#tennis fucking sucks man we're one of the biggest sports around and our media ecosystem feels like it'd barely be suited to cover padel

[batsplat]

heyyy so you’ve probably been asked this a gazillion times before, but how is your moto gp knowledge so impressively vast? was there a specific moment where you decided to REALLY get into its lore? tysm for all of your hard work btw(pulling articles, explaining things, etc)!!! 💖🥺

very kind + appreciated!! it honestly just sort of happened over the years... I do always feel like a bit of a fraud when discussing motogp because my understanding of the actual sport is inevitably pretty limited,, like at the end of the day this is very much my second sport. didn't grow up watching it, haven't competed in it myself, don't have the same knowledge base to fall back on. which means I do kinda feel extra compelled to try and actually understand what I'm watching lol, do my due diligence and all that. plus, research is fun!! my level of investment in motogp has definitely ebbed and flowed over the years, obviously currently it's more flowing than ebbing...

but yeah,, anyway, much of this lore research happened during the pandemic, partly because it was the first time I felt like I could splurge on the videopass and 'watching twenty seasons worth of motorcycle racing' is an extremely pandemic-flavoured activity. so that's probably the answer! blame covid. I also think the sport is very rewarding to do lore research for because relatively speaking they do make it pretty easy for you. a few websites/blogs that are leagues better than the equivalent you'd get in Certain Other Sports, some judicious use of the wayback machine and an assortment of invaluable books - plus you actually have a working video archive!! I would shoot someone to have a videopass equivalent in Certain Other Sports, like I get all the complaints and I have plenty of minor quibbles but honestly it's fantastic. for all this talk about motorcycle racing and whatnot, really the most important thing about motogp is that it's the archivist's dream