Reply to Flores and SCG Growth (for those who can’t see it)

Flores posed a question on his blog. I replied on his blog, but some people couldn’t see it at the time, so I cross-posted the reply here.

Growth takes time. As some of you may or may not be aware, SCG started a reboot in mid-September of 2010, at which time it was clearly lagging behind ChannelFireball.com in quality writing, name recognition, video technology that did not involve Evan Erwin, and general site quality. The Open Series was already under way at that time, but they weren’t directly covering it themselves and it wasn’t intertwined into both the front end of the site and everything else. Since that time a TON of changes have taken place.

PTR Stories Vol. 1

For those of you who have never heard of him, Peter Szigeti – pretty much always referred to as PTR – was a legend in the Magic community. Viewed by judges and organizers as a scourge, Peter was alternately hilarious, disruptive, and completely over-the-top with his behavior toward opponents and his attitude toward authority in general. It wasn’t anything personal, he was like that a lot the time outside of Magic too.

Due to his antics, his absolutely scathing articles (some of which I’ll try to republish soon), and endless beats delivered to people at tournaments, Peter was viewed by some as a villain. Others viewed him as a hero, a clown, and a source of endless entertainment, provided they weren’t the target for his barbs or pranks. Peter apparently passed on this week after a prolonged period of illness. I say ‘apparently’ not to disrespect the dead, but because there is no one on the planet I would believe has a greater chance of possibly faking his own death than PTR. I’m not the only one – most of his friends I have talked to won’t believe the truth without a body check. This is just everyone who knew him from back in the day paying him his propers for what he was capable of with that incredibly inventive, devious mind.