EPTCasting Concepts - A Blog About Under-discussed Topics
Hello everyone. It's been a while since the last chapter of Casting Concepts. I've been fairly busy with moving and various other things in my own life, but I wanted to do this topic justice since it requires a bit more research than my other posts. If you're new to the series and you haven't already, check out the last chapter, where I talked a bit about breaking into the mid and higher echelons of casting. Today we'll be breaking down the casting style of someone with a somewhat unordinary background in Starcraft 2 commentary.
Chapter 3: Biscuits of Totality
John "TotalBiscuit" Bain is a lot of things in the gaming world. With a background World of Warcraft, TotalBiscuit ran a podcast known as 'Blue Plz' and eventually went on to run WoW Radio before going full time in his youtube career after the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Upon seeing great success in his commentary over his World of Warcraft content, TB moved into a generalized focus of gaming content and took a step into the realm of Starcraft 2 commentary. The skills he developed from this history have proven to be spectacular assets in his jump into eSports Commentary as he has since been invited to cast at multiple MLG's, Dreamhacks, IGN Proleague's, NASL's broadcasts, and Iron Squids. There is clearly some special value that Mr. Bain provides in commentating Starcraft 2 games that overcomes the criticism he often faces as an unknowledgeable caster.
So let's take a look at what that is.
British Accents Are Sexy
Let's be honest. This man has some assets that are almost unreasonably difficult to obtain. A natural British accent that swoons nerds and nerdettes left and right. A radio voice that thunders across the lands louder than a psyonic storm, and an air of importance and elitism about him. These are things that will not come naturally to many and for the most part, trying to imitate these aspects of TotalBiscuit will ultimately result in the commentator not being true to themself.
I bring this up because I wanted to make a distinct point that when looking at other commentators, it's important to realize the difference between attributes that are worth adapting and attributes that are not. TotalBiscuit's British accent and cynical demeanor are core and central to his image(I mean, he's called the Cynical Brit for a reason), and they certainly attract people. However, the lesson to learn from this isn't that you should go develop some fake British accent, but instead realize the value in pushing your strengths to the forefront of your image. These are elements we should recognize but not adapt for our own commentary.
So take away Mr. Biscuit's sexy British accent and booming radio voice and what positive qualities are you left with? Actually quite a bit.
Speak like a Champion
Besides his natural voice, TotalBiscuit has hinted multiple times that he worked very hard to develop his voice for his youtube career. This becomes clear when you look at how developed his natural speech patterns are. The first thing that is clear upon listening to him speak for a mere minute is how clear his diction is. This is not something to be underestimated in value. While there are obvious benefits to being heard clearly, having amazing diction makes your play by play absurdly more clear and allows you to speak quickly while still being understood. Just take a look at this video from 2010 and note how quickly yet clearly he speaks and annunciates each syllable around 1 minute into the video.
+ Show Spoiler +
While it may seem obvious that diction is important for a commentator in any realm, there are a surprising number of commentators that haven't developed their diction to nearly the same extent. This is really something you can only develop with a lot of hard work and practice. There are plenty of great resources for practicing your diction available on the internet for free. Many involve tongue twisters or phrases you can repeat to yourself in your free time at increasing paces to develop a more professional speech pattern. I'd highly recommend almost every commentator to work to develop this.
Beyond his diction, the Cynical Brit has a low repetition of words when he speaks. This likely harkens back to his days in WoW Radio and Blue Plz, where your viewers are hyper aware of repeated words or phrases because there is nothing but the speaker's voice to pay attention to. I will admit that his word choice while commentating Starcraft 2 matches does feel more hindered than when he's in his natural environment doing first impression videos or voicing his opinions on various topics in the games industry, but this has a lot to do with a common issue many casters in an eSports game seem to face. Particular words become over-utilized because when initially used, they feel so appropriate to describe the scene and automatically relate a concept with an audience via a shared implication of the word. The use of the word "aggressive" in starcraft is one of my favorite examples of this. It's fantastic that the word has connotations built up around it from years and years of the game being played, but too frequently casters will overuse the word and shrink away from opportunities to color a player's actions with more emotionally charged language. While TotalBiscuit does occasionally fall prey to this faux pas, he certainly stands out as one of the commentators wielding a fairly diversified vocabulary.
Now Again, With Emotion!
I just mentioned the concept of using emotionally charged language and used the term "aggressive" as an example of a word that could be replaced with other descriptive phrases that gave a heightened sense of emotional weight behind a player's actions. For example, instead of saying "Polt is getting aggressive," consider saying "Polt is going to brutally raid Stephano 3rd expansion" or "QXC is systematically suffocating Stephano's economy." Both of these have different implications. Polt's "aggressive" move feels more wild, chaotic and holds the weight of a powerful push with his whole army moving across the map. QXC's aggression feels calm, calculated and precise like a series of drops moving in and out at the right locations to pick his opponent apart. Both convey a different image of the player and formulate different stories to be told.
TotalBiscuit opts to use imagery like this with his words when he's on his game. Doing something like this is not easy and actually requires a combination of pre-cast prep and on the fly thinking during a cast. The pre-cast prep involves doing things like looking up synonyms for overused words or phrases you know you rely on and opting to use those during a cast. This is something I hear many big commentators recommend when asked for advice. The more difficult one is thinking of alternative phrasing for concepts that are explained in the same language all the time or in boring language that doesn't paint a picture. For this, no thesaurus will hold all your answers(although it will certainly help to have one). You will have to do this thinking on your own before a cast or excel at improvisation and articulation to develop these new phrasings on the fly based on your own immediate feelings to a situation.
+ Show Spoiler +
Something worth talking about is that I don't support the idea that we as commentators should cease to use words like "aggressive." They hold an important value and express a concept that is almost immediately relatable to our community of viewers. So while painting a picture of a player holds a great deal of value, it is the duty of the caster to decide whether the situation calls for phrasing that can immediately relate the concept and all its intricacies to a viewer, or if it would be more appropriate to use colorful and emotionally charged language to build a sense of story behind a set of actions. Who said commentating was easy?
Flow Like Water, Sting Like Thing That Stings
Fluidity in speech is something that many newer casters seem to struggle with. Finding the right pacing and flow in your speech patterns can be a powerful tool as long as you know how to utilize it properly. Pacing is something that, during play-by-play commentary of a battle, TotalBiscuit really hits his stride in. His techniques actually resemble that of sports casting where it is common practice to speak in short and succinct statements and insert slight pauses between them to build tension and anticipation. Take this example from WCS America's match of Maker vs Minigun. Start the video around 29 minutes, 56 seconds if the link does not for you.
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Transcript
The scv's are at the front and immediately get obliterated right there.
The vikings take down one.[colossus]
Takes down a second.
Looking to try and break this.
I think he might have what he needs to break this you know.
I think minigun being caught with that nexus going up.
Trying to get tech. Trying to go into a transition.
Might be in an ugly spot, but he's not down yet.
Good forcefields come in.
More reinforcements coming in from maker from the back here.
The colosai count is at zero.
We've now got archons in the fray.
These vikings are not going to do anything.
They land.
He knows that.
Another archon falls.
Maker still looking pretty good here but minigun is defending and trying to...
The vikings take down one.[colossus]
Takes down a second.
Looking to try and break this.
I think he might have what he needs to break this you know.
I think minigun being caught with that nexus going up.
Trying to get tech. Trying to go into a transition.
Might be in an ugly spot, but he's not down yet.
Good forcefields come in.
More reinforcements coming in from maker from the back here.
The colosai count is at zero.
We've now got archons in the fray.
These vikings are not going to do anything.
They land.
He knows that.
Another archon falls.
Maker still looking pretty good here but minigun is defending and trying to...
As you can see from the video and the transcript, he breaks down each action into a succinct and clear statement and allows a delay for the viewer to see it. Most importantly, the pacing allows for the building of anticipation.
+ Show Spoiler +
The scv's are at the front and immediately get obliterated right there.
The viewer is given some direction into the massive clump of units trying to bust up the ramp and realizes the impact of scv's taking massive hits.
The vikings take down one. [colossus]
Suddenly the viewer's attention is turned from the ground to the air. Realization that the colossus are vital to doing the splash damage Minigun needs to make this defense.
Takes down a second.
Another colossus goes down! Note the difference between the energy of saying the vikings take down one, takes down a second versus the vikings take out two colossus. It creates an energy that makes you feel the action is happening NOW and is still going on.
Looking to try and break this.
You're in this moment and right now and everything this man tells you is happening will be a deciding factor of whether Minigun holds or Maker breaks through.
etc.
This goes on for a good portion of the fight. Of course, when an engagement is constantly happening back and forth for an extended period of time you can only try to keep that kind of pacing and excitement level for so long before it starts to feel redundant. At this point, TB uses a nice technique of shifting the focus away from the direct play-by-play of each individual action that's been happening for the past 45 seconds by giving the viewer a perspective on the results of the battle so far. Action is still happening, marines are filtering up the ramp slowly with a misplaced forcefield but he uses the ever so slight gap in action to explain how despite losing the Nexus at his natural, Minigun can still defend his main and hold. This also gives Husky a segue to provide some more strategic analysis of the situation after the long silence he held during the play-by-play segment.
That example is excellent for highly intense and combative situations where action is happening all around and the moment is worth hyping. At other points in time, TB maintains a much more natural structure to his speech. Continuously talking until he passes off to his co-caster with thoughts, not really giving a lot of room for pause and just filling the air. He creates a presence to the viewer so that even during the slightly boring or uneventful aspects of the game, the viewer feels that they're still watching the game with someone who is giving them useful information and preparing them for what's to come. I think this second part is an area that TotalBiscuit, surprisingly enough considering how similar the speech style is to other content he produces, could really work to improve on. When he has some statistics or information readily available he does a great job with it, but sometimes gets caught half-way through a thought that he ends up pausing to rethink and finish. This creates a few awkward moments but this is something I feel could be solved either a furthering of game knowledge so he doesn't meet this uncertainty as often, or he could work on his direct passovers to his co-caster a bit more.
Give Me Your Hand
In fact, TotalBiscuit hardly EVER does a direct handoff to his co-caster where he sets them up with a question. Instead, he uses a lot of "passive" handoffs. Notice how each of his commentary segments end in any of his casts that involves a co-caster. In general, you'll find that TotalBiscuit makes statements that are directed to some ambiguous third person that could be the viewer, but rarely is it directed at his co-caster. Instead, he does what's known as a passive handoff where he'll present a topic to the audience and utilizing tone and flow, indicates to his co-caster that he's done speaking. This is a great technique for any commentator to use if they have a co-caster experienced in casting(so that they can pick up the subtle signals quickly and realize it's their turn to speak), but might not have a great game knowledge. When he makes a statement about something, he leaves room for his co-caster to either elaborate on what was said in more detail(if they know more about the topic), or to switch to a different topic. In comparison, with a directed question at a co-caster, you can put them on the spot and create uncomfortable situations where your co-caster has to admit they're not sure. While it's ACTUALLY fine to not know something in this crazy complex game, it's less than ideal to be asked a question about the game and have to admit you don't know(in most cases, there are a few exceptions that this can actually be used to build hype).
When paired with great casters like Apollo, Axeltoss or Husky, TB can utilize his passive handoffs to his hearts content. It's important to realize that you have to be cautious about your usage of this technique with less experienced casters because you won't always be able to rely on them picking up on the subtleties leading them into their thoughts. Instead, you can end up with a bit too long of an awkward silence between the casters. The other thing to realize is that only using passive handoffs with a co-caster that's also using too many passive handoffs turns the co-commentary into two people taking turns commentating. Rather than a dialogue about the same topic, you create an alternation of commentaries on the same topic. The balance between this ultimately comes down to what the casters feel is best and will often go into the "synergy" between two casters.
Beyond that which has already been mentioned, TB does a few other things well that are worth touching upon but we won't get into too much detail with. His volume control is pretty good because of the way he projects his voice to fill a room rather than just yelling. This allows him a wider range of volume to raise his voice for exciting segments, while still having a strong voice for passive ones. He also picks up very well on his co-caster's cues, especially when his co-caster gives game analysis. Most of the time and very quickly, he picks up on this and will restate the idea just stated by his co-caster, but with exciting phrasing as well as context. TotalBiscuit certainly loves making sure the viewer knows the context for events and what the bigger picture is. I think one last thing that is admirable considering how many people try to be funny, is that I always felt TotalBiscuit knew when he had a good joke and when he didn't. It's very difficult to be funny and many inexperienced casters will end up telling any jokes they think of. TB tends to only tell jokes when he seems to think of them and doesn't try to push them too hard, while still managing to get in an ok number of them. Certainly something us less funny casters could note in our own casts.
Even Giants Can Grow Taller
I've spent an absurd amount of time praising Mr Bain so far. He really does have many casting traits worth looking at and I honestly haven't even hit all of them. In truth, these are just some of the really interesting ones that strike me as things I find many other aspiring or even top level casters lack. But the reality is, even great casters such as TotalBiscuit, Artosis, Day[9], Apollo, etc. have weaknesses in their casting. This should be considered a blessing because it means they still have things to improve upon to make their casting even better.
One of the most obvious tropes TotalBiscuit seems to fall for is an overuse of a few filler words such as "indeed" or "that right there," etc. This is certainly something difficult to eliminate, and they can have their place in a cast when you really aren't sure what else to say and need to fill time. However, at times the overuse of these words and phrases can be a bit much and it would be great if instead of using filler words to fill time, he have backup topics or even statistics prepared to use for those moments. Very often(look at WCS America), he would inform the audience a substantial amount about a particular player's playstyle, statistics, etc. at the beginning of the match. But a great quote from RedEyE in the eSports Heaven Podcast notes that these can be valuable assets for these moments in the cast. Knowing when is the appropriate time to use them is something you learn through experience and experimentation. Many casters like Apollo and RedEyE have stated before that they can sometimes end up throwing out 80% of their pre-cast prep because the situation doesn't call for it, but it's important they they have it readily available when appropriate. Similar to shooting zombies, you don't want to blow all your ammunition on the first round of the buggers in case you have to deal with a second round.
The most common critique by the public of TB's commentary is his lack of game knowledge. Personally, I find he actually has a pretty good game knowledge for a shoutcaster in terran related matchups, but just feels a little less comfortable in PvP, ZvZ and PvZ matchups. Of course this makes sense as he does play Terran and thus concepts in the terran related matchups will seem more natural to him, but if someone is trying to improve in this area, asking a few friends who knows those matchups really well to break down the entire matchup for you can be very helpful. I say a few friends because it's important to get multiple opinions and in reality you probably won't absorb more than 30% of what your friends say the first time you hear it.
Not Everything Is Fact
From time to time, TB does annoy me a bit with some of his choices that, to be entirely honest, I haven't made up my mind about. One of these has to do with his occasional usage of colloquialisms such as "trololololol" or "man" at the end of a sentence. To me, this differs quite a bit from the character he builds himself up to be which in conjunction with his powerful voice and professional speech mannerisms, creates an odd dichotomy in his presented personality. When he breaks out into these colloquialisms, it paints a very different face from the TotalBiscuit I find he really is stronger at presenting. I have little doubt that when he says these things, he's actually just being himself and not thinking too much about it, so it is a bit hard to criticize. I reiterate that these are things that I find annoying, but I'm not sure whether I would actually label them as things I believe he should work to change or improve on.
Likewise, TotalBiscuit likes to break the 4th wall a bit. What do I mean by that? When there are technical issues or it's been a rough cast(see almost any day of Shoutcraft America to see what rough luck is), he likes to address the problems to the audience. In certain circumstances, this makes sense to me as if you try too blatantly to ignore the issues, the audience can generally tell. By informing the viewers of the problem you can build a sort of relationship with the viewers in the fact that both you and the viewers are plagued by these problems that are preventing the games from going on! On the other hand, I feel that often he drives a bit too much attention to these issues and this sometimes causes a bit of discomfort among both the viewers and the casters as it becomes apparent to both that there is nothing to talk about. It's an interesting balance that I suppose comes down to preference, but in my eyes TB does fall a bit on the far side of the scale.
I mentioned some other parts of TotalBiscuit's casting that I didn't like in previous sections as well so I'll leave it at that for now. It's important to remember that for anything worth doing in life, you should feel that you constantly strive for perfection but never attain it. I honestly feel casting is this way so it only makes sense that even some of the most well known casters still have a lot of room to improve. This is not say they're bad, just that they are mortals striving for perfection. And that, in and of itself, is a pretty beautiful thing.
Closing Words
Hopefully after reading this post you've either walked away with some new tricks or techniques you can adapt, or just become more aware of ones you already use so you can better them. TotalBiscuit is a fantastic example of someone who has worked very hard to get where he is in gaming community, and his expedition into casting really shows that as well. I hold a lot of respect for him as a content producer, a commentator and as as a man who has a genuine interest in furthering eSports and gaming into a brighter future.
If you disagree with me on any of the points I made, or even agree with me but feel you could do a better job explaining the point with a particular example, please leave a comment below. The idea behind this series is not for me to tell the world how casting should be done. It is to encourage a dialogue to open about the intricacies of casting in a public space, and I hope that some of my thoughts can spark interest in your own. I will never apologize for writing absurdly long chapters, but deeply appreciate those that take the time to read even portions of them.
I'm not actually sure what's up next on the blog. I have numerous ideas for what I can do, but I want to make sure I formulate a full thread of thoughts before I act upon it. I will say that I'll try and update a bit more often(after all, consistency is key), so be on the lookout about a week from now for a new chapter. As always folks, it's been a pleasure discussing the topic.
Happy Casting!
, and the video links are fantastic! So much thought put into these :D
