· People can't quite believe the beating shane's taking. He was down in other TAR matches, but never looked like he was out. In this one, he looked out. When earl was up 15+ games, it felt like the only question was whether it'd be a slaughter or halfway respectable. Seeing him get within 5 last night gave a lot of people hope.
· Earl's antics and "The whole world is against me" attitude were really bad on day one. They toned down towards the end of the night and he started pulling away. Day 2, they were almost gone. Things no longer felt hostile and it was a relief to see earl talk to shane afterwards (with shane grinning). I can't tell if earl gets quieter cuz he's doing better, or does better because he finally shut up.
· At one point he tried to give Jcin an earful and blame the commentators, who took pains to speak quietly and respectfully. Jcin immediately says "Shoot, Earl." I love that comeback, more polite than "STFU" but gets the message across anyway. Earl replied, "excuse me? Now YOU'RE threatening me?" I can't tell if he was making a funny, like pretending jcin's saying "[someone] shoot Earl" ... or if he genuinely misunderstood.
· The earmuffs look dumb but I think there were a good idea, and earl is right to sacrifice some dignity if it helps him win this match. There's more than the money on the line for him. He STILL looked up and gave dirty looks to people in the crowd every so often, like he could hear someone unscrew their water bottle despite the earmuffs and earplugs.
· As cali and the commentators pointed out, it'd be nice if they gave shane something a little more comfortable than that barstool. I mean, shane has a narrow ass, but there has to be more than one real pool chair in the whole building. They can find one for a US Open champ.
· I can't tell who started the mind games, but it's clear both players are doing a little sharking. Shane inspects earl's rack, earl takes it personally. Earl returns the favor by playing kitchen police. Shane complains. Earl explains if shane has a problem with the rack, fine, let earl correct them, don't touch the rack himself. Shane touches the rack himself anyway, every time. The one time earl says "ok, you want the magnifying glass? Go ahead, check it." ... shane shrugs like "looks fine to me" and doesn't touch them.
I think shane really does want to ensure everything freezes. Even tapped tables & magic rack require a quick massage sometimes. Even then shane wasn't making his favorite ball in the side more than 1 in 5 breaks, and earl broke dry for what felt like 3 hours. If the necessary act of cinching the balls happens to bother and shark earl, shane clearly doesn't mind.
· Despite earl crying that everyone hates him and he's the big asshole and the crowd's against him, there was PLENTY of cheering for him. If shane seems to get slightly louder cheers, it's because people like seeing the battered little guy start to mount a comeback. If the score were reversed, earl would get those louder cheers. Earl's an ass when he scolds people for cheering for him... he turns the crowd against him then loudly compains the crowd is against him. For example he'll start sarcastically clapping when shane makes a tough out. The next time earl fuсks up, the crowd give him the sarcasto-clap.
· If diamond made a 10 footer, I'm pretty sure they'd charge 5 figures for it. Simonis was probably excited to receive their first order in 20 years for 10 feet worth of tournament blue 860.
· There are a lot of nits out there apparently who can't pony up 25 bucks for some great pool. I know some of them have work or technical issues, but wtf... They come in the chat asking the score every 5 minutes and in one case asking for a typed-out play by play. Some probably think TAR matches are old hat by now and this is just another 10b race-to-100... but this is truly a different game on the 10-ft table and you can't get more entertainment than earl strickland with a broken governor. It works out to like $1.50 or less per hour to watch world class pool. FFS people... just buy the show! The chat is no substitute.
· I feel bad for the people who assumed shane was a lock, and put decent money on it. At least one guy, who shall remain nameless, is STILL pestering people to bet 200 bucks on earl even while earl was 15 games up. Meanwhile guys like cleary are saying "I shoulda just set fire to my money".
· Earl's extended cue was a great idea, and while earl might go overboard on equipment (lol @ jcin... "earl's putting on the falconry glove")... shane maybe didn't take equipment seriously enough. The longer cue is a real help on this huge table, and shane seemed uncomfortable with the rake. Shane's not afraid to practice, but he's probably not the type to practice using a bridge and it would have helped.
· The pockets were probably 4.5", not super tight. But I think they had an aggressive cut that spat balls out a hair more than one would expect. It's not a diamond but it's not a 5.5" gandy either. I half feel like a table that big should have 5 inch pockets, but I'm sure earl would say that's bs and levels the playing field too much.
· I'd like to see someone at TAR borrow my html (or make their own) so that the chat and video window can be displayed side by side. It's not hard and it seems like people request it every 5 minutes for the first few hours of the match. Maybe resize the default video size too.
· At the same time, big props to them for improving the stream quality. It looks higher res than before. Sound was rock solid, there were several camera angles and intelligent zoom-ins, and the framerate was good for apparently everyone except thaithom. Nothing personal against him but it seems like he pisses in the punch bowl at every opportunity.
· One minor gripe, someone kept taking down the score overlay and then putting it back up. We get enough "what's the score?" questions in chat. I think it'd be nice if they made it smaller and mostly transparent (if possible) so it doesn't interfere with our view of the table, and never needs to be turned off.
· The momentum shifts are huge, and I don't have the exact numbers, but for a while Shane was winning 2-to-1. He was down 15-17 forever, then suddenly within 5. Earl slowed that down and brought it back to 10, so while it looks like the net change from day 1 is small... the match feels like it's really turning. That's why there's no substitute for watching. I firmly believe if shane can do 2-to-1 for an hour or two, he can do the necessary 4-to-3 to win tonight.
· One last thought, you can't help wondering if earl's been right all along. Jamison Neu brought up the mosconi quote in chat earlier... "9 ball will be the downfall of pool" (something like that). Earl's been saying for a while that the format and game of choice is garbage, making it sound like he'd win if it weren't for all the ... "dumbing down" I guess, the stuff that levels the playing field and lets the shortstops hang with the champs. If earl destroys shane on a 10 footer and shane never once gets a lead... maybe he has a point and it's time to separate the men from the boys.
· Earl's antics and "The whole world is against me" attitude were really bad on day one. They toned down towards the end of the night and he started pulling away. Day 2, they were almost gone. Things no longer felt hostile and it was a relief to see earl talk to shane afterwards (with shane grinning). I can't tell if earl gets quieter cuz he's doing better, or does better because he finally shut up.
· At one point he tried to give Jcin an earful and blame the commentators, who took pains to speak quietly and respectfully. Jcin immediately says "Shoot, Earl." I love that comeback, more polite than "STFU" but gets the message across anyway. Earl replied, "excuse me? Now YOU'RE threatening me?" I can't tell if he was making a funny, like pretending jcin's saying "[someone] shoot Earl" ... or if he genuinely misunderstood.
· The earmuffs look dumb but I think there were a good idea, and earl is right to sacrifice some dignity if it helps him win this match. There's more than the money on the line for him. He STILL looked up and gave dirty looks to people in the crowd every so often, like he could hear someone unscrew their water bottle despite the earmuffs and earplugs.
· As cali and the commentators pointed out, it'd be nice if they gave shane something a little more comfortable than that barstool. I mean, shane has a narrow ass, but there has to be more than one real pool chair in the whole building. They can find one for a US Open champ.
· I can't tell who started the mind games, but it's clear both players are doing a little sharking. Shane inspects earl's rack, earl takes it personally. Earl returns the favor by playing kitchen police. Shane complains. Earl explains if shane has a problem with the rack, fine, let earl correct them, don't touch the rack himself. Shane touches the rack himself anyway, every time. The one time earl says "ok, you want the magnifying glass? Go ahead, check it." ... shane shrugs like "looks fine to me" and doesn't touch them.
I think shane really does want to ensure everything freezes. Even tapped tables & magic rack require a quick massage sometimes. Even then shane wasn't making his favorite ball in the side more than 1 in 5 breaks, and earl broke dry for what felt like 3 hours. If the necessary act of cinching the balls happens to bother and shark earl, shane clearly doesn't mind.
· Despite earl crying that everyone hates him and he's the big asshole and the crowd's against him, there was PLENTY of cheering for him. If shane seems to get slightly louder cheers, it's because people like seeing the battered little guy start to mount a comeback. If the score were reversed, earl would get those louder cheers. Earl's an ass when he scolds people for cheering for him... he turns the crowd against him then loudly compains the crowd is against him. For example he'll start sarcastically clapping when shane makes a tough out. The next time earl fuсks up, the crowd give him the sarcasto-clap.
· If diamond made a 10 footer, I'm pretty sure they'd charge 5 figures for it. Simonis was probably excited to receive their first order in 20 years for 10 feet worth of tournament blue 860.
· There are a lot of nits out there apparently who can't pony up 25 bucks for some great pool. I know some of them have work or technical issues, but wtf... They come in the chat asking the score every 5 minutes and in one case asking for a typed-out play by play. Some probably think TAR matches are old hat by now and this is just another 10b race-to-100... but this is truly a different game on the 10-ft table and you can't get more entertainment than earl strickland with a broken governor. It works out to like $1.50 or less per hour to watch world class pool. FFS people... just buy the show! The chat is no substitute.
· I feel bad for the people who assumed shane was a lock, and put decent money on it. At least one guy, who shall remain nameless, is STILL pestering people to bet 200 bucks on earl even while earl was 15 games up. Meanwhile guys like cleary are saying "I shoulda just set fire to my money".
· Earl's extended cue was a great idea, and while earl might go overboard on equipment (lol @ jcin... "earl's putting on the falconry glove")... shane maybe didn't take equipment seriously enough. The longer cue is a real help on this huge table, and shane seemed uncomfortable with the rake. Shane's not afraid to practice, but he's probably not the type to practice using a bridge and it would have helped.
· The pockets were probably 4.5", not super tight. But I think they had an aggressive cut that spat balls out a hair more than one would expect. It's not a diamond but it's not a 5.5" gandy either. I half feel like a table that big should have 5 inch pockets, but I'm sure earl would say that's bs and levels the playing field too much.
· I'd like to see someone at TAR borrow my html (or make their own) so that the chat and video window can be displayed side by side. It's not hard and it seems like people request it every 5 minutes for the first few hours of the match. Maybe resize the default video size too.
· At the same time, big props to them for improving the stream quality. It looks higher res than before. Sound was rock solid, there were several camera angles and intelligent zoom-ins, and the framerate was good for apparently everyone except thaithom. Nothing personal against him but it seems like he pisses in the punch bowl at every opportunity.
· One minor gripe, someone kept taking down the score overlay and then putting it back up. We get enough "what's the score?" questions in chat. I think it'd be nice if they made it smaller and mostly transparent (if possible) so it doesn't interfere with our view of the table, and never needs to be turned off.
· The momentum shifts are huge, and I don't have the exact numbers, but for a while Shane was winning 2-to-1. He was down 15-17 forever, then suddenly within 5. Earl slowed that down and brought it back to 10, so while it looks like the net change from day 1 is small... the match feels like it's really turning. That's why there's no substitute for watching. I firmly believe if shane can do 2-to-1 for an hour or two, he can do the necessary 4-to-3 to win tonight.
· One last thought, you can't help wondering if earl's been right all along. Jamison Neu brought up the mosconi quote in chat earlier... "9 ball will be the downfall of pool" (something like that). Earl's been saying for a while that the format and game of choice is garbage, making it sound like he'd win if it weren't for all the ... "dumbing down" I guess, the stuff that levels the playing field and lets the shortstops hang with the champs. If earl destroys shane on a 10 footer and shane never once gets a lead... maybe he has a point and it's time to separate the men from the boys.
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