Hijack, but one of the best things I’ve ever seen on television was coverage of a Magic: The Gathering tournament.
It was on one of the ESPN channels; I think it was ESPN 8: “The Ocho.” They did it all up like an Olympic event, with all the on-screen graphics and passion-filled announcements and big camera sweeps over the playing arena (some flourescent-lit convention room somewhere, by the looks of it).
They’d cut from the “action” occasionally for a brief pre-recorded piece giving us some background info on each of the combattants. They’d show him on his skateboard while describing his background, and then cut to him in his bedroom, talking about his winning strategies underneath his posters of Tool and surfboarders.
Then of course, they’d show The Big Event itself: the match, complete with color commentary.
“And Jackson has placed his land mana card; not an unusual move at this stage of the game.”
“That’s right, he’s going to need that mana to take an early offensive against… OH! He’s placed the White Tower!”
“What a daring move!”
“Didn’t see that one coming. It’ll be interesting to see how Smith counters that one… yes, he’s played the Serra Angel and a spell of Retribution. Very shrewd move.”
I’ve been kicking myself ever since for not taping it. It was gold.
I always enjoyed - for the comedy - watching a bit of miniature golf on RDS - a French sports station here in Canada. The show was called Défi Mini-Putt (“Mini-Putt Challenge”), I believe. The look of intense determination on the faces of the players was great. And hole-in-ones were aplenty, which led to the best part of the show. A player would hit the ball, the commentators would pause in anticipation…
Heh. I occasionally have ESPN-style running commentary in my head when I’m playing one of my favorite video games.
“He’s going awfully fast for the rainy conditions… Ooo, look at that! Beautiful drift around the corner! Perfect hit on the nitrous! Now if he can just hold it together into the final stretch and OOOOOOOOOO! Man, that bus came out of nowhere. Right into the river… At least he’ll get enough style points on the wreck to deserve a restart on the race…”
I thought about starting a thread on it, but I figured it would take too long to explain and would probably sink without a trace.
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