That's the thing, they want to be deep into the scene. There's more casual-oriented groups out there. The problem with Kevin's "optimism" is that it could often be blissful obliviousness. It's fine to have a contrary opinion, but if you have a contrary opinion because you're literally not watching/playing the game, it's not a good opinion.
I've never heard him state anything that was completely oblivious like you hear on Into the Nexus or see on these forums or read on reddit. A different POV, sure, but as Familie is saying there's been times where he's called them out for being stuck too far into their narrow mindset without seeing the bigger picture - particularly Zoia.
As he said, I don't think you're giving him enough credit.
I think you are misunderstanding my point either way, though. Being deep into the scene is fine, but the longer they continue to bitch endlessly about trivial happenings in said scene while glossing over their thoughts on actual changes and new heroes because they are afraid we'll hold them to their word, the harder it will be to grow the show.
They can esports all day and I love hearing that, but when a patch hits I want to hear about all of it because in the competitive scene we often end up seeing all of it by the end of that cycle, not just the 3 parts Zoia thinks are relevant to Tempo Storm right off the bat. It's a high level information show. Now we just get "x" hero got bodied, or new KT is ridic OP more than old KT. Sure. I can read that anywhere. Tell us why, that's what you did before. That's why people listen because of your perspective, not just a fucking ESPN First Take #hottake.
A few months ago that is what the show was and that is why it was awesome.
Now it's NA e-sports talk devolving into off-topic. It goes back and forth between those two things for 80% of the show at this point.
How on earth are you saying that Jake/Cooby/Zoia aren't playing this game on their own?
They really don't play the game on their own. Jake plays on stream from time to time when he has time, but he very rarely has any time in the past few months. When new heroes release, most of them have not even bothered to play them unless, again, Jake has time to stream on launch day. Cooby is always too busy. Zoia doesn't play them himself he only watches the scrims, etc.
Repeatedly they say "haven't had time to play this week" or Zoia talks about how he never plays the game and he doesn't even like to watch the scrims or other competitive games as he's kind of bored of it/over it or was until SEL started.
Your argument about them being invested in the scene can just as easily be directed at Cooby's lack of time as it can Schamtoo's. The difference was one was tied to ESL and the other to MLG so one still gets included.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong I love the show despite the way I feel it has devolved because I like these dudes and their camaraderie. Much like you guys say here in this thread about HOTS, though, that doesn't make the show immune to criticism when it's warranted and to me this is as hokey, badly handled, and short sighted as Blizzard's implementation of hero league which they bitch about every single show.
