EPThttp://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/2658252#blog
It's great to see Blizzard acknowledging Day9 and promoting his work on the front page of the SC2 page!
We sat down with Sean "Day[9]" Plott to pick his brain about StarCraft II, shoutcasting, and what exactly goes into producing Day[9]tv.
How did you get into shoutcasting?
My brother was one of the first big shoutcasters for StarCraft. Around the WCG 2005, he began traveling all around the world doing commentaries while I focused heavily on improving my play. As influenced by my brother, I dabbled in some commentary (primarily on Team Liquid) and my role was primarily as an analyst.
What are your goals for each shoutcast? Are there certain elements you try to cover each time, or is it something that you play by ear?
For the daily, I study and prepare in advance to create a focused, educational theme. I try to avoid just hopping in and saying "Hey, let's analyze a game," and instead lean more towards watching a couple of replays and selecting the appropriate ones that fit the daily's theme. The same prep even goes into Funday Monday's, except in that case the goal is to be funny.
Can you describe your process for creating a shoutcast? What tools do you use?
For the tools, I use a fairly rudimentary setup involving VH Capture to grab the screen and Flash Media Encoder to encode to Justin.tv. However, to actually formulate the replay, I generally have a bunch of ideas floating in my head for what I want a daily's topic to be. I will select one in the morning and try to structure the show around that. Sometimes, I want to see how a matchup is evolving. Other days, I want to talk about how to crack a certain strategy. I will end up spending a while watching through a few replays quickly to narrow down on a clear set to use on the daily. If I am just going to focus on one specific game, I will re-watch it and sometimes compare it to other games.
There are always a bunch of replays the viewers never see that influence the discussion of the replay or content in any given daily. You'll always hear me say things like "he's heading to do X, Y, or Z, but he COULD do A or B," and that is always a consideration for any daily. The studies of the replays not shown are what gives me A and B.
How did you get into shoutcasting?
My brother was one of the first big shoutcasters for StarCraft. Around the WCG 2005, he began traveling all around the world doing commentaries while I focused heavily on improving my play. As influenced by my brother, I dabbled in some commentary (primarily on Team Liquid) and my role was primarily as an analyst.
What are your goals for each shoutcast? Are there certain elements you try to cover each time, or is it something that you play by ear?
For the daily, I study and prepare in advance to create a focused, educational theme. I try to avoid just hopping in and saying "Hey, let's analyze a game," and instead lean more towards watching a couple of replays and selecting the appropriate ones that fit the daily's theme. The same prep even goes into Funday Monday's, except in that case the goal is to be funny.
Can you describe your process for creating a shoutcast? What tools do you use?
For the tools, I use a fairly rudimentary setup involving VH Capture to grab the screen and Flash Media Encoder to encode to Justin.tv. However, to actually formulate the replay, I generally have a bunch of ideas floating in my head for what I want a daily's topic to be. I will select one in the morning and try to structure the show around that. Sometimes, I want to see how a matchup is evolving. Other days, I want to talk about how to crack a certain strategy. I will end up spending a while watching through a few replays quickly to narrow down on a clear set to use on the daily. If I am just going to focus on one specific game, I will re-watch it and sometimes compare it to other games.
There are always a bunch of replays the viewers never see that influence the discussion of the replay or content in any given daily. You'll always hear me say things like "he's heading to do X, Y, or Z, but he COULD do A or B," and that is always a consideration for any daily. The studies of the replays not shown are what gives me A and B.
Even if he doesn't play in tournaments, he has a better understanding of the game than a lot of top players, thats undeniable.
