WOTC, it's time we had a serious conversation about your coverage. We love Magic. We love consuming Magic content. Every time I tune into something like Overwatch League I shouldn't be more and more disappointed with what we currently have. We can do better. StarCityGames showed us a future and our Grand Prix coverage has been picking up steam. But realistically, at this slow pace, it's going to be harder and harder as time goes on to keep playing catch up with the rest of the world.

It's crazy to me that with all the changes we keep making that I can tune into the Japanese coverage of a Grand Prix and feel even further behind. I've written before about coverage and I'm going to reiterate some of those ideas and also discuss new ones I feel are important to the vitality and longevity of Magic as an esport.

Hand and Face Cams

While walking through coverage of the Japanese GP, I noticed this was the first time I watched during a player's turn and was able to see a camera view of their face and also of their hand. Magic is not a game of speed and it's sometimes not very action filled. Since it is a game of thinking, being able to clearly see what's going on in their hand will be useful to the average player. It reminds me of how much more popular Poker coverage got after adding hand cams. Through this extension, having a camera that can zoom in on the graveyard seems also worthwhile. It provides a nice level of excitement and gives newer players a chance to "play along" at home with a player's hands. Seeing a player's face is interesting as they think about their decisions. Having reactions to cards can change how invested a viewer is in the event. We've seen teams create a new dynamic but not every player is on a team. This makes it important to try and get viewers invested in players.

Since Magic is played on a field, we don't get some of the same dynamic as other esports might offer. Since this is the case for Magic, we need to try and make use out of the options we do have available to make new players and old players alike more invested in the matches on screen.

One of the things I liked seeing during Pro Tours was interviews with Pro Teams before the event and a short video. This would be fantastic to see in between rounds or before set up for a Top 8 of any major tournament. It's a nice video for down time and gets viewers more acclimated to players and can make them seem more human.

Online Connections

With Arena really picking up steam, it's important to lead players from one end to the other. For starters, if I visit the Wizards main page for Magic, I should see a featured streamer on a weekday that I can just tune in to. This gives a player an option to tune into someone new that they may have not seen before and a chance to promote a player and the client. This is something that is minor to do; and, since there are already Youtube videos up on the site, this doesn't seem like a large stretch. With Arena, someone could have the choice between watching an Arena stream or an MTGO stream which gives plenty of options to choose from. If I visit the site on the weekends during an event, there should be a link to the Twitch page of coverage for that event. To go even further, we should see a link on MTGO AND Arena that connects directly to the Twitch page for coverage.

I'd also like to see more streamer showdowns. Perhaps a Constructed streamer showdown would be worthwhile. Constructed formats are incredibly popular to tune into and there's no reason we shouldn't also be making use out of the streamer showdown with a variety of what the online clients have to offer.

What I'm going to offer next might sound outrageous but I think this is one of the best ways to get players involved. Let's figure a way to connect Twitch accounts to Arena and MTGO accounts and when people are watching events we can give them drops. Players are very likely to tune in when watching a match and can give them a pack on Arena or five Play Points for MTGO. I know some of you are thinking "well people will just turn on Twitch and then not watch at all to collect free money" that's fine. Do you know why it's fine? Not everyone will do that AND it boosts numbers regardless. It's a way for players who watch to become interested in the clients and for players who are already on the clients to accrue some benefit for watching. This is a win/win for everyone. Sure someone might get a free draft on MTGO every other tournament but why is that such a bad thing?

Twitch Integration

Continuing on the subject of Twitch integration during events, I'd really like to see something like Streamdecker available. During matches being able to click on a box on either side and see an opponent's deck would be wonderful. Especially for something like Limited events having access to a decklist can provide wonders for players just tuning in. Since decklists are given before the start of the round to the commentary team, it's possible to just hand it off to someone whose job it is to just type them out for easy checking with something like Streamdecker.

Commentary

This is one subject I'm going to have to dance around a bit. I don't mean to insult anyone here and, for the most part, I think commentary is good. But being good doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. I remember several years ago someone who used to do commentary was replaced. During that period, there were more complaints about the quality of casting than ever before. They made a status asking to be put back on coverage and said something along the lines of "look I'm doing all the work, I know every card in Limited; I'm playing Standard all the time as well, put me back in." While there were lots of comments on the status the one that stuck out the most to me was one from Patrick Sullivan:

And this to me stuck out more than anything else. The commentary team should be spending their time playing and learning all the cards. And while sometimes it can be hard to recognize a card on a small screen, it can often feel at times those kind of mistakes happen too often. Mischaracterizations of decks and how they work in older formats can happen, but I've seen them happen with decks that aren't rarely played before.

While I've started to see interviews more with players, I feel like there could be more. I think the most important part here (and I've mentioned before) is to humanize all the players. This helps viewers connect and appreciate the players in a different way. During the Pro Tour, we see a breakdown of action from the floor and that's something that we should start seeing more at Grand Prix and the like. Magic sometimes isn't an exciting game and it's important to do what we can to create and build excitement.

I'd also think it could be beneficial to hire someone from another popular esport to review commentary and discuss ideas and ways to make what we have better. Having some of the best in the esports world could help vastly improve coverage. There's a reason they have viewers and work the way they do. There's no reason for us NOT to follow their lead.

Money

This is something that will absolutely have to happen. More money needs to be poured into coverage. Yes, in many ways it is a loss, but having pristine coverage is a fantastic way to pull in new viewers, keep in current ones, and return old viewers. The way you get players into the game and keep them there is word of mouth. Word of mouth can lead folks to coverage and if coverage is not interesting and too hard to follow they will tune out, and that's not a great place to be. I feel very strongly that, with better coverage, Magic would perform better overall. MOCS coverage and the like should have enough money poured into it that it looks extremely polished and professional. Trying to show off your client and get people to buy into it is a tall order when the coverage doesn't look ideal.

We can do better and we absolutely should.