[bald_eagle]

Hi everyone, I am interested in getting into making videos again for youtube.

The main goal I want for this youtube channel is simply anything esports or gaming related. So that includes games like starcraft, League Of Legends, DOTA, Counter-Strike etc. So what I would possibly like to be doing is commentating, how to's, general gameplay and most of what I might like to be doing is vlogs and giving updates that are relevant to esports or some games I feel are worth mentioning and possibly more as I go on.

I used to do videos on youtube about 2 years ago but I sort of feel that they are unprofessional and it is simply me as a 15 year old who really had no ******* clue what he was talking about with crappy editing and poor production quality overall.

So I am coming to ask the SC2SEA community and possibly others such as TL.net and the battle.net forums because I will most likely base this channel MAINLY around starcraft and RTS games. I am asking you as to what you think will make the channel enjoyable and what will have people coming back to it. One thing I will point out that I already know is I do need to do something different from other channels to fill in a niche that has not been touched. Other than that, I don't really know as to what will drive this channel further to make it successful.

My goal for this channel is mainly to promote esports to help esports become even bigger for everyone, because I am one of those people who love watching twitch streams of all kinds from starcraft, league of legends, counter-strike, street fighter and occasionally COD if I am bored. I just love esports and would love to help legitimise it more for the world so it can be globally accepted as a professional sport.

I will be very keen on hearing back on some feedback from other people who could possibly give me some ideas and a good start so if I do go ahead with it, it will start off smoothly.

Eagerly awating replies

BaldEagle

[ROCCAT_Savior]

I'd subscribe!

Quick Comments

x5.Stormz:

10/10 most useful comment :P

[x5.Stormz]

Your passion for esports is undeniable Bald. So I think if you can find something that makes you stand-out from everyone else you could get a great following and be a great influence to the more general community about esports. The problem is finding that thing and I think that you may have to try and figure that out on your own. I wish you all the best and if you need any help just ask me on the skypes-i-tron-2000!

[x5.Armi]

Something that could be cool, and I personally would like to see is recaps of the online cups that we all compete in, the px and wt weeklies for example. Maybe collecting the best plays, highlighting particularly good runs and building up hype about them.

And obviously anything for the bigger tournies would be great, but they're a bit too few and far between to be a staple.

[sR.Kumo]

I've also been wanting to start a YouTube channel again, and I'm in a similar situation in that two years ago I too was uploading, but looking back, pretty much everything about it was horrible.
Sometimes, looking back puts me off starting to upload again, because I realize how horrible I was, and I can't not think that I'll possibly just be that horrible again

And also, I'd not have much to upload about, because being in Bronze I couldn't even really do casting, since I honestly don't have that sort of knowledge about SC2 >.> So I'd only really be uploading stuff like Minecraft, Tekkit, or some pretty bad SC2 gameplay >.>

Anyways, sorry for hijacking :P back on topic

As just about everyone has said, you should try to stay away from the very generic style of videos that people upload, and do something that makes you yourself.

From my point of view, even more important than the actual gameplay, you should be entertaining. I mean, a few years ago when I actively followed people on YouTube, what made me choose to watch one person over some other person, is that they were entertaining to listen to. For example, SeaNanners. I don't know why, but I always found him very interesting to listen to. Similarly, this applies with to various other youtubers as well.
I also recently started to just look for random very new and just starting youtube uploaders, and if I found them interesting - not gameplay, but simply listening to them talk, and I'd start actively following them :3 That's how I find youtubers I like now, rather than watching really popular ones anymore :P

Next, I find subscriber-base interaction to be quite nice, from a subscriber point of view (and honestly, it can be nice from the uploader point of view as well). I mean, if you're a SC2 streamer, playing arcade games or 2v2s for a laugh with random people watching your stream can be quite entertaining and nice for the viewer.
Similarly, if you're the uploader, you'd want to do something to interact with your viewers. Sure, when you only have a small number, that can be quite difficult because a lot just watch and go away, but once you hit a fair number, and you find a few viewers who generally indulge in conversation with you, you should take the extra step; this can be anything, from asking them what sort of uploads they'd like to see on the channel and what games they'd suggest trying out, to actually playing games with them and uploading that.
For games like minecraft, once get a good number of those types of viewers, you could also do something like host a server off your PC, and assign daily times when that server's up, or if you're willing to invest in it, set up a full time server and see if you can manage to actually get donations to keep it running. Or even just something as simple as playing on a server and inviting viewers to play with you.

<If I can think of anything else that might possibly help you, I'll post :3>

[Pandan]

Originally Posted by Kumo

you should try to stay away from the very generic style of videos that people upload

Originally Posted by Kumo

From my point of view, even more important than the actual gameplay, you should be entertaining.

Unfortunately, these are conflicting ideas if you're looking at getting large views - or as posted in OP; looking to further/grow eSports. You have to be a bit generic to appeal to general public. Soon as you get too technical you lose the mainstream - you have to be a bit generic entertainer to sustain the non-hardcore gamers, or reel them in.

My favourite example is Tobiwan; he is getting better and better at both appealing to those who love watching the games (what I cal the more dedicated/hardcore audience) and proving entertainment (often drama haha!) to the non-hardcore/dedicated audience. He's eccentric as ****, which is his entertainment to his viewers. If he tried to be more serious or more 'eSporty', his viewer count would tank. He's gotta be a bit of a wierdo for the entertainment/generic factor.

[sR.Kumo]

But then, wouldn't his eccentricity count for something more or less unique, and specific to him?
Maybe even do something different video-related. I mean, if I said, "that guy who does the "WTF is" video series," chances are you'd know who that was, without me specifying, because no one else really does that, and it's unique to him.

(By entertaining, I didn't mean providing visible entertainment like dancing on the camera, or overdramatic arguments with people over the internet, I was more talking about anything which can grab people's attention, from the way you talk, to the type of jokes you make and the stuff you say while casting :3)

If you're right and OP as well finds those to be conflicting ideas, my apologies ;3 I've always thought of those two side by side. I don't know how it may be for the general public, as you stated, but I find that people who are more or less unique uploaders, I find them more interesting.

Then again, it doesn't have to be something very large that is unique to you. Look at Husky. At the least, he talks very fast and in a comical way, that in itself I would peg as both unique to him (compared to other big casters; at least those I frequent), and entertaining to me. Surely the way you talk / talking in a comical manner as a unique attribute isn't too conflicting with trying to be entertaining to the mainstream?

[bald_eagle]

Originally Posted by Pandan

which is his entertainment to his viewers. If he tried to be more serious or more 'eSporty', his viewer count would tank. He's gotta be a bit of a wierdo for the entertainment/generic factor.

I do have a bit of flair to my personality, and alot of people think I actually do, some love it some hate it. But from what I notice from a viewer perspective, regardless whether your personality is bad or not in the real world. As long as it is entertaining and having 'quirks' is what keeps people I believe. I should try and flair out a bit more, because I kind of refrained from doing so on my old channel.

Also controversy is what I notice gets views going, when ever I touched on controversial topics on my old channel I ended up getting 1k-4k views, but my subscriber base is still only 50. So I feel I could try and do things like that. I might soon post some art for my channel since I am currently working on some as we speak.

[sR.Kumo]

If you've already uploaded anything, could I have your channel url? :3

Also, yeah, putting aside all the base aspects you want to keep such as entertainment and viewer-base interaction, there's stuff like aesthetically appealing channel art, and those few viewers you can pick up everywhere by making sure you have your youtube url in forum signatures around the internet, and advertise where appropriate; post your Minecraft videos on MCF, your SC2 videos on sc2sea and sc2 bnet, etc.

[bald_eagle]

Here is the intro to my new youtube channel, hope you like it guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fXPrd7qAsk