[HDPhoenix]

I am live at SCAPE's Singapore GameFest and it is awesome here. However, I am really irritated by the way SF4 casters are talking down their players. When they lose, they emphasize they go to the "loooosers" bracket, or "yay, you got a bye, smile like a small kid (I quote, word for word)". Perhaps I'm just being an ass as a fellow shoutcaster but I really feel for this. You, the caster, are suppose to build up and icon-nize your players. Instead these casters are tearing their players down.

I am not going to even considering their casting skills. That's not the idea here. The question is, should casters focus more on "trash talking" or "hero building". I'm biased of course but I was wondering what others think

Reply 1 if you agree its more entertaining to have more trash-talking to "Spice the show"

Reply 2 if you agree it is better to focus on the better plays and decision making to "entertain with content, not fluff"

[nirvAnA]

i dont think any of the profesionall sc2 casters have ever talked down players in tournaments. day9 tastetosis etc have never done it. its just amatuerish to resort to tearing down players to build up your entertainment value.

yea iconizing players is the way to go, make pple rmb they are watching truly great players not some randoms

[Apth]

By trash talking a player, you've just alienated all their fans.
Casting fail IMO.

[Xeen]

Originally Posted by nirvAnA

i dont think any of the profesionall sc2 casters have ever talked down players in tournaments. day9 tastetosis etc have never done it. its just amatuerish to resort to tearing down players to build up your entertainment value.

yea iconizing players is the way to go, make pple rmb they are watching truly great players not some randoms

Tastosis have insulted players before, calling them outright 'brainless'. TL fans were not happy.

I agree, casters should build up enthusiasm and excitement, building up players.

[Mezza]

that's sad. shoutcasters and event hosts/mcs as public figures, should be promoting esport and should be leading the way to promote sportsmanship. trash talking is not just bad mannered, its destructive and discourages people from competing.

[Physium]

if i'm not wrg the casters and players actually do know each other. they are all from the same community. it actually has always been like this in most of the past competitions in bugis etc.

players are fine with it and they felt it also spices things up instead of the usual mundane commentary.

[Mezza]

how can putting anyone down publicly at a public event be "fine"? even if its "for fun". and physium are you speaking on behalf of all the players because you're a player or are you/have you been doing community shoutcasts and are one of them?

true, the casters may know the players, but the audience doesn't, its like how you don't expect the majority to laugh with you when you tell inside jokes.

berating a player/team publicly doesn't do anything except turn the neutral supporters away, and it will definitely give the wrong impression to newbies trying to break onto the scene. they may see the scene as a hostile environment and those on the verge of trying to compete or even thinking about it may be discouraged.

i don't see how the community stands to gain anything at all from. if this is the standard of shoutcasting in singapore then perhaps, we're doing something wrong. i mean if its an event, and there are neutrals, newbies and seasoned pros watching, you don't have to just cater to the people within the circle.

as for tastosis, i'm glad they cleaned their act up. may have been a bit of juvenile humour and everyone may stray abit, but at the end of the day, trash talk to drum up support is fine, between the teams, but casters and commentators should be as neutral as possible and work the crowd like what the previous posts have been stating, by drumming up support, rather than insulting players. but hey, that's just my opinion, both as a neutral fan, and as a shoutcaster

[deL]

was Kelly being BM again?

[Exultant]

tastosis shoutcasting is fine, they tell it how it is. If you do something incredibly stupid, they'll rip on you. If you do something genius, they'll dick ride you. EG. tasteless repeatedly saying i expected more from moon and emphasising how bad he played and artosis' love for nesteas decision making.

[rifT_Theory]

I think berating players is a bad idea to begin with. Any sense of professionalism just goes down the drain =/

[Fierypower]

Originally Posted by deL

was Kelly being BM again?

Weeellll....she did say something during the grand finals of the sc2 tourney.

[Usul]

I also think trashtalking a player is a very bad idea. However, a (very) harsh critic on a specific aspect of a player play (bad drop, awful positioning during a big battle...) is fine imo, but it's sometimes seen as trashtalking.

Originally Posted by Fierypower

Weeellll....she did say something during the grand finals of the sc2 tourney.

What did she say? I arrived a bit late at the event and missed the sc2 finals T.T

[Mezza]

commenting on the fact that a poor decision was made is not trashtalking. neither is stating the fact that a strategy was poorly executed, or if a critical step was missed.

however calling some a "LOSER! and you're going to the LOSERS BRACKET" and dissing someone for getting a bye is just poor form, however you look at it. just putting stuff back in perspective here.

and now you've piqued my interest, I was attending a wedding luncheon that dragged, so what exactly did kelly utter?

[HDPhoenix]

Kelly did a great job in casting. In the GF, it was not much of a slip (cause she remarked that Rev was making a counter attack, but I believe Parkson already scouted it/expected it).

As a shoutcaster, I personally find it EXTREMELY difficult to cast live games when the players are not in sound booths (i.e. they hear everything we say). Its like commentating on soccer but not allowed to say who has the ball. Its just weird. I think Philibert and Kelly did a great job at EPIC, given their limitations.

Back on topic thou, I thought it was very tasteless (no pun intended) for the SF4 casters to diss their players, as well as rag on Kelly and basically anyone who caught their interest. And they were really doing it to buy time, have something to talk about. Instead, I felt that they should have just focused on the game. That's what casters were paid to do. If there is dead time inbetween games, then talk about strategies on what players could have done better or how they might have reacted instead. For goodness sake, don't rag on the guy who just lost, who is already feeling shitty and then rub it in his face.

If you want slap-stick humor and make people laugh at your puns/jokes, then go do stand up comedy. If you're paid to cast, then cast. Don't spoil the image that people will have about casters in general please

You want contrast? Look at Tobi-wan's cast of HON and then look at SF4 casting. I'll let the crowd at EPIC who were there for both days be the judge. Tobi-wan IS a damn good caster, and the rest of us should learn from his experience

[HDPhoenix]

I believe she was the one being BM-ed

I remember it was something along the lines of this

*dead silence from SF4 casters, Kelly is waiting to cast the DOTA lower bracket finals on the MAIN STAGE that's already 10mins into it (why is the casting of SF4 going on anyways when its not on the main stage, btw?)*

Kelly: Hey guys, are you done?
SF4 caster: Hey dude, whatsup?
Kelly: Do I sound like a dude?
SF4 caster: Oh, its you Kelly.
Kelly: Yeah, I was wondering if you guys are done with SF4. I want to cast DOTA
SF4: Oh, we're not done yet. I was just talking to one of the players. Sorry lah
Kelly: Its ok, no need to sound apologetic
SF4 caster: No lah. Cause you're a woman mah. Its cause women always scold men and then we just react to it. So apologetic mah

Like... wtf? When was gender part of the question?... Yes, and it was that bad the whole time but my brain was tuning them out for most of the time

I then proceeded to literally bang my head against the shoutcaster table...

[UnFoly]

imo, even as esports continue to grow in singapore, there will be people who dont really understand it as a sport and continue to treat it as a game.Most probably in their eyes, winning means everything to them and they overlook the fact that most probably they can't play as well as those who have competed. The esports community in singapore is still small and young, you cant get away from the public and maybe the player's mentalilty that they are still "bengs playing games"and its ok to be offensive. Good thing that there are still casters who dont fall into this category

[nirvAnA]

just sounds like social akwardness rather then intentional bm imo

[Usul]

Originally Posted by HDPhoenix

SF4 caster: No lah. Cause you're a woman mah. Its cause women always scold men and then we just react to it. So apologetic mah

To me it sounds more like utter stupidity rather than social awkwardness. But I wasn't there, so I might be biased by the lack of context...

[okokitroll]

wow this is just too good!

the style of commentary is very different from that of SC2, or CS, or DOTA, or any other game... so making a comparison like that just wouldn't work. surely, you wouldn't want me repeating "Sonic Boom" for 99 seconds... and quite clearly, you, and any other of you who was at SGF, weren't listening to everything we said. please YouTube "Team Spooky" or watch some SF4 videos for references.

i work for my community, and i promote the game we play and our top players with every last breathe i have, if not, i wouldn't finish every event with a sore throat. the players, our sponsors, are always very appreciative of our work, and that's very rewarding for us.

and please, do not misquote me. Kelly and i were sitting many many tables away. when Kelly asked if we were done, i said, "wassup Ying Quan." and then she asked if i really sounded like a guy, which i quite clearly remembered saying, "oh my God, Kelly is that you? i'm so sorry, i couldn't hear." and then she talked on about wanting to take over whenever we are done, and i merely said "yes of course you can, you are a woman, i will PM you."

so maybe the term "woman" sounded a little harsh, perhaps i should have used the term "lady", because that was my intention, that the ladies get priority. and they really do, i have organized tournaments whereby the ladies get to join for free.

so to put this topic to a close. i will apologise for the things i said at the show, and to Kelly of cause, if you thought i was being rude to you, i mean you no harm and i am sorry for what i said, Kim is my friend, why wouldn't BM you when i don't even know you.

regards,

and if any of you'd care to read, you could create a Round1.sg account and come mingle with us.

http://www.round1.sg/forums/index.ph...43654#msg43654

[Rchan]

IMO , people here are over sensitive .

Before i go into my main reply , i myself is a SF4 AND SC2 player although i haven't joined any SC2 tournaments before .

Firstly , I'm sure you know SF4 is a fighting game . If you ever looked at videos on Youtube for SF4 , There are TONS of videos with trash talking commentary for SF4 in Japan or US . so not only singapore is doing it .

Maybe it might sound sensitive to the SC2 crowd because the shoutcasting method for RTS games are always all about the game itself . But for SF4 or most fighting games , shit talking is usually involved to build up hype even from the players themselves . We don't follow the "korean mannerism" where most wc3 and sc2 players abide to (?) .

Overall , do not judge our commentators . You might hate it , but we the SF4 players love it . No one is complaining here , why would you if you are not playing the game ?


Just to clear up i'm not part of the commentary team , just a player .