In case some of you didnt know: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/2s3pln/did_anyone_get_a_recording_of_ben_starks_weird/
So apparently he made some jokes about certain groups of people while he thought he was off the air and not being recorded. What do yall think? Burn him at the stake? Accidents happen? Fire the production team?
I heard it. People are flipping out about nothing. All I heard him say was that he trusted a guy less (in a joking manner) because he was from one of the countries that had a cheater (Portugal maybe...?). He later publicly apologized. So nothing is needed to be done.
I listened to it live, they were saying how Portuguese and Brazilians were cheaters and someone remarked that once they heard Portuguese, they stopped trusting the player. It really wasn't a huge deal though, obviously just joking around.
It's a not a huge deal for the Americans who can take back an insult, but for people from those countries it's a big "f**k you" followed up by, "well I didn't mean it" so why the hell you say it?
Fire this nerd and find us another. He's very expendable. Sure you like his personality, but overall letting conversations like that slip out is really bad. You can bet he will never be at an event in any Portugese speaking countries
He implied an idea, that idea hits the heads of more ignorant people, those people interact with others and now have that idea in their head, simply because they are possibly in a position where they are losing.
It's a terrible assumption to create within the community, because now some people say: hey brazilians were caught cheating recently at magic cup!
This is now justifying the assumption.
Little ripples create great waves.
Some people see it as not harmful, but aren't open to the idea that some people can be affected.
Was it stupid to say those things, oh absolutely. Did he apologize and handle that maturely, yes. Will he be fired, probably not. It depends on how the people who were being made fun of react. If it is incredibly negative (which is doubtful) he will be dealt with. If not, he stays, and thus the sucky reality of being in the spotlight continues. Being put on the pedestal celebrities are on puts them up to extreme scrutiny. They have to be overly sensitive or else someone, somewhere will be offended. Shitstorm rises up, and they lose their job. Are people overly sensitive, maybe. Doesn't matter, if a mob starts, someone has to go.
I actually dont even think hes that great of a commentator. Sure hes great at limited, but i was watching him and marshall commentating on gp omaha and neither him and marshall had much of an idea what was going on most matches. Amulet of vigor matchup, they spend the whole time discussing the ways that the amulet deck can kill his opponent, while shaheen burns out his opponent and their just like "What?!?!". Well maybe if you actually paid attention to the game you would see that burn was doing work.
Quote from: particle on January 13, 2015, 08:10:31 PM
I actually dont even think hes that great of a commentator. Sure hes great at limited, but i was watching him and marshall commentating on gp omaha and neither him and marshall had much of an idea what was going on most matches. Amulet of vigor matchup, they spend the whole time discussing the ways that the amulet deck can kill his opponent, while shaheen burns out his opponent and their just like "What?!?!". Well maybe if you actually paid attention to the game you would see that burn was doing work.
To be fair, the way Shenhar beat his opponent with attacking {Eidolon of the Great Revel}, and their presence stopped his opponent from comboing off. The reason it was such a complex situation was that every burn spell Shenhar cast would deal him that much +2 before his spell ever resolved (because of {Hive Mind}+1 {Eidolon of the Great Revel}). I do know what you are talking about though, they spent about 5 minutes each trying to figure out what {Grove of the Burnwillows} and {Oboro, Palace in the Clouds} were, and in the finals, they were completely wrong (just like the pilot of the deck...) on how certain interactions worked.
As for the comment, it was easily identifiable as just joking around, despite being defensive, and he has apologized multiple times on social media and on the stream. Obviously what he said was wrong, but he has done what he can to make amends, and I think we just get back to playing Magic.