Overall I think I the tournament was great.
The mix of caster and analyst desk was a lot slicker this time. In the last challenger Swim didn't get enough chance to talk since the casters had a lot to say too. That's no bad thing but it took a way little from what Swim was there to do. The addition of Jaggerous fixed this - they have a great rapport together and it really showed. Nice getting those replays and deep-dive analysis of the games.
I loved the video interludes which I thought were a lot of fun. Having the cosplay on stage added some great colour but I always wonder if it's distracting to the players whilst games are going on?
Timing / tournament format I think was spot on. I can understand folks wanting to see new decks for day 2, but for me knowing that players will have seen each others decks and been working on strategies adds to the excitement.
Casters EXCELLENT as always. McBeard and Mogwai's interactions are always so fun!
Things I'd change
The big one:
- Whilst I understand the desire to attract people using "named" hosts I don't feel it really works at the moment. I'd expect hosts to be doing more links/interviews but because they're not regular players it's super hard to do them. As such they end up just handing off between casters/analysis so don't really add much. Really no personal criticism of Matt, Marisha and Jesse - I think they did well given their background. I'd really like Ash to do the next one - she did all the links and interviews for the Gwent Slam events admirably and it would be nice to see more community members involved.
Really minor stuff:
- Casters using nick-names for cards I can imagine could be frustrating for new players. On streams it's cool because most people are in on the joke of "aye aye sirs" or "dun bananas" and can always chat if they don't know. It's kind of different in this format as it's not as interactive as a stream so it's possible it could seem like a barrier to entry
The mix of caster and analyst desk was a lot slicker this time. In the last challenger Swim didn't get enough chance to talk since the casters had a lot to say too. That's no bad thing but it took a way little from what Swim was there to do. The addition of Jaggerous fixed this - they have a great rapport together and it really showed. Nice getting those replays and deep-dive analysis of the games.
I loved the video interludes which I thought were a lot of fun. Having the cosplay on stage added some great colour but I always wonder if it's distracting to the players whilst games are going on?
Timing / tournament format I think was spot on. I can understand folks wanting to see new decks for day 2, but for me knowing that players will have seen each others decks and been working on strategies adds to the excitement.
Casters EXCELLENT as always. McBeard and Mogwai's interactions are always so fun!
Things I'd change
The big one:
- Whilst I understand the desire to attract people using "named" hosts I don't feel it really works at the moment. I'd expect hosts to be doing more links/interviews but because they're not regular players it's super hard to do them. As such they end up just handing off between casters/analysis so don't really add much. Really no personal criticism of Matt, Marisha and Jesse - I think they did well given their background. I'd really like Ash to do the next one - she did all the links and interviews for the Gwent Slam events admirably and it would be nice to see more community members involved.
Really minor stuff:
- Casters using nick-names for cards I can imagine could be frustrating for new players. On streams it's cool because most people are in on the joke of "aye aye sirs" or "dun bananas" and can always chat if they don't know. It's kind of different in this format as it's not as interactive as a stream so it's possible it could seem like a barrier to entry