cEDH Tournaments Have BIG Problems 

This video is a bit different than what you might expect from me typically, but I hope that if you listen to everything we lay out here you'll see that we're coming from a position of caring and wanting good things for the community, success for organizations that choose to highlight cEDH, and an environment that promotes accessibility and inclusion in this space. Some comments here do refer to elements of how some influential groups or individuals involved in casting/the community at large present themselves in ways that, in our view, make the format and community feel less accepting and positive. But the larger portion of this seeks to mostly address how we'd like to see cEDH event coverage improve in general from anyone looking to put on these events. If you enjoy this type of thing, please let me know, and if you'd like to support the channel consider supporting on Patreon or getting some of my very cool merch.

I'm someone who has top 16 multiple mox masters events and watched several others in which I wasn't an active participant. And I think you guys nailed it 100%. I know so many of these names from playing against them. But if I wasn't actively engaged in the community, I just don't have the same level of attachment.

I watch and listen to every major content creators podcast AND youtube vids. I have never watched a cEDH tourney specifically because tourneys are NOT made for the viewer. I wish they were. I wish I knew how to do it. I would love to form a production company that is like an ESPN for cEDH. There could be a pretourney day - covering popular decks and strategies. Interviews with Tourney Creators and Players Day of - POD composition and pregame predictions or likely interactions based on the POD. Most importantly, the games themselves (hands , player names , commander , conversations). There are likely 10's of thousands of Magic players who would consume the content that have no intention of actually joining a tourney. But the love magic. Post day - TOP 16 Breakdown. Future Events. Interviews with the Final 8. tl:dr - I whole heartly agree with this entire video. Also, there is a business here that is already modeled by major sporting networks. Poker and Pool being likely models to mimic.

As somebody trying to get into cEDH, it is incredibly frustrating that there is no quality coverage of tournaments. Commentary doesn’t have to be dumbed down, but in-jokes and obscure references should be avoided. I can’t understand why Monarch et al don’t seize what seems to be a golden opportunity for monetization.

100% agree with everything you guys have laid out. As much as I love the Eminence team and some of the casters associated with the tournament scene, there definitely is room for growth. I will say that I do have a lot of confidence in Eminence and they eventually will get stuff fully ironed out. Definitely fair criticism in my humble opinion

From having done a lot of coverage, and been very involved with various levels of EDH, doing live tournament coverage of a game that features everything you've spoken about would be super tough. 1) You almost certainly need table audio, which involves a lot of buy in from players, and is really difficult to intersperse with commentary - almost certainly requiring someone aside from the commentators who is able to do that live mix. 2) Keeping track of cards in hand is a giant job. At the Pro Tour there is a dedicated person stood behind each player with an iPad inputting cards in hand live and feeding them through to a web-interface that creates a graphic accessible to the director and commentators. Doing the same for cEDH means a body per player trying to keep up with cards in hand. Even at the Pro Tour this is far from seamless, and keeping up with Rhystic/Mystic/Ad Nauseam and similar while they are going off would be tough at any level. 3) As more cameras get added to the broadcast, the complexity of directing the feed increases multiplicatively. The cost of the cameras isn't as much a concern as the cost of being able to usefully direct. Showing the players is lovely, but showing all of them with some regularity, while providing enough fidelity on the game itself that folks can keep up, potentially with a card image picture in picture is a giant task to usefully direct. Even at Pro Tour level there would be loud (and not necessarily incorrect) voices in chat that complain the moment the camera moves away from the board to show someone thinking. Commentary in the meantime likely needs to be some mix of folks who can usefully cleanly explain the clean lines of the decks being played, while helping people keep up with literally what is going on on the board. It isn't a complete picture, but hopefully is enough to help people along for the ride, and get them interested in playing as well as watching more.

This comment is ment to inspire future video/podcast ideas. Some of this u have covered but I think it is difficult to have too much. Threat assessment. Pip choices vs optimized selection. Mulligans. Seat and pod composition (Archetype vs Archetype). Archetype strengths and weaknesses. Commander centric list strengths/weaknesses. Stax vs rattlesnakes. Tempo recovery / recognizing you are behind on in tempo. Top 16 "silver bullet" series highlights on Achilles Heel of top 16 decks.

Monarch, Eminence, whoever? Who is Whoever?

You keep saying your not trying to shit on anyone while trying to shit on someone is like saying I'm not racist becuase my cousin girl friend is black. Own what you say call out the people by name dont be afraid

Seriously one of the best podcasts I’ve ever listened to. Love your shit bro, keep it up!

I'm so lost, I love cEDH but have barely anywhere around me to play... how do I qualify for this eminence thing?

Really good topic and points of view. I am certain event's broadcasting will improve, especially when we have all the tools to share our feedback. I just wish feedback was relayed constructively generally speaking, like it's done here. We have to keep in mind that trying to meet the level of protour broadcasting does not happen instantly. Presentation and public speaking are skills that need both experience and training and are rarely innate to a person. I agree, however, that whomever we are, if we intend to present ourselves "publicly" even if it is online via Twitch or RU-vid, we have to work harder constantly for viewers/listeners to feel comfortable and enjoy what we show or what we talk about. I trust things will improve, guidelines for commentators and event participants will be adjusted and we will enjoy more and better content from cEDH tournament coverage.

I'm glad someone with a platform brought this up. You guys have been absolutely killing it with your content. Great work

it's what ive been telling ppl for years; so much edh (especially cedh) gameplay content is just absolutely not worth watching. the gentleman on the left nails it on the head during the fifth and sixth minute of the video

I really feel that opinion. I am so in love with the game but the coverage until now just did not live up to what I (personally) feel like makes this format so exciting. In my opinion that’s the micro decisions and nuances and the level of understanding and skill of the players. I think two casters chatting over the whole action and making jokes between each other - while it can be very fun from time to time - does not carry the fascination and often does not even help understanding what’s going on at the competitors’ table.

Another great video guys! As a new player i'd love to be able to watch a polished cedh event like a Standard PT from the past weekend. But like you say it needs to be informative and interesting to watch otherwise it pushes people away rather than growing.

I watched a few games and yeah i agree it seems like eminence is really going at getting tournaments which i think is great but the commentary is so cringe and the interviews with winners are so wacky.

this is the exact reason that i couldnt watch the mox master's cEDH tournament last weekend. i am trying to get into cEDH and there are no actual casts of tournaments to watch.

What a great video!

Mox masters needs to watch this. Their hosts talk way too much and it ruins the experience. I just look at the deck lists at this point

Watching player politics is a big reason why i love watching cEDH TV's gameplay and its what got me into cEDH in the first place

Great stuff Matt, thoughtful and constructive.

Ban Force of Will, force of Negation, pact of Negation!

As much as this is two people talking into the aether, it is an extremely useful conversation to have. I just wish there were already youtubers that would cover events and stats to that extent. There is a gap, a missing link, for Cedh coverage and personalities. Maybe there is, and the outreach and structure just is not there. The state id Cedh is kind of in shambles, but I hope to see it become a monolith in the tcg world. If you guys take up that role, I will be right here watching.

You HAVE to play blue/white in your deck or you are massively disadvantaged with the amount of card advantages they have.

oh boy SCG coverage is probably the best out there Cedric and Patrick are like the best out there bringing the life out of the matches long after the games were played, they helped me understand the nuances of higher power formats and the best ways to survive in that environment also sideline coverage like Inside the Deck is crazy good and it is so awesome to see them starting again well hopefully cedh coverage gets better soon~

I agree with a lot of what y’all are saying. However, my question to you is this, “What are you doing to change or drive this change”? Do you have tournaments or plan on doing tournaments with this type of coverage?

I also agree wtih the point about professionalism and not making fun of your player base. I think the way Scott and PWP reacted to people saying the commentary of the mox masters finals was bad was handled poorly. I get it, no one wants to be told something is bad, especially when people say it in a rude manner. But if I'm being honest with you content creators kinda have to be prepared and sort of expect that sort of thing. It sucks but it happens and they have to act professionally in response to that negativity. Like you don't see the command zone or other content creators give a snarky remark to any negative comment they get. PWP telling people to watch other channels in response to people asking for a version of the mox finals without commentary was baffling. And then Scott screenshotting a negative comment that was posted in another persons video that had no commentary and posting it as his twitter banner. And then doubling down by making fun of the viewers insinuating that the people that don't like the commentary don't have eminence gaming accounts, which honestly shouldn't matter. I'm pretty sure less than half of their viewers have played in an event and to just hand wave peoples opinions like that comes off as hella elitist. Like you said, pro tour players don't sit there and watch the pro tour, it's for people that want to get better or are interested in starting to play in events. Like yeah i completely get that it's frustrating to have viewers say something negative but they shouldn't match that with more negativity.

I hate commentated cedh. Give me player audio or I'll just watch the ComedIan top 16 breakdown instead. Best cedh content is just 4 people streaming on twitch tbh. No editing, just politics. If you could have casters who introduce the game, tell us about the decks and players etc, but then you have player audio for the game, maybe with the casters adding extra insight when there isn't anything interesting going on in the player audio, that would be great.

I listen to many people say Cedh doesn’t need additional bans for balance, it’s so fun listening to people lie to themselves.

When i play tournaments usually ends in 3 or 5 turns with a infinite combo, some people says this format is more friendly but i think it's more toxic, fun to play with friends but tournaments are full of quick finishers. I prefeer another formats for tournaments, pioneer pauper or legacy