[Unstable]

The ins and outs of Commentating: By Unstable

Work in progress since its 2AM!

This Article should give you a comprehensive idea on what casting is, how its done, how to get into it EVERYTHING!

NOTE : If you disagree with me on this thats fine you have your right to an opinion, but i have spent the last 6 months doing more work than anyone in SEA in regards to commentating sc2 and this is what i have learned to be true, call me up myself all you want i dont care.

Before going into specifics of what make casters good i want to touch on a few points

Lesson 1: It is ALOT harder to be a good caster than you think
It really is a hard thing to do, especially by yourself without the backup of a studio EG tastosis with dedicated observer/producer in their ear incase they miss something. Not only do you need to understand the matchups, and talk during dull moments you also need to keep the camera focussed on important areas in the middle of the screen, while ALSO constantly scanning the map for drops etc, while cycling the production tabs and workers on top of all of this you are having a conversation with someone about whats going on as well. too many people writeoff casters from the start because they might miss something every now and then or they get a detail wrong. lighten up, i would love to see YOU do it better.

Lesson 2: YOU CAN NOT PLEASE EVERYONE DONT EVEN TRY
You just cant, do you best to improve and learn from mistakes and dont take it too harshly when you get bad feedback.

HOWEVER
DO NOT. IGNORE LEGITIMATE COMPLAINTS. things like accent, pronunciation, strategy errors etc. look at them understand you need to improve and do your best to do it.
A perfect example of this is a caster who shall remain nameless. refused to take any feedback from a certain source, and just called them trolls and ignorant fools and dismissed their issues out of hand. DO NOT DO THIS. yes majority of it might be trolling, but man up and read through it anyway. because there are usually diamonds scattered throughout the crap there. that are very useful

Lesson 3: always try to improve your STRONG points not your weak ones. find a co caster who blends well and you can work off each other
Better to cut your losses on your weak areas and focus on your strengths.

Lesson 4: expect harsh criticism and mass berating regardless of how good you are
Believe it or not, every caster has haters, day9 has his haters tastosis have theirs, they are just the silent subset due to the rabid fanfare that involves. So understand this and just move on.

Lesson 5: Get yourself a good streaming rig and internet connection
As crappy as it is, 720p is the standard for any real stream these days, you will find yourself not able to keep anything but the fans you already have without it.


Now this next part is more a word to the community about casting.

STOP BEING SO ******* PICKY, NOBODY IS PERFECT
I say this because there is only so long someone can put up with abuse. 99.9% of casters do this for fun, for a hobby, why would they continue to do it if they constantly get berated about it?

Understand that what you want out of a stream is not the same as the person sitting next to you or even in your group of mates. I can tell you from experience FXOpen understands this and does its best to accommodate all, EG: different languages types of casting etc etc.

and the question you need to ask yourself is this " what happens if/when the casters who are here now give up" The casters we have atm around the place are the hardcore fans of star craft they are paving the way for SC2 commentary, they are the most devoted to their craft. once they are gone the quality goes downhill FAST. and what will this do? it will bring down viewer counts, which brings down sponsorship money which KILLS esports.

So finally onto what it takes to be a caster!

You should get into casting if you are like this:
- Love starcraft
- Have a passion for your craft
- are dedicated to improving under the most harsh circumstances
- have natural talent to begin with
- be prepared to spend thousands of $$ on a streaming setup

You should avoid casting if you are like this:
- cant afford internet or a pc capable of 720p streaming (it sucks but its true, 90% of ivewers will tune out for less than that quality stream)
- just want to get your name out there
- are in it for the fame
- arent willing to spend 10+ hours per week practicing while not streaming/

So not for the nit picky parts

First and foremost. 50% about being a caster is NATURAL TALENT. you need to be able to communicate your sentences and thoughts efficiently and clearly. the following is not beneficial and without putting it harshly, do not waste your time if you have these.
- Strong accents outside of english (unless you cast in a different language)
- Pronunciation that is not spot on
- Cannot clearly form sentences

These 3 things are instant downpoints that you cannot come back from.

The second most important thing is your co-caster and your defined roles. casting works best with 1 analytical caster and 1 play by play.

Analytical casters responsibilities:
- Have a high game knowledge and practices regularly
- Can recognize niche builds to explain them in detail, their pro's cons etc
- Should know the style of the players who are playing at that time.

Play by play casters responsibilities:
- Have a well tuned ability to express things very fast
- be able to make the viewer feel excited
- the ability to quickly disect whats happening on the screen and describe it

Both casters must be able to:
- Be able to play off each other in conversation
- Know the subtleties of each others thought patters so there is no overlap
- be able to have idle conversation during downtime.



Now something that every caster, and viewer has to keep in mind is there are 3 main (but not limited to) types of viewers. they are

The Pro:
The pro is a grandmasters or high masters player who most likely understands the game as well as the analytical caster if not more so. this unfortunately brings in situations where they disagree with the casters causing friction, they also don't like the fact that they are not learning anything or just hearing things they already know on the stream. These players will most likely mute you, and put music on. this is why OBSERVING SKILL IS PARAMOUNT. to keep this type of viewer, nothing you do play by play or analytical wise will likely make them like you.

The Learner
This kind of viewer, LOVES starcraft wants to be better, watches pro matches to get an idea on how they think, the analytical caster plays into their wanted attention, explaining builds will make this player happy, however there are alot of this demographic that you cannot please. EG TERRAN OVERPOWERED STFU etc.. just ignore these and do your best. they only want to watch the most high level matches.


The Kiddy/ The casual (cant think of a better name, they like big explosions and loud noises)
This Viewer is by far the easiest to satisfy, this is where the play by play caster comes in. it is his job to keep the attention of these players and make them feel apart of the cast. Doesnt really matter what type of game this is. it will keep them entertained regardless! macro games make these types of viewers tune out, but keeps the learners and pros in the game.

All in all, the biggest misconception alot of people think about casting is this.

It is not the casters responsibility to GET viewers.
- the tournament
- the players
- TL featured

will get you the viewers. it is KEEPING them that is what you need to work for. dont worry about how many you have at once on the stream. worry about how long they are tuned in for. a good target (i think anyway) for a tournament is 1 hour. thats 3 games. most people will tune out after that long and take a break etc. any less than that and you arent keeping thier attention. things like the casting quality, downtime between games etc all work against this so your production comes into play aswell.

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winning

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	excellent stuff
	deL:	Good advice from a great caster! 2nd best FXO staff member!
	JacziE:
	Zeion:	nice arti! this is sure to help new casters out there ^^
	Satu:	Awesome article.