Slide in SCG Commentator Quality

[Ellomdian]

So, I realize that losing PSully is bad, and CeddyP wants to play some cards, but I am pretty sure that every.single.match. I have watched in the last 2 months has something in the commentary that makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a cocktail fork. Standard is pretty terrible to watch anyways, but Legacy...

I finally have time to catch up on Philly, and most of the way through Day 1, I am not really sure I even want to watch Day 2. It's mentally painful to hear discussion on the format from Boswell, and CVM has no real presence.

It's like instead of a Color Guy and a Stats guy, we ended up with 2 stats guys that DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW ANY STATS.

Come on SCG... We Know you can do better than this.

[CutthroatCasual]

Boswell does well enough for Modern.

CVM needs to go.

[MaximumC]

Boswell does well enough for Modern.

CVM needs to go.

At least official coverage is good. The usual team (with the fellow with a British or South African accent?) is quite good, and even when they pull in the second-string, it's OK. LSV and that lady doing the finals at the last GP were fine, for example.

[KaiSchafroth]

CVM needs to go.

So I'm not the only one that got tired of listening to him rag on the elemental tokens 5x a match?

[Mr Miagi]

Is Sullivan gone permanetly? Why did he leave?

I really liked him as a comentator. Him and Cedy were the best pair by far.

:cry:

[Ellomdian]

Is Sullivan gone permanetly? Why did he leave?

I really liked him as a comentator. Him and Cedy were the best pair by far.

:cry:

He took a full time job with, like, Activision.

[cdr]

Is Sullivan gone permanetly? Why did he leave?

I really liked him as a comentator. Him and Cedy were the best pair by far.

:cry:

He realized he could be doing better things with his life than SCG coverage and took a job offer from Activision, presumably in their eSports division.

[GreatWhale]

So I'm not the only one that got tired of listening to him rag on the elemental tokens 5x a match?

Who cares about the tokens. Hearing them tell bad beat stories from "back in the day" ie a couple years ago at a SCG Open, Sullivan and Cedric would at least tell a tale about the junior super series or something... oh and not knowing what cards are or do was the hard part.

[CutthroatCasual]

Good call on CVM not knowing cards. If I, someone who started playing Legacy 2 years ago, can ID a card by just a flash, someone with as many years under their belt as CVM should be able to, too.

[iamajellydonut]

I watched snippets of coverage when I had time/could make myself, and there was one particularly painful moment when one of the players, with an empty hand, drew his card for the turn and kept the drawn card conspicuously displayed for the camera so long as he retained it, and both commentators were on a tear of...

"WE'LL HAVE TO SEE WHAT HE DREW BECAUSE IF IT'S THIS THEN WOAH BUDDY WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS THAT HE COULD HAVE POSSIBLY DRAWN I DON'T KNOW BUT SOONER OR LATER WE'RE GOING TO FIND OUT WHAT'S IN HIS HAND I HOPE IT'S THIS CARD OR THAT CARD STAY TUNED OH THE SUSPENSE."

Like, even if you don't play Legacy... really?

[Megadeus]

Best part was after Van Meter clearly said reserved list cards won't be in EMA he asked Boswell what he wanted to see reprinted. Boswells response was Chains of Mephistopheles

[[SLAYER]chaos]

I liked the girl doing commentary at the GP, she seemed like she was at least semi professionally trained. I also thought it was a good compliment between her letting LSV do the analysis and then filling in the dead space.

[cdr]

chaos;937567']I liked the girl doing commentary at the GP, she seemed like she was at least semi professionally trained. I also thought it was a good compliment between her letting LSV do the analysis and then filling in the dead space.

GP <> SCG, unless it's a SCG GP. The ggslive GP coverage is way worse than SCG's and always has been because Wizards is so stingy and insular.

[CutthroatCasual]

chaos;937567'] I also thought it was a good compliment between her letting LSV do the analysis and then filling in the dead space.

This is how it should be, like with every other professional sporting telecast: one play-by-play, one color commentary.

[ESG]

LSV and that lady doing the finals at the last GP were fine, for example.

That was Gaby Spartz, and she did a great job in the booth with LSV. LSV was good, as always. WOTC needs to give Marshall Sutcliffe the boot and replace him with Gaby.

With SCG's coverage, I felt CVM did a much better job overall than Boswell. I concur with Ellomdian's criticism. Half the time I found myself muting the audio in frustration. Still, I prefer poor Legacy coverage to no Legacy coverage.

Does anyone know what happened with Craig Krempels? He was a buddy of Patrick Sullivan's and had a strong first showing, even getting rewarded with Reddit praise:
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/3z80yb/great_job_craig_krempels_on_your_first_day_in_the/

I haven't seen him since, but I haven't been watching much non-Legacy coverage. Did he split when Cedric stepped out of the booth?

[nedleeds]

The not cvm guy on the loam deck bringing in chalice, "chalice of the void on 2 is key here" ... for the loam deck. They also watched a guy Force a Crop Rotation when the other dude had a chalice on one and was cheating. They lauded the force as a good play for 2 minutes. Fucking miserable.

[CutthroatCasual]

Does anyone know what happened with Craig Krempels? He was a buddy of Patrick Sullivan's and had a strong first showing, even getting rewarded with Reddit praise:
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/3z80yb/great_job_craig_krempels_on_your_first_day_in_the/

I haven't seen him since, but I haven't been watching much non-Legacy coverage. Did he split when Cedric stepped out of the booth?

That coverage team was great! I wish they did all the Legacy events.

[KaiSchafroth]

Who cares about the tokens. Hearing them tell bad beat stories from "back in the day" ie a couple years ago at a SCG Open, Sullivan and Cedric would at least tell a tale about the junior super series or something... oh and not knowing what cards are or do was the hard part.

I should have added a Kappa in there...my main issue is the card/format knowledge piece of course.

[phonics]

they have like one legacy open a season, its pretty much an afterthought. The commentators are just there to struggle through the one event then its back to the usual fare.

[ReAnimator]

Craig Krempels. I haven't seen him since, but I haven't been watching much non-Legacy coverage. Did he split when Cedric stepped out of the booth?

Cedric and Craig Krempels are the coverage guys for SCG Baltimore on April 10th.

If only there was a way to check these sorts of things before making ridiculous comments and assumptions.

[iamajellydonut]

If only there was a way to check these sorts of things before making ridiculous comments and assumptions.

You mean besides clicking through each individual event and scanning dozens of pages for their names? Because that's pretty fukken tedious and the only way I know to find out.

[Dice_Box]

I would like to say that while I think that I know (I know how that sounds but I am being honest) more about the Legacy format than most of the people SCG have to talk about it, I do not know if I would be good in a chair talking about it. I think finding that balance is hard. A lot of the overly hard core Legacy base can have a good shot at what a deck is with 3 or 4 cards on the table and know the interactions the deck will be seeking to take advantage of, but how many people that invested in Legacy would know much about Standard? That there lies the issue.

While it is sad to see a decline in the coverage, we have been bitching about this long before the new team showed up, we just bitched about it less before. I think at this point we best admit that we are not even the targets for the coverage, (as we know the cards and the interactions) just mute the channel and watch. Plus, then you can watch as Tom Ross just wins fucking games again. That man is a monster.

[cdr]

Wizards really ought to step up and set up a development program for commentators, but that's as likely to happen as any other effort to professionalize their coverage.

[Delvis]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed how crappy their commentators have been. I've done commentary before. It's not as hard as these guys make it seem.

I'm sure CVM and Andy Boswell are nice people, and they're obviously much more accomplished than I am at Magic, but holy crap are they miserable to listen to as commentators. Watching Philly was a nightmare. They demonstrated a lack of understanding of the format, its staple cards, and a general lack of interest in keeping up with what was happening in the match.

Someone on reddit pointed me to the Lossett v. Ross match in Round 15 as an incredibly well-played match by two players intimately familiar with their decks. Within five minutes I nearly turned the sound off because Boswell couldn't stop talking about Ross's goddamn leather jacket "putting him in the driver's seat." It was a dumb joke, but even with that considered, it still might have been funny if his partner had rescued him with some kind of reaction to it. However, CVM just doesn't. Now, is that a lack of chemistry that will develop over time? Maybe. But I just don't think these guys work well together in the booth. Their interactions feel awkward and forced.

[CutthroatCasual]

I would like to say that while I think that I know (I know how that sounds but I am being honest) more about the Legacy format than most of the people SCG have to talk about it, I do not know if I would be good in a chair talking about it. I think finding that balance is hard. A lot of the overly hard core Legacy base can have a good shot at what a deck is with 3 or 4 cards on the table and know the interactions the deck will be seeking to take advantage of, but how many people that invested in Legacy would know much about Standard? That there lies the issue.

Then just have dedicated teams for each format. Modern broadcast? Put on Cedric and ABoswell. Standard? Put on CVM and whoever else is a prominent Standard player for SCG. Legacy? Get PSulli and Cedric or something.

[MaximumC]

Then just have dedicated teams for each format. Modern broadcast? Put on Cedric and ABoswell. Standard? Put on CVM and whoever else is a prominent Standard player for SCG. Legacy? Get PSulli and Cedric or something.

Go watch the Vintage Super League. They have the elder statesmen of Magic who are not playing doing the commenting, and it works out marvelously. So good.

[thecrav]

Go watch the Vintage Super League. They have the elder statesmen of Magic who are not playing doing the commenting, and it works out marvelously. So good.

Unless Randy is commenting. Then we go down lines that rely on mis-reading cards while an expert fails to get a word in edgewise :/

[Delvis]

Been a week since the last post, but I just wanted to point something out here that made me laugh, and didn't think it really needed a new thread.

Look at this: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=99976

Notice something missing from Jim Davis' "Grixis" Delver list? Like, I don't know... red? Of any kind?

How about these two beauties from the Modern Classic?
- http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=99994
- http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=99963

I just have to laugh at the ineptitude. Identical 75s... one is "Esper" Eldrazi, the other is "U/R" Eldrazi. Like, what? How do you even do that? Is that the players trolling the data entry minions at SCG HQ by writing inaccurate titles, or what? And even if it is, how do you not catch that rather than mindlessly entering it in?

[ScottW]

I was wondering about the storm list that had only 3 probes...

[HammerAndSickled]

Been a week since the last post, but I just wanted to point something out here that made me laugh, and didn't think it really needed a new thread.

Look at this: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=99976

Notice something missing from Jim Davis' "Grixis" Delver list? Like, I don't know... red? Of any kind?

How about these two beauties from the Modern Classic?
- http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=99994
- http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=99963

I just have to laugh at the ineptitude. Identical 75s... one is "Esper" Eldrazi, the other is "U/R" Eldrazi. Like, what? How do you even do that? Is that the players trolling the data entry minions at SCG HQ by writing inaccurate titles, or what? And even if it is, how do you not catch that rather than mindlessly entering it in?

best part is that they're both actually UW Eldrazi, as far as I can see. The Esper I can understand if there's some sort of automated analysis done, because it has Dismember even though it plays no other black cards, but UR is just obviously wrong.

[Barook]

This Maverick list (http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=99984) initially packed 12(!) Abrupt Decays in the sideboard. At least they fixed this mistake by now.

[supremePINEAPPLE]

That's some spicy Maverick™ technology

[Quasim0ff]

At least it's not 7 Stoneforges

Kappa

[Mr Miagi]

So apparently Patrick is back, covering SCG Columbus invitational.

One time drop by or?

[Dice_Box]

He said when he left he would be involved in the odd event. This is likely one of the ones they called him in for but it's not likely to be a common thing.