit. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on, especially when players often hide their hands from the camera. They're nowhere close to perfect, but it's a hard job and we don't have a MODO log keeping track of every move.
If I can follow a game while half watching it then two people being paid to do so should be able to follow, especially when they have spotters at the tables.

[thecrav]

That's something that actually annoys me:

"If Player A had card X in hand, he could do some stuff" - except Player A already has said card in hand and it's very distinctive.

And it was revealed to delver and then later re-revealed to thougtseize