LoadingReadyRun
LoadingReadyRun is a sketch comedy group based in Victoria, British Columbia. They have produced comedy videos since 2003. With a cast of nearly 20 members, their most prominent members in Magic content are Graham Stark, Kathleen de Vere, James Turner, Cameron Lauder, Adam Savidan, and Benjamin Wheeler.
History
After several members of the group rediscovered the game in 2010, the group parodied their exploits in getting back into playing Magic in their series "commodoreHustle". The idea of this evolved and was later turned into the web series Friday Nights which was featured on magicthegathering.com. While Wizards ceased licensing the series in 2019, LoadingReadyRun restarted production for new episodes in 2024. Some of their members have been involved in the Magic Online Community Cup and the Community Super League.
The group also hosts a weekly Magic focused podcast called "TapTapConcede" and also stream Magic drafts - before on Magic Online, now on MTG Arena - which are later uploaded onto their second YouTube channel, "LoadingReadyLive"; at one time they added "Wacky Drafts", in which they imposed additional rules such as picking the highest rarity card, or cards with certain keywords, or the cards with the best hat. They expanded their Magic-related content with a podcast on Canadian Highlander named "North 100" and have a second weekly stream of paper Magic of various formats. In 2019, they spun off all Magic content onto their third YouTube channel, "LRRMtG", which in addition to livestream recordings also includes the prerecorded video series of Crack-A-Pack (booster pack opening), North 100 Showdown (Canadian Highlander gameplay) and Elder Dragon Social Club (four-player Commander gameplay). Related to Magic but not of Magic gameplay, three Ravnican Dungeons & Dragons campaigns have been run, all written and led by Kathleen de Vere, all set in the relatively sleepier suburb of the Sixth District.
Additionally, their yearly donation drive for the benefit of Child's Play, "Desert Bus for Hope", often features giveaways and auctions for rare Magic related items (such as uncut foil sheets) and often features at least one guest call-in by a member of Magic R&D such as Aaron Forsythe.
Following the Community Cup finishing with the Community Super League, of which LoadingReadyRun was a consistent contributor, Wizards began looking for a new form of community engagement. As a video and streaming studio, LoadingReadyRun was in a prime position to produce a new initiative. Starting with the Shadows over Innistrad expansion, LoadingReadyRun has hosted a special promotional event called the "Pre-Prerelease", which is the first look at paper Sealed play before the worldwide paper prerelease event. On average, four community members join four from the group for eight rounds of sealed, with various prerecorded material in between.
During the development of Unfinity, three members of LoadingReadyRun (Graham Stark, Kathleen de Vere and Cameron Lauder) were contracted to provide creative text. [1] After this, de Vere was contracted for The Brothers' War and Commander Masters, Stark was contracted for Jumpstart 2022, and both for Murders at Karlov Manor creative texts.
References
- ↑ Ari Zirulnik (August 24, 2021). "I want to brag about the star-studded, out-of-this-world (space puns) writing team.". Twitter.