EPTThis blog will recap my experiences and adventures casting Starcraft II around the globe. We'll begin our journey from the comfort of my own home and see where the wind takes us from there -- from novice to pro, I will recap my feelings and reflections on everything.
The mission and goal: have fun, do our best, and figure out the riddle that is Starcraft II.
Spoiler-free VOD List: http://sc2links.com/tournament.php?tournament=GamersAbyss.com $100 Showmatch Series 2012&round=2&cat=
Youtube VOD Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEXLZ6DLvqfopnqMBnSTJr_A11Q_glTjN
This showmatch was a joint venture put on by GamersAbyss.com and SC2Links.com - Gamers Abyss was pleased enough with my previous cast that they decided to hire me back on for this event (yay!). Fortunately, we were also able to work out a co-sponsorship of the event with SC2Links (not a hard task, since I own it 8D)!
This was easily my most successful night in eSports - but as always, with success comes stress!
First off, let me run through some numbers: 1.5 hrs of broadcast time, >6k unique viewers, 1.1k average concurrents, 1.5k max concurrents.
Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into producing these numbers, and this particular night had significant benefits I feel are worthy of mention: it was a weekend broadcast, between 9PM-12PM EST (prime time for US-based nerds who have stayed home for the night), twitch.tv features the most watched stream for each category of game (we just so happened to have the most viewers that night for Starcraft II, the entire night), and no minor or major events running (there was a Zotac Cup running on TL alongside this, that's it.).
Combine those elements with the fact that we had two of the best US Starcraft II players in freakin' INCONTROL and QXC and you have a recipe for success (for effect, iNcontroL has 43k followers to his name and qxc has 15k [that's just shy of 60 THOUSAND people total]).
Now, since I have a few more casts under my belt (I have been casting regularly for z33k.tv over the course of the past two weeks, part of the reason this blog is delayed ;D), and have automated a lot of my in-broadcast tasks with the help of XSplit Scene Switcher and Starboard, I feel rather comfortable being both the producer, director, and host of the entire operation.
Managing a broadcast is a lot more work/effort than a lot of people perceive it to be, and with the high standards of quality that I set for myself, meeting these while maintaining an even head can be quite difficult. To cope, I've developed a couple of 'Pre-Broadcast 101 Routines', and perhaps some if not all of this can be of use to you:
1. Have plenty of coffee on-hand. If you drink energy drinks, I'm not judging you or telling you what to do with your life, but accept that you are adding unnecessary, artificial liquid calories to your diet that can have adverse effects on your body-image goals. Sugar is the enemy, and straight black coffee is your calorie-conscious friend, downright delicious when chilled and poured over ice. The idea here isn't to be your nutrition coach though; simply put, caffeine keeps you awake and gives you sustained jolt of energy for the duration of the cast (no matter the source). Other acceptable alternatives are hot/cold green tea or any variety of caffeinated, unsweetened iced tea.
2. Eat a complete meal right before the cast. Increasing your glucose levels leads to more productive thoughts (it's science) and we've all seen the Snickers commercials -- when you're hungry, you're irritable. Save yourself the blank thoughts, distraction, and lack of focus; eat a protein heavy meal with beans and plenty of vegetables for a clean, sustained energy boost and reward your viewers with an insightful cast.
3. Chew on Lemon Balm Leaves -- now, this is a bit of a weird tip, but Lemon Balm is a easy to grow garden herb whose oil is said to be more effective than St. John's Wort for treating and curbing depression. Plant some of this in a pot or outside in the ground, pick off 4-6 leaves before the cast, crumble them into a ball, and lightly press down on said ball with your teeth for 2-5 minutes. The pressure will release the oils, and you'll be feeling bright, fresh, and new in a matter of minutes. I do this before I go to work too, as my day is just plain better with it.
Alright, now that my ramblings are out of the way, let's get to the cast day antics:
I'm a pretty 'Zen' guy in my own right, and I couldn't help but wake up feeling that this night was going to be a unique and special event in the current stretch of my cosmic experience - so I did what any 20-something college graduate would do when tasked with an epic life moment: I prepared in advance.
OK, not everyone would consider preparing the morning of an event as 'preparing in advance', but the fact alone that I even thought about prepping in "advance" sets me apart from many others in my g-g-generation (Millennials, or whatever they call us now).
That being said, I created and tested every overlay, perfected sound levels, and confirmed correct live broadcast settings. With the green light, I was all set and ready to go by noon PM. This left about 9 hours to enjoy the rest of my Saturday... so I went and played a round of golf.
I shot well and was in a great mood from the beautiful walk - golf is a lot like yoga if you can manage to play well, so this was my calm before the storm.
After that I showered and managed to fit in a stuffed mushroom/vodka rigatoni/glass of wine session at my local Italian grill (I know I harped on nutrition earlier, but I'm allowed a cheat day once per week with the 'slow carb diet', check it out here: 4 Hour Body). I also consumed this downright delicious pumpkin ale that had me feeling FANTASTIC (pretty much the one reason why I love this season) - I think it was from 'Yards' brewing company, but if you're not on the east coast of the US, this matters not.
Anywho, I returned home around 8PM and with everything ready to cast I assumed there would be no issues; I was wrong.
My first test revealed a pixelated, terrible quality stream capture in the VOD. This literally looked like 240p. To make matters worse... LAG
OK, I thought it must be something with the bitrate or quality. After testing the bandwidth within XSplit on some pretty premium settings, I figured I was going overboard, but I still got a green light from the test. With > 18 Mbps up, I figured it had to be good to go...
The second test was a complete failure, nothing had changed.
Confused, I tried lowering my in-game quality settings...
Even on low settings, the stream still looked god-awful.
**PANIC**
I literally had no idea what was going on.
It was 8:30PM, I still didn't have my backdrop setup, the stream looked like garbage, and it felt like I was sinking deeper and deeper into a pit of quicksand...
Close your eyes, deep breath, exhale...
OH SCREW IT
In the last moments of anything, you need to prioritize. I needed to get the quality fixed first and foremost.
8:40PM
No progress.
8:50PM
No progress.
8:55PM
No progress.
8:57PM
Both players have joined the game lobby.
No backdrop.
...NO LAG!
Hope was quickly fading for quality of video, but sweet mother of all things holy the lag was fixed.
At this time, I couldn't help but think to myself that these are the moments in your career that can really define who you are and how you're able to overcome difficulty.
Screw it, the stream was able to go live, and that was good enough - I had to hold up the show with my casting, and you bet your ass that there was no way short of death I wasn't broadcasting this showmatch.
I hastily threw the backdrop up and with one minute to spare, I was ready to go live, regardless of quality.
Close your eyes, deep breath, exhale...
WE.ARE.LIVE
Full disclosure, these aren't the best quality videos, but remember the numbers: good stuff proceeds!!
Game 1:
I find myself distracted by this VOD trying to write about my thoughts and watch it at the same time... it's a great game, and really sets the tone for the entire series. Let me know what you thought about this cast, as I can't help but constantly pull myself away from writing to watch it conclude.
Game 2: + Show Spoiler +
I get to fill some time, and I still need to work on my um's, but I think I do a pretty good job of unobtrusively tying in sponsor information. I know so much about each site that it's pretty easy, and perhaps that's the key to good sponsor plugs: know what you're talking about.
Following the first game, I get to do some prediction/analysis, which is something I'm less known for but an area where I feel really strong taking the lead on. The thing about best-of-series are that if you are able to deploy mind games, you gain huge advantages. I get lucky on my call here and get to make a Super Troopers reference in the process.
Game 3: + Show Spoiler +
The quality issues are completely out of my head now, and I could care less if the backdrop was falling on top of me. These games were getting pretty good and it was time for iNcontroL to shut the 4-0 calls down and build some momentum. Upgrades and army position, people = keys to the kuffs. Wish I had gone into a little more analysis with this one, but still pretty good I think.
Game 4: + Show Spoiler +
Alright, HYPE.
This game f'n rocks - watch it - this is why we play Starcraft 2.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this for casting, observing, and anything else you want to discuss! I get pretty stoked up in this one, haha.
Game 5: + Show Spoiler +
Game 6: + Show Spoiler +
Game 7: + Show Spoiler +
Conclusion:
Alright, so not the best result in the world, but I really feel like we had AWESOME games regardless. Being able to cast so much over the course of the past few weeks has helped me to work on a lot of things, and with all of the video to refer to I can see so many other areas where I can still improve. All in all, I improved a lot since the last showmatch, and that's something to take to the bank.
If you were curious, I also solved my quality issues, so I will guarantee at least 720p HD for the next cast 8)
Just want to finish this off by saying THANKS!! SO much to GamersAbyss.com, @EGiNcontroL, and @colqxc for making the showmatch happen - it was my pleasure to cast the games and I look forward to working with all of these guys again in the future.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or inquiries feel free to let me know @DOOMSC2 on twitter.
