Guild Wars 2

I am making this post in response to Countless.

To start with I’d like to compare casting this game with casting a different game. One that is known as a very popular esport; League of Legends. The difference between GW2 and LoL is that LoL is an extremely simple game. It’s easy to play and easy for people to grasp what is going on. On top of that the course of a League match is stretched out to the better end of an hour. This gives more time for casters to explain these simple concepts and mechanics to people who are spectating the game.

Guild Wars 2 is far more complicated and takes place in 1/4 to 1/2 the time that a standard league match lasts. This leads to more information needing to be delivered but a smaller window in which to do so, making it hard to choose what critical pieces of a match to convey to the audience without leaving out too much. The game is far more “technical” than League of Legends. As for precision, not so much. League is fairly consistent to cast – Guild Wars 2 is not. It leads to something that is more complicated, challenging, and intricate than League of Legends and therefore is harder to cast.

Calling out Blu on downstate makes no sense. It’s an integral part of the game that requires attention in team fights. No matter what the goal of a team fight is to wipe the other team, and that goal requires going through downstate in which the body of that player is either cleaved, revived, rallied through the death of an enemy in downstate, or stomped out. No matter what it is downstate pulls the focus of a team, ally or enemy, and is something that should not be ignored. I can agree with you that Blu needs to address WHY someone enters downstate, but ignoring downstate is down right idiotic when it’s such a prevalent portion of the game.

Furthermore Blu’s rate of speech is actually quite understandable. If you replay anyone at x2 speed 100 times over then of course their words will blur together. You manipulated the video to enhance what you called incomprehensible speech, but didn’t actually provide a case where you absolutely could not make out what Blu was saying. To further counter this point Guild Wars 2 requires a shout caster to convey a lot of information. While I can agree that Blu needs to work on what he’s saying in order to be more efficient I think that the way he delivers information is extremely good. I have never had trouble understanding what he says, and most of his viewers would feel the same way.

As for GvG, it’s completely irrelevant to any sort of would be competitive play this game offers. I don’t even feel that I need to address this because it’s so far off topic that you’re obviously just trying to take shots at Blu.

Countless made arguments that he could twist to his favor without providing any hard evidence to Blu’s incapability to cast this game. While I agree the game is too complex in a lot of areas, he picked the wrong way to approach the subject. Blu is good at casting certain aspects of the game and in combination with players who can add valuable information and reasoning, like Helseth or Doyourbestbear, the two would cover the majority of what is required to convey the proper aspects of the game while keeping viewers entertained.

Which is why I play dota2 and not lol. You can’t even deny creeps in lol.

Caed critically hit Countless with a wall of text xD

But yeah, as i said before, to the outsider like me the whole video looked like Countless have some issue with Blu. There are ways criticize game/shoutcasting w/o making it so personal.

waiting for caed to make a video, 160 character is max i r capable of reading

+1

I sometimes mute a Gw2 stream, since the mere complexity and mass of actions in this game is probably way more than any caster could comprehend and mediate to the viewers. There’s times where just watching a game and discussing through VoIP with other players is more enjoyable than the commentary.

But then again, the commentary is supposed to be simple and understandable for people who arent even into sPvP that much. But I do think that he should have a co-caster which is a top-player, someone who can recognize tactics and explain things on a deeper level, because that’s something Blu simply isnt able to do right now, not to mention any of his co-casters.

Then again, there’s always room for improvement. I mean, a acrobatic thief spamming “Disabling Shot” and Blu says; Nice dodging there… There’s need for more recognitizion of actual great gameplay, yes, but I think that Blu clearly proved that with he is ready to commit in whatever way is needed to get there.

The dude has given a lot to the community, so come on, instead of making a 15-min video blaming the downfall of the whole scene on him, atleast keep the critique a bit more constructive and compact.

It’s the least for him, and best for the community, that we could do.

+1
But I’m curious as to why we don’t see a play by play + color caster (someone with extensive game knowledge like helseth) combo that often (ESL being a weekly tournament, that doesn’t have that kind of combination). It is either because no one wants to do the color casting job, or because whoever is in charge of the decision doesn’t let anyone else than blu + sireph (or jebro) do it.

Blu has mad respect from me for shoutcasting even after such a long time.
To be fair, the real issue does not lie in shoutcasting but rather in how this game is currently shaped.
@ Erwin: Keep in mind that some players may participate in mentioned tournaments (e.g. Helseth).

Edit: I also understand Countless’ frustration (with the game) though.

Preach it Caed, spot on.

To insinuate that Blu is hampering the game’s competitive scene is so incredibly dense it makes my brain bleed. He’s one of the best assets this game’s community has.

On the topic of gvg — of course it’s difficult/pointless to cast. Blu knows that. He’s throwing a bone to the gvg scene, which is actually one of the healthier competitive scenes left in this game (despite how easy it is to poke fun at). It’s absurd to critique someone for trying to cast a game mode that doesn’t even have a spectator mode.

you quit bro, stop acting like you lift