20 Tweets: Blindsided

“Can I talk to you for a second?” He looked serious. I walked to the edge of my booth and JR followed me. I motioned with my head to our buddy who was sorting to manage the front of the booth. “Can you handle the customers for a second?” He nodded.

The guy who stood before me was one of the other Magic vendors. His voice cracked a little as he started talking. “Did one of my employees sell you some cards?”

I thought back over the weekend. “Yeah. He stopped by and sold us a few Snapcaster Mages and some other stuff. Why?”

“Because cards have been coming up missing all weekend. … Snapcaster is one of them.” He was visibly upset. I didn’t know what to say. “Man, I’m sorry to hear that! How can we help?” I asked.

“I dunno, if you could not buy anymore cards from him that would help.” I granted his request and offered to work with him on recovering the cards that were already sold to us. He was grateful but far from happy.

I remember watching him walk away. I could see the lump in his throat, one of those lumps that you just can’t swallow.

This is not the same as getting robbed, because losing money is not the part that hurts. It’s the betrayal of trust that throttles you. When the news of Tristan Shaun Gregson hit the Twittersphere, the same emotions from that Sunday afternoon swept over me. I thought about all the friends and business partners that must feel betrayed, and my heart goes out to them.

I asked Heather to do a 20 Tweets to chronicle the Twitter community’s response and to report the situation from a journalistic perspective. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

— Jonathan Medina

“Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.” – Colin Powell

This news about beloved Magic TV host Tristan Shaun Gregson is shocking and upsetting channelfireball.com/home/announcem…

— Lauren Lee (@mulldrifting) August 14, 2012

holy hell really tsg?

— lil baph (@bizmarkiedesade) August 14, 2012

Wow.... TSG? Really?It's always the ones you'd least expect. :(bit.ly/RMyfab

— James Clarke (@Fenaris) August 14, 2012

I feel more for LSV and others who put their trust in him. They're the ones who have been hurt the most by this.

— Jack LaCroix (@JackLacroix) August 14, 2012

Holy Cow TSG was defrauding Channel Fireball? Terrible, so terrible.

— Ray Bechtel II (@RayBechtel2) August 14, 2012

Maybe I'm naive, but I have my doubts that that post about Tristan is the full story. That does NOT seem like him.

— Justin Treadway (@GriffnValentine) August 14, 2012

@jacklacroix 50 copies of the top4 AVR cards. So not all bonfires. Even still...

— Jason Clark (@RealEvilGenius) August 14, 2012

Saddest part is those cards are worth ~$5000. Not worth it.

— Riki Hayashi (@mtgRikipedia) August 14, 2012

Shocked to hear about TSG. He was always an awesome guy to me. I for one am glad that they were up front about what happened.

— Chas Andres (@chasandres) August 14, 2012

@top8games That was my first thought as well. It seems as if they;re trying to unnecessarily blackball him.

— magician12 (@magician12) August 14, 2012

@marshall_lr @lsv from the business end, the post was needed. Personal end is messy and tragic for everyone. No argument in that right?

— Scott MacCallum (@MrScottyMac) August 14, 2012

@zbeg @top8games @affinityforblue @mulldrifting Maybe better to air specifics than let the rumor mill take over. Especially since he's MIA.

— Nathan Holt (@WalkThePlanes) August 14, 2012

Lol, well; I'm not gonna kick a guy when he's down but it seems like stealing 50 copies of the SAME card might've been unwise :)

— Nina Illingworth (@CardboardWitch) August 14, 2012

The whole situation is terrible, but we wanted to forestall speculation/rumors as best we could. Either way, not an easy decision.

— Luis Scott-Vargas (@lsv) August 14, 2012

I see the TSG news is finally out. ChannelFireball is a complicated, crazy place but theft in this community is brutal. Find a new hobby

— Next Level Spec (@NextLevelSpec) August 14, 2012

@owentweetenwald he's still a person.He made bad choices, yes, but he doesn't need you rubbing salt in the wound.Grow up and stop it.

— Brian Kibler (@bmkibler) August 14, 2012

They took down all of TSG's old Magic TV episodes? That seems harsh. He's been let go, but that's no reason to take down good #MtG footage.

— Reuben Bresler (@MoxReuby) August 14, 2012

https://twitter.com/nayon7/status/235504304927150080

Is it too much to hope that this is all an elaborate plot to indoctrinate TSG into the MTG crime underground to catch the real bad guys?

— Vivek Soi (@luckymartyr1) August 14, 2012

Stealing from an employer is very low. That said, as we all judge others, be glad that all our own dirty laundry isn't aired like this.

— Bill Boulden (@Spruke) August 14, 2012

Heather Meek
@RevisedAngel on Twitter