Surprised there's no thread on this yet. The first day of the championship has passed. But anyways, here are the links below. The tournament is on this weekend October 24-26, 2014.
TCGPlayer's tournament offerings are miles behind SCG's. That said, this is their yearly championship, and some notable players are playing on Day 2, including Melissa DeTora, Craig Wescoe, Caleb Durward, and Josh McClain.
TCGPlayer's tournament offerings are miles behind SCG's.
Just curious, how so? (I'm don't really know much on this stuff, I just watch the games, hehe)
Basically, SCG has better advertising, more online coverage, and better prizes for their tournaments. As a result, more people play in SCG events (typical Standard open gets 500ish players, TCG gets nothing close to that) and they tend to have more high-profile players (people who have Pro Tour experience). There are some decent players at the MaxPoint Championship, but nowhere near what you'd see at a SCG Invitational.
I can imagine it's hard to compete with SCG since they have been doing it for over a decade. Hell SCG event streams are almost always better than Wizards events.
It's actually an interesting thing to be able to watch all 3 streams at once right now and see the difference in quality so easily. SCG is just so polished in every aspect of presentation from quality of feed, commentators, their camera switcher/guys in the truck who control the camera swaps are all great.
I can imagine it's hard to compete with SCG since they have been doing it for over a decade. Hell SCG event streams are almost always better than Wizards events.
It's actually an interesting thing to be able to watch all 3 streams at once right now and see the difference in quality so easily. SCG is just so polished in every aspect of presentation from quality of feed, commentators, their camera switcher/guys in the truck who control the camera swaps are all great.
Correct but you don't mention how Wizards can cover a PT properly but not a GP. It goes from clear 1080 HD to some grainy SD image. Why can't they maintain the same quality?
Big fan of Kibler's list. If I wasn't so dedicated to playing jank that's what I would be playing right now. I'm definitely interested in seeing how that deck shapes up in the following weeks.
SCG is east coast TCG is west coast. They are not even in competing markets.
Not quite. SCG is based out of Virginia and has a huge presence on the East Coast, but they have SCG Opens all over the USA, including places like Seattle and LA and the midwest.
TCGPlayer isn't the west coast, they're the midwest. That's why the MaxPoint championship was in Indianapolis. The west coast of the US is ChannelFireball territory. CFB doesn't have their own tournament circuit like SCG or TCG, but they do run GP's, PTQ's, and WMCQ's and offer coverage of these events. TCG only does video coverage once or twice a year, their $5K opens aren't popular enough to warrant coverage.
I'm sure they did a decent job of covering the event, but there was a larger and similarly tough field for the SCG Open in Minneapolis, despite the fact that it was a $10K tournament while TCG's was $50K.
You're right it was CFB I was thinking of for the west coast.
If you look at the SCG open series it is most dense in the east and northeast. The south and midwest don't get that much and west gets 1-2.
I'm in the south so it doesn't matter what either of these guys are doing. We get next to nothing for tournaments. When Brad Nelson would talk about having to drive 6-8 hours for the nearest tournament......yeah....that's us.
There are SCG Opens and Grand Prix periodically at Atlanta and Charlotte, if either of these areas are close to where you are in the South.
2 times a year at max. If you want to actually get pro points and grind your gold plat level good luck with that. Going to cost you a lot of plane tickets.
Stream
http://www.twitch.tv/ggslive
Event Info
http://maxpoint.tcgplayer.com/magic/2014championship
Basically, SCG has better advertising, more online coverage, and better prizes for their tournaments. As a result, more people play in SCG events (typical Standard open gets 500ish players, TCG gets nothing close to that) and they tend to have more high-profile players (people who have Pro Tour experience). There are some decent players at the MaxPoint Championship, but nowhere near what you'd see at a SCG Invitational.
It's actually an interesting thing to be able to watch all 3 streams at once right now and see the difference in quality so easily. SCG is just so polished in every aspect of presentation from quality of feed, commentators, their camera switcher/guys in the truck who control the camera swaps are all great.
Correct but you don't mention how Wizards can cover a PT properly but not a GP. It goes from clear 1080 HD to some grainy SD image. Why can't they maintain the same quality?
TCG coverage was good. The finals were a joke because they all split and didn't play seriously.
Not quite. SCG is based out of Virginia and has a huge presence on the East Coast, but they have SCG Opens all over the USA, including places like Seattle and LA and the midwest.
TCGPlayer isn't the west coast, they're the midwest. That's why the MaxPoint championship was in Indianapolis. The west coast of the US is ChannelFireball territory. CFB doesn't have their own tournament circuit like SCG or TCG, but they do run GP's, PTQ's, and WMCQ's and offer coverage of these events. TCG only does video coverage once or twice a year, their $5K opens aren't popular enough to warrant coverage.
I'm sure they did a decent job of covering the event, but there was a larger and similarly tough field for the SCG Open in Minneapolis, despite the fact that it was a $10K tournament while TCG's was $50K.
In any case, decklists are here:
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck_search_result.asp?Location=2014 TCGplayer.com MaxPoint Championship
Mardu had a good showing. Abzan continues to show up in huge numbers. Craig Wescoe played a sweet RW Aggro deck.
If you look at the SCG open series it is most dense in the east and northeast. The south and midwest don't get that much and west gets 1-2.
I'm in the south so it doesn't matter what either of these guys are doing. We get next to nothing for tournaments. When Brad Nelson would talk about having to drive 6-8 hours for the nearest tournament......yeah....that's us.
2 times a year at max. If you want to actually get pro points and grind your gold plat level good luck with that. Going to cost you a lot of plane tickets.
Also, Marshall Sutcliffe has a great voice.
Standard
UR Control
Modern
Merfolk
Burn
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Purify Innistrad!
#Purge