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As I'm sure, most of you know who TotalBiscuit is. For the few that don't, I'll try to explain him as quickly as possible. TB has been creating consistent gaming content on Youtube for over two years now. During the beta of WoW Cataclysm, his popularity went through the roof and became a house hold name in that area. In 2009, he was the winner of the Blizzard Shoutcast Contest, and hence began his career with Starcraft commentating.
Mr. Biscuit has been talked about quite a lot lately. Sadly, most of the talk isn't about his tireless amounts of time and energy put into the job he does, but rather his shortcomings or his defense of his own business.
Last night's comments on ItG and the Twitter.....thing?...between IdrA and TB was the straw that broke the Stalker's back.
Fact: TotalBiscuit is one of the best things to come out of the PC gaming community in years. He has companies clamoring for him to do a first impression video about a new game of theirs. His 20minute-2 hour first impression videos have made Indie video game developers from nobodies into stable, financial businesses that can finally make a living without selling their souls to EA or Ubisoft or any other major publisher. This man alone has sold hundreds of thousands of games by putting the spotlight on games that most of us would never have seen or heard of.
Fact: TB is abysmal at Starcraft 2 game analysis. He knows it himself and says so on every possible occasion. While watching the first series of VODs from his recent invitational tournament, White-Ra was going FFE, TB called it wrong and sprawled big white letters all over the video spouting about how big of a twit he is.
Fact: TB is the best broadcaster in the world of video games. This man is actually trained in the ways of broadcasting and has honed a voice, technique, temperament and professionalism that no one can remotely can touch in the world of English speaking Starcraft. (I'd say the world, but all I speak is English so...I'll try and stop before being arrested by the hyperbole police.)
You may not like his style of silly rants during the early stages of the game where nothing happens. You may not like how excited he gets while something exciting happens. You may think that excitement is forced or fake or anything else in the world.
The points you cannot argue is the man is the best trained, has an exceptionally professional setup and is so ridiculously dedicated to E-Sports and gaming in general. If you see less than an hour and a half of content come out from this man six out of seven days a week, then he's decided to take it easy.
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Moving on to the "IdrA Situation" or, I guess more accurately the "Whoever Is Shitting on TB Now Situation"
IdrA is my favorite player hands down. Watching him stream and seeing his fluid mouse movement, his flawless flying screen from zone to zone, watching his money stay tiny while fighting a maxed army is something magical to behold. I wish he wanted to do it more often because there are few people I can watch stream and just go...."Whoaaa."
You'll notice around TL that the pros don't really post much. You can see they use to. All the names we know from foreign SC2 have post counts from 7000-35000. You just don't see them anymore. I think it's due to TL growing so fast, it's nearly (if not completely) impossible to have a rational discussion here anymore. In society today, people are so quick to grab hold of something they love and shout as loud as they can to the world how much everything else sucks. Stuff like this has no place. So, the Pros have all but abandoned talking in the forums except to announce things and such.
TB has risen to a height where most would still shy away from TL/Reddit/"Insert SC Community Here". Many times he does not, however. The man is that passionate about what he does and the things he loves. He never spouts off about how terrible a player is...how awful that a map is...how wildly terrible another caster is, unless he's provoked.
He built a business for himself, doing a job that he loves, to have entitled idiots take dumps all over him for putting in work days that Alaskan Fishermen would probably be proud of. If Incontrol (beef long since quashed, I know), or IdrA or anyone else takes a stab at the way he supports himself, he'll stand up to them and usually get a lot of flack for it. People will call him a cry baby about it. I call it passion when you can make thoughtful, logical arguments back to people that criticize over something they are ignorant about.
In the long run, TB will only keep getting bigger and bigger as he gives so much and asks for nothing in return except your eyeballs.
In the E-Sports world, I think it's terrific that we have villains. It makes things very interesting before big matches. For IdrA's sake, I hope the guy stays as good as he is. If he falls off the map and doesn't consistently win, his antics are going to hurt him in the long run. Perhaps he's made enough money for it not to matter. I just don't want to see my favorite player fall by the wayside because sponsors not wanting him anymore due to something he might say or do.
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Long story short. It's been said a billion times and I guess this is a billion and two. If you don't like something or someone, don't watch them. If you love chicken but hate fish, don't run into a seafood restaurant screaming, "CHICKEN IS AMAZING AND FISH SUCKS BALLS!" and then run out. It helps nothing; it does nothing but foster negativity in every direction.
Personally, I'm not much of a fan of Tasteosis as casters. At the risk of being burned at the stake, that's just how I feel. I have my reasons why they aren't my preference and that's fine. It doesn't stop me from watching GSL, but if I really disliked their styles that much, I would stop watching because on every single day of the week, there are at least three different tournaments going on that I can watch and enjoy. I don't need to shout it from the rooftops. I can enjoy everything there is to offer.
  
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United States1440 Posts
All of your "facts" are clearly opinions, also its Tastosis, not Tasteosis..
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Even though TotalBiscuit does not have enough knowledge necessary regarding SC2 analysis, I personally think he is a great caster if not excellent. His voice delivery can make every viewer want to pay attention. Some may not like him, but I sure do and he does a great job in helping making E-Sports grow. In perhaps a year or so, he could just commentate on MLG events. :D
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Most of your facts are opinions, I can't see how anyone can say that tb is hands down the best video game broadcaster.
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The SC2 scene is turning into some warped hipster scene that compares taste in casters to validate their opinions. "You listen to TB? Yeah he's alright if you like unanalytical mainstream stuff."
Get a clue and focus on the players/games.
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TotalBiscuit is an entertainer, and I'd say he does a great job of it. Frankly, I think anyone who hasn't gotten 20k viewers on their first tournament they hosted and streamed shouldn't be attacking him...
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On June 16 2011 02:21 Treetop wrote:
run into a seafood restaurant screaming, "CHICKEN IS AMAZING AND FISH SUCKS BALLS!"
This is a really good idea.
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I agree with other people, most of your facts are opinions, many of them I disagree with.
Totalbiscuit is an alright caster, but I am not that impressed. I don't care if he's been trained to do it or not.
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you sound really arrogant and pretentious when stating facts (some not really facts).
as for idra, i don't really remember what he said but saying he doesn't like tb's casting isn't doing anything wrong.
as for TB, he has a good voice and good excitement but he says wrong things a lot of the times and casters shouldn't say wrong things. they should say right things. not exactly sure why he likes to cast when he's bad at the game. generally if you invest time into sc2 content you should also get good at it right?
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On June 16 2011 02:21 Treetop wrote:
Fact: TB is the best broadcaster in the world of video games. This man is actually trained in the ways of broadcasting and has honed a voice, technique, temperament and professionalism that no one can remotely can touch in the world of English speaking Starcraft. (I'd say the world, but all I speak is English so...I'll try and stop before being arrested by the hyperbole police.)
Blasphemy! It seems you also don't know the progaming scene at all, there has been many great english casters before TB like REDEYE. But by far the BEST overall game by game all around SMACKdown caster is DJWHEAT, he can cast ANYTHING... whatever Game he casts he tries to learn its depths to give insight in whatever way he can.
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man i don't even want to comment this
u just spent so much time writing that huge text out of pure fanboyism...
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The OP is a joke.
Replace your 2nd part about tastosis with totalbiscuit and you have the opinion of the vast majority of hardcore sc2ers.
Totalbiscuit is terrible, he admits he is terrible and there's some semblance of humilty there. Otherwise it's not *fact* he is the best broadcaster. The worst of the korean bw commentators are leagues ahead of totalbiscuit. Just because he has ten billion wow followers kinda shows you what kinda people like this guy. You are right in that you don't run around yelling about things you don't like but the opposite is true too.
If something is inherently good, or as good as you claim [ TB BEST CASTER IN THE WORLD ] then people will come to recognize it. If not, it means you're probably wrong and overrating it.
Also please consider that just because some indie developers are stable companies now that TB gave them exposure doesn't mean those games are any good. In fact the vast majority of indie games are crap, that's why they remain so unpopular. There are a few gems, sure, but it sure as hell isn't solely because of TB as you seem to make it.
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I'd say that Idra's casting has so far been much more interesting than commentary by anyone else. The game should be exciting on its own. I don't need anyone to tell me what anyone can see by just glancing on the screen. I want the commentator to point out and explain things that I would not have picked up on my own because of my lack of knowledge, experience, and understanding. Listening to a caster like TB is really fruitless to me because I could just watch the replay on my own and probably get more out of it.
Which is why I don't watch him, and I don't complain because I don't watch him. If you don't like what he does, then just don't watch it. Each person wants something else, and that's really just the way things work. If you want something akin to the Korean OGN and MBC commentators, then just watch Day9.
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Idra is only a good caster for those who actually know stuff about starcraft Masters + or people that are starstruck by the fact hes casting. For someone coming into the game his voice is unbelievably dull and you don't have the foggiest about what hes talking about.
TB on the other hand is the complete opposite when I was new to Sc2 I loved his casting and his enthusiasm. His voice and excitement made me love watching his videos but over time as I've learnt more I see holes in his analysis. Which makes him an amazing caster for those who are trying to get into Sc2, hes what you would call a gateway drug.
At the end I would still much rather listen to TB do a cast than Idra, and in my opinion TB is one of the best solo casters.
However this thread will just turn into a flame war where the haters and lovers spout their opinions quote each other and flaming ensues. Ah well ^^ :D
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Fact: Green is the best color.
Fact: The Rolling Stones are the best band.
Fact: This blog is terrible.
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When Treetop says TotalBiscuit is the best caster in the world of video games he is specifically implying that SC2 is only a part of that world. He's just saying what TB does in other games is not something the casters you have come to love so much in SC2 would be able to do. I think he's probably right about that, although I don't know any non-SC2 casters personally.
The TB hate is really ridiculous. There are tons of respected casters that don't understand the game very well, and as long as they cast in a manner that shows they are aware of this it can still lead to great casting. Especially when paired with someone with more knowledge.
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Why the focus on casters in SC2, this is a really fascinating occurrence that I don't think we see elsewhere.
TB is great at what he does, let him do it. IdrA is great at analytical commentary, let him do it. Why waste words arguing back and forth over which random caster you think is better, when the purpose of casting is to showcase the players?
Games should speak for themselves and the focus of casters, players, tournaments, the community, etc, should always be centered on the people playing the games and the games themselves, not who is shouting that a baneling hit a marine or who is pointing out that X build is weak at Y time to Z composition...........
Waving e-penises around over who works harder and who is subjectively a better caster and how X lacks game knowledge doesn't accomplish anything
Well, I take that back...it does do one thing...
+ Show Spoiler +it hurts ESPORTS  joke, don't kill me Mikilatov
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In my opinion TotalBiscuit is immature. I followed his casting a while back when he was doing other stuff, and he was constantly raging on how people did not appreciate what he was doing, how he is so important for esports and the community. He did not respond well to criticism of any kind, instead resorting to things like "i'd like to see YOU do better". So I stopped supporting him.
His style of casting doesn't resonate with me either, so I do not enjoy watching him cast SC2 at all. That's pretty much it.
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I'm a fanboi.
That said, TB's IQ is greater than the IQ of everyone in this thread summed up. So your opinions are irrelevant.
Just my unbiased opinion tho.
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United States4796 Posts
On June 16 2011 02:55 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
When Treetop says TotalBiscuit is the best caster in the world of video games he is specifically implying that SC2 is only a part of that world. He's just saying what TB does in other games is not something the casters you have come to love so much in SC2 would be able to do. I think he's probably right about that, although I don't know any non-SC2 casters personally.
The TB hate is really ridiculous. There are tons of respected casters that don't understand the game very well, and as long as they cast in a manner that shows they are aware of this it can still lead to great casting. Especially when paired with someone with more knowledge.
I feel like a suckup whenever I just flat out agree with Nazgul, but he makes a great point as usual.
On June 16 2011 03:08 VIB wrote:
I'm a fanboi.
That said, TB's IQ is greater than the IQ of everyone in this thread summed up. So your opinions are irrelevant.
Just my unbiased opinion tho.
Hahahaha. I enjoyed that. 
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EPT
