Guild Wars 2

There are so many in depth things these shout casters could be talking about in between games, during the “dead air” periods that they just don’t know about.

So many times they are talking about how they have nothing to say when there is so much strategy team comp rotation etc they could be talking about. They miss crucial aspects of streaming such as lord attacks (blaming minimap is no excuse its extremely easy to watch) and calling tactics well before they happen.

If you guys need someone to help you understand the depth and strategy that is involved in this game please ask the community I think some of the better players can really help you.

Things like going over builds arent as crucial as you make them out to be, sure its nice for the noobs but you could just do something where they submit builds beforehand (build overview alone took up so much time and its so standard to the players that know what they are doing).

Please please look into strategy of the game and how team fight interaction works (peels, rotations, why someone should back cap right now vs why they shouldnt). If you need help please PM or message, im sure there are plenty of people who would help. Talking about why the krytan on the clocks looks like it does in the final match with everything on the line instead of strategy and what they thing could be going on and why PZ is making switches etc is just bad casting.

Anyway to leave this on a good note, grats on the successful tournament and viewers, hope we can make it better.

Ultimately mate, if you think it could/should be done better, throw your own hat in the ring.

I cant because im going to be playing.

I agree with griffon, Blu’s been doing this for a month now and still has no clue the depth of some of the team fights. Today, for example there were some good epi’s by Zombify that went right over the casters head. Gw2 pvp is great, there’s so much going on behind the scene that people watching the stream are missing out on because the casters aren’t bringing it to their attention. Today’s fan-favorite Supcutie played well, but not just with the portal res’s, he would stand on the ledges playing defensively until he went into burst. The casters should have drawn the viewers attention to instances like these. These streamed tournies could be great for the gw2 pvp community if there was a competent streamer calling out peels, rotation, over extending, etc. Sadly there isn’t.

In my opinion, the casters of the invitational today did an amazing job, they kept up the pace, they may have missed some aspects of the strategy, and obviously missed some important commentary, but I’m not here to judge, spectator mode is hot out of the oven right now, so I guess there are plenty of room to improve.
I thought that it was much better than my expectations, they did an amazing job for a “first” time casting, on a game where the heat is on all over the map.

I tuned in on twitch and had multiple issues with the guy casting it. Was very awkward at times. If GW2 grows, we can expect to see decent casters pop up.

Boo is awful, she is really bad at casting.

I watched the whole 5.5 hours of this cast, and have both been part of and watched past tournaments, and there are both strong and weak aspects to some of the casting. I think it’s important to keep in mind however that casting for GW2 PvP is in most cases very new, much of it is volunteer, the casters are often responsible for other admin-related things as well, and they are in some cases dealing with some unfriendly mechanics which don’t help them to be sure.

Yes, things are sometimes missed – in two of our tournament matches we had disconnects which were not even mentioned by the casters for example – but overall the kinds of things could be done better are in fact things that CAN be improved. Casting is not an easy thing by any means and you could have the best possible attention to detail and game knowledge at work but an unexciting or uninteresting casting manner, which simply can’t be fixed. I feel if there are some few areas that could be improved, that these are the easier things to address and they will improve naturally as this overall effort moves forward.

I salute those who take on the casting for these tourneys, and definitely respect the time commitment involved. A big thanks to you guys for your solid work today and I think we are all looking forward to watching things as they move onward and upward!

I wouldn’t take that tone just yet. Casters need to manage a lot more than justand are still learning what to cast and camera management. When they have to do so much, it’s possible they’d overlook some things. Also, Blu was doing double-duty as an administrator for the tournament.

However, they could pick up a thing or two from other sports (not just e-sports). Usually when you cast in a group, you have one person to catch all the depth and explain all the nuances. The other person provides a broader view and color commentary.

Griffon.4716:

There are so many in depth things these shout casters could be talking about in between games, during the “dead air” periods that they just don’t know about.

So many times they are talking about how they have nothing to say when there is so much strategy team comp rotation etc they could be talking about. They miss crucial aspects of streaming such as lord attacks (blaming minimap is no excuse its extremely easy to watch) and calling tactics well before they happen.

If you guys need someone to help you understand the depth and strategy that is involved in this game please ask the community I think some of the better players can really help you.

Things like going over builds arent as crucial as you make them out to be, sure its nice for the noobs but you could just do something where they submit builds beforehand (build overview alone took up so much time and its so standard to the players that know what they are doing).

Please please look into strategy of the game and how team fight interaction works (peels, rotations, why someone should back cap right now vs why they shouldnt). If you need help please PM or message, im sure there are plenty of people who would help. Talking about why the krytan on the clocks looks like it does in the final match with everything on the line instead of strategy and what they thing could be going on and why PZ is making switches etc is just bad casting.

Anyway to leave this on a good note, grats on the successful tournament and viewers, hope we can make it better.

Are you serious? You’re offering to teach a guy that is 1 spot bellow you in the NA leaderboards. The current spectator mode lacks so many tools for the casters to keep up with everything that is happening. But seriously, I’m baffled by the hidden arrogance in this post.

ahuba.6430:

Are you serious? You’re offering to teach a guy that is 1 spot bellow you in the NA leaderboards. The current spectator mode lacks so many tools for the casters to keep up with everything that is happening. But seriously, I’m baffled by the hidden arrogance in this post.

So much face palm in this post I don’t even know where to start.

Spectator mode does not make you miss a guild rush. Spectator mode has nothing to do with you sitting and saying “I have nothing to say at all during this down time.”

Spectator mode is not an excuse. Is it somewhat rough right now? Yes. But that does not mean you should not be able to give in depth analysis as to tactics rotations and situations that are currently evolving. It is so blatantly obvious when teams are going for lord rushes that the fact that they are even missed is beyond me.

You can’t sit here and tell me that it makes sense to be talking about an in game clock and the numbers on it when you are on the grand final of a tournament, best of 5 and on the final possible map and the other team is changing its composition.

Why are they doing this, what could they benefit from doing this, what kind of rotations can they do from this etc etc. All possible things that could be talked over and they choose a CLOCK.

Then you have the nerve to bring up a leaderboard ranking, as if that even matters. This leaderboard is such a joke that anyone can practically be carried as long as they have a basic idea of what is going on and can move around. Give me a break. I bet you thought supcutie really got the chief kill too didnt you.

I agree the pre-match discussion could have been much more in-depth. Rather than telling me so and so is using a “normal build” you could perhaps tell me what the builds strengths and weaknesses are and what the other team could do to counter/exploit them, and how that fits with the team comp as a whole. Overall good job to everyone involved, nice to see people taking the first steps.

Griffon.4716:

ahuba.6430:

Are you serious? You’re offering to teach a guy that is 1 spot bellow you in the NA leaderboards. The current spectator mode lacks so many tools for the casters to keep up with everything that is happening. But seriously, I’m baffled by the hidden arrogance in this post.

So much face palm in this post I don’t even know where to start.

Spectator mode does not make you miss a guild rush. Spectator mode has nothing to do with you sitting and saying “I have nothing to say at all during this down time.”

Spectator mode is not an excuse. Is it somewhat rough right now? Yes. But that does not mean you should not be able to give in depth analysis as to tactics rotations and situations that are currently evolving. It is so blatantly obvious when teams are going for lord rushes that the fact that they are even missed is beyond me.

You can’t sit here and tell me that it makes sense to be talking about an in game clock and the numbers on it when you are on the grand final of a tournament, best of 5 and on the final possible map and the other team is changing its composition.

Why are they doing this, what could they benefit from doing this, what kind of rotations can they do from this etc etc. All possible things that could be talked over and they choose a CLOCK.

Then you have the nerve to bring up a leaderboard ranking, as if that even matters. This leaderboard is such a joke that anyone can practically be carried as long as they have a basic idea of what is going on and can move around. Give me a break. I bet you thought supcutie really got the chief kill too didnt you.

They didnt notice MiM was on the other lord aswell, so what? kitten happens, it’s really the only majror thing they missed, and they spent like, what, 10 seconds talking about the clock? wow big deal, they spent 6 hours casting with no real profit for them and they cant even joke about a freaking clock to relax?
And even if it was the worst game casting in the history of video-games, its even worse when some guy comes all presumptuous “yeah guys that casting was crap you dont know depth pm me ill teach you depth and criticize your casting even though i dont have the balls to step up like you did and put my face in front of the community.” Specially when one of the casters has done more for the pvp community than you and all your e-friends and family together.

Gotta agree with ahuba – cut the casters some slack – they are volunteering their time to promote/improve/progress the e-sports aspect of this game. Regardless if it wasn’t to people’s taste and regardless of their in depth knowledge of the meta they are doing the whole pvp community a HUGE service and for that, everyone should really be grateful. It will only get better over time, and as far as I know this is a relatively new experience for them.

So cheers for organising the event and casting it, giving us mere mortal pvp players a chance to glimpse life at the high end of pvp, and grats to the winners sleepy! Looking forward to more in the future – and to the shoutcasters – your doing a good job, thanks for taking the time to make it happen – maybe this will be the birth of proper e-sports, who knows. Good luck with future events!

You give the casters grief for thier efforts and they will cease to cast. At least be constructive instead of just critical.

Maybe the casters should have access to the coach and the team’s microphones chatter to pick up on these flashes of brilliant strategy. I would think the players know their strategy better than the shout casters know at this time.
In addition it takes time for the casters to improve. GW two isn’t exactly a game with a huge player base and I think some of these casters are only recently jumping in because of the improved fanfare as of late.

Bottom line: The shout casting scene is young as are 90% of the teams being formed right now. It will get better over the next few months. Cut these guys some slack. Aside from a few technical difficulties I think Blu and Grouch did an excellent job casting mmorpg’s Inventational.

Shout casting is a tough job. You have to know all the games mechanics, every team’s members roles and play styles and every class from top to bottom. And on top of all that be appealing to the viewers.

So please cut these guys some slack, help them improve by giving them some construtive feed back on what they can do better.

IMO, it was great casting, but poor pacing and organization. But I’m sure Blouch are aware of this and will think of a different format for next time.

This game is really fast paced and so many things going on at the same time. Also it is really hard to discover the important things with so much animations all over the place, with so many clones and pets on a small area. Even when you have the knowledge, you’ll miss some important stuff. Well during breaks they could bring some more interesting stuff. Nevertheless they did a nice job.

We need a replay functionality. Because there are so many nice subtle plays that don’t get spotted. It’s nearly impossible to catch everything on the fly. Blu’s new show ‘weekly rewind’ is a good start, but actual ingame replay possibilites are needed.

I think the OP is forgetting that this all this is new…. Esports and show casting GW2. its very different playing the game to actually keeping an eye over everything that’s happening, as they mature as gw2 showcasters. they will be able to easily identify all those plays they once missed and be able to better predict where and who to watch.

ahuba.6430:

Griffon.4716:

There are so many in depth things these shout casters could be talking about in between games, during the “dead air” periods that they just don’t know about.

So many times they are talking about how they have nothing to say when there is so much strategy team comp rotation etc they could be talking about. They miss crucial aspects of streaming such as lord attacks (blaming minimap is no excuse its extremely easy to watch) and calling tactics well before they happen.

If you guys need someone to help you understand the depth and strategy that is involved in this game please ask the community I think some of the better players can really help you.

Things like going over builds arent as crucial as you make them out to be, sure its nice for the noobs but you could just do something where they submit builds beforehand (build overview alone took up so much time and its so standard to the players that know what they are doing).

Please please look into strategy of the game and how team fight interaction works (peels, rotations, why someone should back cap right now vs why they shouldnt). If you need help please PM or message, im sure there are plenty of people who would help. Talking about why the krytan on the clocks looks like it does in the final match with everything on the line instead of strategy and what they thing could be going on and why PZ is making switches etc is just bad casting.

Anyway to leave this on a good note, grats on the successful tournament and viewers, hope we can make it better.

Are you serious? You’re offering to teach a guy that is 1 spot bellow you in the NA leaderboards. The current spectator mode lacks so many tools for the casters to keep up with everything that is happening. But seriously, I’m baffled by the hidden arrogance in this post.

Being high on the Ladder doesn’t mean you know anything about in-depth-strategy and i know that from experience!

I was a Monk in a Top-20 Team in GW1 and I basically just did what the strategy-caller told me to, simply because when you play backline, it’s hard to see the overall picture. I wouldn’t have been able to call strategy on that level.

In GW2, it’s the same: If you don’t call strategies, work on the Build etc. you can easily be very high on the Ladder just by playing your Char well, but without having in-depth knowledge about strategy.

It’s an active Process you have to work on to understand how the game works and how a team can win a scenario or maybe loose a battle, but still win the Match. You cannot just play or just watch, you have to theorycraft, try stuff out, talk with other Players, practice certain scenarios and experiment a lot.

I don’t think it’s a huge Problem with the casting atm, but I’d recommend that the Casters look into stuff like that and maybe start considering bringing in guest-casters that are themselves very high-end players with high strategical knowledge. Basically the callers on Top-Teams…

They commentated fireworks for 6 hours straight, haha.

Give them some rest: depth will come with experience and once the pace of the game + visual effects get toned down.

I think Grouch is a great caster and is very knowledgeable about the game. There is a lot going on at one time during a match and it is easy to miss some of the little plays that are made.

As for missing the boss rushes, I’m not sure about the first one but the second one (PZ vs Academy) was very easy to miss. PZ rushed the boss with only two players very early in the game because they were pretty confident in their ability to recapture the points they lost while killing the boss.

GW2 pvp is new.

Rhetoric, broadcasting, elocution, and diction are not.

That said, our shoutcasters are not professionals (yet? asked with optimisms).

Blu, Bas, Grouch, tehMaker, et al. are doing a fantastic job for being volunteers who are players and fans themselves.

Give them a break, because they are only going to get better

Don’t forget that much of the reason the casters “miss” any of the action is due to the same problems that plague spectator mode, particularly a complete lack of being able to distinctly identify which teams’s spells/fields are in play short of watching the players skillbar and not the action.

I personally think that is the biggest hold up to lively shoutcasting.

Stop harping on the casters, they are this community’s most positive aspect, hands down.

Replay functionality is definitely needed – I don’t know that ANet has made any statement about whether it is feasible or not however.

Replay + pause function + Lords/bosses hp bar and announcement to spectators. This would help them and the tournies a bit.

the problem with replay isn’kittens technical feasibility, it is with its place within the mechanical framework of a tournament match.

There is no officiating, no set up between rounds, no organizing everyone on the field or the rink, waiting for the whistle to blow, no downtime at all.

Because of this, not only would replays interrupt the spectator’s view of the action, reviewing them in-line during a match also stutters the shoutcaster’s view of already frenetic and hard to describe action.

a potential work around would be to allow a 30 second “replay buffer” on the observer side of the equation once they get observer mode working. then, viewers can access the last 30 seconds of what ever they are seeing, at any time, while the broadcast carries on without them.

thus may be something for twitch’s engineers, and not Anet’s, however.

I really like the grouch fella, I was a bit annoyed by the other guy casting though. It’s not a big deal though, as other casters will pop up.

Big credit to the guys for doing the casting and organizing of the event, but frankly I’d like to see more faces on the shoutcasting scene. Yes, blu is new to it and deserves slack, but I’d like to see more technical calls and overall polish on the events. Last event was fun, but difficult to listen to at times.

While I appreciate the effort of the current casters, I agree with Griffon. Beyond the awful use of dead air, the casters consistently missed key moments in the middle of matches. Zombify’s Epidemics, clutch burst moments from the thief and mesmer, big peels, sudden switches, Java’s bad positioning consistently getting him killed, lord attacks, and attacks on side nodes were just some of the aspects consistently missed by the casters. The camera in general seemed to be on the wrong spot. (Bunkers should almost never be followed. The focus should be on melee DPS to capture clutch focus plays or ranged DPS to get the wide view of a battle.)

In general, there wasn’t casting for actual fights. Most of the casting was someone declaring a victory with little explanation of the specifics.

By the way, I was watching on a minimized screen and could still see the lord and side attacks on the minimap. There’s no excuse for missing them.

nakoda.4213:

GW2 pvp is new.

Rhetoric, broadcasting, elocution, and diction are not.

That said, our shoutcasters are not professionals (yet? asked with optimisms).

Blu, Bas, Grouch, tehMaker, et al. are doing a fantastic job for being volunteers who are players and fans themselves.

Give them a break, because they are only going to get better

Don’t forget that much of the reason the casters “miss” any of the action is due to the same problems that plague spectator mode, particularly a complete lack of being able to distinctly identify which teams’s spells/fields are in play short of watching the players skillbar and not the action.

I personally think that is the biggest hold up to lively shoutcasting.

Stop harping on the casters, they are this community’s most positive aspect, hands down.

While I greatly appreciate being mentioned as a shoutcaster, there is no actual evidence that I have ever shoutcasted a game :P. I appreciate having my name in there with the others, but I don’t shoutcast nor would I be good at play by play. I might do some color commentating if I was allowed to wax poetically about a Zombify epidemic or was able to cry out Caed is about to move in for a kill.

I do agree with the consensus that in general the shoutcasting was not their best performance, but I believe that neither Blu nor Grouch feel they are the best at what they do as of yet. I have no doubt that both will take this as a learning experience and focus on training and working on their skills.

I have to admit that I once tried to shoutcast, but have destroyed all evidence of that happening. It’s not an easy job, and I will be doing an SOAC Presents with several shoutcasters to talk about how shoutcasting works. I have also asked to sit in on a few of TDTV’s training sessions to see the amount of work they put into the craft.

I will suggest that in further cooperative tournaments that they pick clearly defined roles. Grouch is a play by play man, and Blu should do color. Grouch’s indepth knowledge and ability to call out exactly what was happening was often interrupted by BLu trying to do the same thing. CLearly defined roles will help in the future.

Blu has a better excitement level at key moments, while Grouch is much better at dictating the action in a fight. I think in future events if they stick to this they will work much better together. Besides, Blu if you want to be the funny and cool guy you can’t do play by play :P.

My favorite shoutcasting moment in the tournament was when Blu got really excited about Funday Monday, and Grouch just deadpanned the entire replies. Blu “IT’s FUNDAY MONDAY!” Grouch deadpans “Really Funday monday? That’s what you are calling it?” BLU “IT’s AWESOME WE PLAY THESE GAMES THAT I INVENTED.”
Grouch never moving his voice one way or the other – Really you invented them? I must give you credit for my childhood then. Hide and seek that must have been great."

I almost fell out of my seat at that moment.

Anthrage mentioned the adminstrative work the casters had to do to pull this together, but I’m not sure everyone understands just how much they actually had to do and how LONG this cast was.

At one point about 5 hours into it, Blu mentioned that he was hungry and I thought, jeez – he must be starved! He’s been at this since early this morning, coordinating the teams and their schedules, working with the software programs and synching everything up, all this stuff without even a break. I mean I watched a good bit of it but I was free to get up and get a drink or a snack or take a kitten or w/e. They were just exhausted, I’m sure.

I think they overextended themselves a bit with this first Invitational just with the sheer length of the cast, but I applaud their effort and think we can all do much more to support their efforts. Also, these guys are pretty humble and open to constructive critique – help, don’t bash

I’m both sad and happy to see this thread. And though my opinion may mean little in the community right now as someone who trains casters for e-sports as a job I’d like to interject here. It’s important to note that this scene is very new, there aren’t many casters and not many of them are on par with many of the top casters from other genres. IE: Mobas and fire games. This is something that is actively being worked on, but it’s going to take time. There are still great casters in this game right now, Grouch and FilibusterFox (one of the individuals who works for me) being some of the best I can name off the top of my head.

It’s important to note that shoutcasting as a whole breaks down to two things: Color casting and play by play. While color discusses the mechanics and depth of the game, play by play narrates the action. Very few casters from any genre can master both, and solocasting just shouldn’t happen. It’s also important to note that GW2 is primarily play by play as opposed to MOBA games which are more dependent on color casting. Because it’s so difficult to master both you often run into a lot of problems, it also makes it difficult to work with others and makes what a lot of individuals refer to as ‘selfish casters’, who are so used to working solo they tend to take things over.

I want to see this scene grow, both myself and a few others are currently in the process of training a number of individuals with the skill to help add to the growing scene. There are good shoutcasters here, and I hope in the future to see become even greater than they already are.

Just my opinion. Many <3s.

Edit: As an added and slightly random note, it is very difficult to everything right now in spec mode. There is a lot lacking and for new casters/tourneys in the scene I would suggest having a dedicated streamer to do the camera work to better allow the casters to fulfill their roles without having to worry about making an impact on the viewers missing any action. Less stress in this manner will lead to better casting until (hopefully) a directed camera is released. Casters as a whole will get more used to running long shifts as more tournaments are around, and more casters mean running two shifts instead of one which will enable them to take breaks. It’s not possible right now, but should be soon. When a lot of people started learning to cast for smaller companies, myself included, it wasn’t unusual to pull 9+ hour days running a stream, doing admin work and solocasting. You love it, but it’s draining, you hope it gets you somewhere but know it might not. This scene needs time, it needs growth, and with the community support and more casters coming into the scene it will get better.

Lunet.8076:

It’s important to note that shoutcasting as a whole breaks down to two things: Color casting and play by play. While color discusses the mechanics and depth of the game, play by play narrates the action. Very few casters from any genre can master both, and solocasting just shouldn’t happen.

Perfectly explained!
Most E-Sport games have a pure shoutcaster who talks about the “action” (play by play) and a top-player from the scene who takes the part of the “color casting”. I saw many shoutcasts from different games and this combination is in my opinion the best one.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Lunet.8076:

It’s important to note that shoutcasting as a whole breaks down to two things: Color casting and play by play. While color discusses the mechanics and depth of the game, play by play narrates the action. Very few casters from any genre can master both, and solocasting just shouldn’t happen.

Perfectly explained!
Most E-Sport games have a pure shoutcaster who talks about the “action” (play by play) and a top-player from the scene who takes the part of the “color casting”. I saw many shoutcasts from different games and this combination is in my opinion the best one.

This is standard in the industry and should be done by all games. The best caster combos have the ability to do both and have great synergy in doing so.

It’s what I strive for, over a years experience in the shoutcasting side of things and even I don’t have it mastered. Very few of the people I’ve ever trained get to the level where they can do both, but when they do they’re amazing. People like FilibusterFox, Hawkeye (who does League work primarily), EG AD or Feed, all people who’ve worked with us and mastered this but no others I can think of who have really got it down. And the success they’ve had is directly contributed to the hard work they put into practicing a lot of this. It’s what I push my casters to do and I can’t wait to see the Guild Wars 2 scene have that.

Give them some time. Shoutcasts for Guild Wars 2 is still rather new.

I’ve recently realised sth that is IMHO very important:

- If there are 2 Casters, both very often follow the same Actions, often I see one Caster that has control over the Camera, going exactly where the other Caster is commentating Stuff.

I think it would be very important to have 1 Caster, that is also controlling the Camera for the Viewers, that is focusing on Play-by-Play (which is basically all the casters do atm.). The other caster should not focus on Teamfights or Scenarios that are covered by the other caster, but hop around on the Map and take a look at the big Picture, so he can give insight into overall strategies when there’s downtime in Teamfights or when really important things happen (like Players that are about to Join the currently covered Teamfight or plays regarding the secondary Objective). This Analytical Caster should mainly focus on which Players are where and why, what their impact could be where they are or where they could have been etc.

@Lunet: Where and when can I see more by FilibusterFox? Enjoyed his casting earlier.

I think the casters did a great job, but I do believe they need more experience with analysis.

I led the Academy of the Mists team for this past MMORPG Invitation. We were humbly invited to sign up by Bas and immediately knew we were out of our leagues to begin with, but in order to fill up the brackets in the short time, we were going to give it our best shot.

We are a new team, and have much less experience than any of the other teams. Given that, I was really looking forward to re-watching our matches to get more feedback on what we could have done better as a team. What types of plays we missed, and what types of engagements we should go for and not go for. What types of team comps we should’ve used. Etc.

However, that was not the case. In fact, I would probably never want to watch those horrid recorded minutes ever again in my life. I believe casters should respect all teams that play, no matter what. I can understand some fun in picking out some very bad plays, but almost the entire stream as a huge ‘You Guys Suck’ commentary, which is very discouraging to say the least to take that next step into becoming a better team.

I believe any team willing to compete should be given an equal, objective analysis. I assure you we weren’t trying to ‘troll’ the viewers or the other team in any of the plays we were doing. We wanted to try different tactics and we weren’t used to fighting such organized teams. It was also mostly my fault for not being able to manage the team that well so that made me even more eager to be able to learn something from the cast to replay back to my teammates for future tournaments. In addition, we were super nervous. It was our first tournament with 3k~ viewers.

Thanks for taking your time to cast Blu and Grouch. But I really hope you consider being more professional when less experienced teams start appearing in bigger tournaments.

I agree that as of now there’s a huge gap between the established “pro teams” and the newer competitive teams/guilds, and with the current structure in place teams from these two categories aren’t really encouraged to face each other. However, I’d be very interested to see some of these matches and therefore it’d be nice if you wouldn’t feel so discouraged about the cast. I do hope you will keep your heads up and I’ll definitely be supporting you guys next tournament!

It got really awkward at times and the commentary did lack depth many times, however, it is hard, they are still learning and the observer tools are still really rough. In view of that I think they did fine for the most part. The maps also really need more viewing angles.

Honestly one of the biggest problems with watching tournaments atm for me are all the kitten tiny asuras. The same thing that makes them stupid for pvp, that their animations are hard to see, makes them stupid for viewing. When the angle is looking from above in a team fight it’s just a lot harder to see what’s happening with all the tiny people with tiny animations that often just get lost in all the AOE spell effects. If the models were larger and with longer arms/larger weapons (basically, not asuras) the animations would be a lot easier to see on the stream and the fights would look better. I don’t know what possessed Anet to add in a tiny race to a game they wanted to have serious pvp, or why they haven’t fixed it yet being that it’s not that hard.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

I think the casters did a great job, but I do believe they need more experience with analysis.

I led the Academy of the Mists team for this past MMORPG Invitation. We were humbly invited to sign up by Bas and immediately knew we were out of our leagues to begin with, but in order to fill up the brackets in the short time, we were going to give it our best shot.

We are a new team, and have much less experience than any of the other teams. Given that, I was really looking forward to re-watching our matches to get more feedback on what we could have done better as a team. What types of plays we missed, and what types of engagements we should go for and not go for. What types of team comps we should’ve used. Etc.

However, that was not the case. In fact, I would probably never want to watch those horrid recorded minutes ever again in my life. I believe casters should respect all teams that play, no matter what. I can understand some fun in picking out some very bad plays, but almost the entire stream as a huge ‘You Guys Suck’ commentary, which is very discouraging to say the least to take that next step into becoming a better team.

I believe any team willing to compete should be given an equal, objective analysis. I assure you we weren’t trying to ‘troll’ the viewers or the other team in any of the plays we were doing. We wanted to try different tactics and we weren’t used to fighting such organized teams. It was also mostly my fault for not being able to manage the team that well. In addition, we were super nervous. It was our first tournament with 3k~ viewers.

Thanks for taking your time to cast Blu and Grouch. But I really hope you consider being more professional when less experienced teams start appearing in bigger tournaments.

Much respect for this post. The precedence the current casters set is going to define the future of casting for GW2. It only makes your point more valid. Casters take note.

JoopFOX.9510:

I agree that as of now there’s a huge gap between the established “pro teams” and the newer competitive teams/guilds, and with the current structure in place teams from these two categories aren’t really encouraged to face each other. However, I’d be very interested to see some of these matches and therefore it’d be nice if you wouldn’t feel so discouraged about the cast. I do hope you will keep your heads up and I’ll definitely be supporting you guys next tournament!

Haha, no worries, we are definitely going to become a lot more competitive and the Academy is more of a repo of various new players so the team may change dramatically per tournament we are allowed to sign up for. I just wish I learned something new other than the fact that the other team has better teamwork! lol.

Valkyriez.6578:

Ultimately mate, if you think it could/should be done better, throw your own hat in the ring.

That’s not exactly easy. I’ve been doing some hot join shoutcasting the last 2-3 weekends and the only chance I have to getting a shot is if tournament organizers invite me or I can get some teams willing to scrim with me shoutcasting to practice real matches. It doesn’t matter if you are better, but whether or not you’re now a “big name” or at least that’s how I feel.

Akkuma.2501:

Valkyriez.6578:

Ultimately mate, if you think it could/should be done better, throw your own hat in the ring.

That’s not exactly easy. I’ve been doing some hot join shoutcasting the last 2-3 weekends and the only chance I have to getting a shot is if tournament organizers invite me or I can get some teams willing to scrim with me shoutcasting to practice real matches. It doesn’t matter if you are better, but whether or not you’re now a “big name” or at least that’s how I feel.

You are correct, and I would recommend a few steps to take if you want to get more involved. Unfortunately, as an organizer we have to look at numbers and who will bring in viewers and that leaves newer players kind of out of the loop.

My recommendation is that either you link up with a casting organization such as: http://www.reddit.com/r/gw2esports/comments/1f5i71/towerdivetv_is_hiring_new_casters_for_guild_wars_2/ or you get out and work as an independent and keep posting your information or email the guys running the events with a tape.

I know personally, I like giving people a shot, for the fun tournaments we put on, but I don’t have any idea who the shoutcasters are, and rarely actually do much more than talk with Android about a possible shoutcaster. However, when we do the fun tournaments we will basically only look at the people that have contacted us about the opportunity.

Organizers don’t seek out new shoutcasters, we simply run with the guys we know. It’s one thing out of the way. Such as I will contact blu or towerdive for the tournaments because i know them, and they know me. They tell me if they want to do a tournament, and I look at the list and say okay or that we already have it covered.

If I don’t have anyone who emailed us as an independent, than I just hand it off to one of them after talking to our team about it. So if you aren’t actively knocking on doors or aligned with one of the bigger names it will be ridiculously tough to get involved, I don’t watch tapes, and I know for a fact not a single organizer goes out looking for shoutcasters as we don’t have too.

Send your links to them, email them, follow up with them, and keep checking with them for any work. While you are doing that, keep doing scrims, jumping onto the shows like Server Down with Sireph to get your name out a bit more, and above all practice what you do in down time! For an Organizer down time aka dead air is the thing I don’t want to see. I hate dead air, or inane conversations, or inside jokes. Figure out what you are going to do in dead time, and do a sample piece of a full 2 set match along with a short clip.

Not sure if caster issues, or the amount of crap that goes on in a match.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

I think the casters did a great job, but I do believe they need more experience with analysis.

I led the Academy of the Mists team for this past MMORPG Invitation. We were humbly invited to sign up by Bas and immediately knew we were out of our leagues to begin with, but in order to fill up the brackets in the short time, we were going to give it our best shot.

We are a new team, and have much less experience than any of the other teams. Given that, I was really looking forward to re-watching our matches to get more feedback on what we could have done better as a team. What types of plays we missed, and what types of engagements we should go for and not go for. What types of team comps we should’ve used. Etc.

However, that was not the case. In fact, I would probably never want to watch those horrid recorded minutes ever again in my life. I believe casters should respect all teams that play, no matter what. I can understand some fun in picking out some very bad plays, but almost the entire stream as a huge ‘You Guys Suck’ commentary, which is very discouraging to say the least to take that next step into becoming a better team.

I believe any team willing to compete should be given an equal, objective analysis. I assure you we weren’t trying to ‘troll’ the viewers or the other team in any of the plays we were doing. We wanted to try different tactics and we weren’t used to fighting such organized teams. It was also mostly my fault for not being able to manage the team that well. In addition, we were super nervous. It was our first tournament with 3k~ viewers.

Thanks for taking your time to cast Blu and Grouch. But I really hope you consider being more professional when less experienced teams start appearing in bigger tournaments.

Fully agree, I got really uncomfortable watching that match. In any sport you got your top teams and some teams that are new and not nearly as good. That’s ok, it would be very hard to get at 8 or even 16 team tournament where everyone was almost at equal level. What matters is that every team that goes in gives their best. The caster’s attitudes pretty much discouraged new teams from stepping up and giving it a try. It was embarrassing for a game just hoping to break into esports and that still has very few teams.

agreed. The attitude in chat during the match was even worse, it was frustrating.