Artosis - No contest, the guy brings amazing analysis to the table and does so in a way that brings a smile to my face every time.
Tasteless - Great play-by-play caster, although I do think he's a bit too stuck in his ways. Anyone who watching GSL often will notice him using the same jokes over and over. Ofcource he and Artosis still make for one of the best casting teams out there.
Kellymilkies - For some reason I really liked her casting. Her overexcitement helped me enjoy the games even more. I guess I'm one of the few who gave her a "good" vote.
Doa - Allround good caster, although analysis is probably his strong suit. Unfortunately he lacks the in-depth knowledge that Artosis has, but I still really enjoy his casting skills.
Moletrap - I love how he spends a lot of effort preparing for every match, making sure he has something to say about even the most unknown players. Unfortunately that's where it ends for me. I feel like he's trying too much to fill the role Tasteless has, and unfortunately he doesn't measure up.
Tastosis is great, even though I liked tasteless better with superdanielman back in the days. I used to not like Artosis at all, but he's grown on me because of his excellent game knowledge and overall casting style.
Moletrap, now that's a completely different story. He's just horrible. Doesn't even have the right voice for casting stuff. Even as a casual SC2 player I often notice him being completely wrong about really obvious things. Is it really that hard to watch the minimap and the supply count from time to time?
On May 26 2011 21:58 leecH wrote: i hope moletrap will stay to cast GSTL and Code A. he has a really cool and unique voice. he really is up there with my favorite casters.
also he is like the guy who knows all the stats. i really like that its like when watching soccer its like "he had a really good season blablabla".
i like!
You mean: " Moletrap is the guy who reads all the stats." I noticed that his knowledge on players is very poor actually and most of it comes from reading the stats that GSL displays before each match. Calling jookTo a bad player and making fun of him is just one example. People who actually had knowledge on jookTo predicted that he will put up a good fight vs Anypro.
sorry. who "reads" all the stats. of course a soccer commentators know all the stats so thanks to you we can shit on them officially. right? i just think he does a fairly good job at try to make it professional.
and every caster makes mistakes ffs. you just dont like him i guess and use a stupid mistake to make an arguement that he is a bad caster. i for example dont like painuser. i dont watch IPL because of it but thats my problem and i have no reason to pick littel stuff that he does wrong and make a statement on how bad a caster he is just because i dont like him.
everyone loves tastosis so they can make littel mistakes everyone still loves them but if your not tastosis you must be perfect or gtfo. sad.
There something about Moletrap that makes him somewhat of a mixed bag for me (if that's the term), but I don't think it's his casting skills (what he says) as much as something more superficial in nature that is his voice and looks? It's lame and primative so I feel kinda bad about it. I do not know if it's something that you'll get use to in time, though, as I haven't been watching him a whole lot. I vote average here.
I love tasteless <3 but it said i already voted in the second half of the poles when i did not. some kind of bug? someone stealing my votes. no one knows for sure but i intend to find out.
I know i'll get a lot of hate because of this, but, I really dislike the artosis bias.He doesn't even try to hide his bias, and don't pay attention at all at the other player.
I posted in this thread earlier about the 5 mentioned in the OP, but now I must say that if Wolf and QXC would keep casting together that would be AMAZING. They were working so well together, talked about the game, joked around, analytical. Plus they flowed very well together, probably because they are on the same team so are just very use to each other.
Artosis: 9/10 Excellent Tasteless: 2/10 Horrible (too much bad jokes and offtopic trashtalk) Kelly: 1/10 Horrible (sry but the accent is just to hard to understand) DOA: 6/10 Average Moletrap: 8/10 Good
WOLF AND QXC Oh man! Last night with them was amazingly awesome. Both players showed some amazing analysis and tons of jokes and puns and just presented the GSL in a very amusing and light way. They really showed the passion of the game through their casts together, and I'd love to see them again.
On June 29 2011 01:28 how2TL wrote: I'm really curious if people on sports forums, poker forums, or anything similar spend as much time talking about casters as people on TL do.
I mean, you're all so damn eager to not only criticize but do it in the most public and humiliating way possible.
I can't think of a single positive thing to come from this thread.
In sports and poker, there is more to see.
In sports you can watch the gestures and facial expressions of the players to read what they think. You can watch fans cheering for their team. In poker, you can watch how players play their hand and trash talk with each other.
In sc2, the caster plays a central role to make the game more interesting.
Artosis- 9/10 Excellent Tasteless- 8/10 Very good- Excellent Kelly 5/10 Average DoA 6/10 Average-good MoleTrap 5.5/10 Average Wolf 8/10 Very good Unstable 6.5/10 Good
Artosis has been quite consistent and high quality, and tasteless I find has been improving in great strides over the past year or so. The two of them being together probably makes them better than if they were with someone else. DOA/moletrap are just average, and moletrap's voice sounds a little annoying.
i dislike wolf. he's just awkward and creepy. his analysis is below average although he presents himself as confident in criticizing other players. i don't want to hear what he would've done every single game.
I think that grading casters based on a 5 point scale cannot accurately reflect their quality. Maybe a 10 point scale would be better, because I certainly do not think Kelly is horrible, average at least, but at the same time I do not think Moletrap/Doa are that good, although they are above an average rating.
edit: also, tasteless and artosis are not 10's by themselves, but are 10+ when casting together as an archon :D
Artosis is what an analytical caster should strive to be; He's got the right voice and enough experience to be "exciting" even when he's talking about something that really has little impact on the game, or that isn't likely to happen. IdrA has comparable, or even greater knowledge, but he doesn't have the same quality of cast because he takes a very dry perspective on doing so. I don't really know who to compare artosis to energy-wise though.
Tasteless isn't my favorite play-by-play caster. Husky and TB are much better at doing so IMO, because they don't get so far off-topic, and they don't recycle the same jokes quite so much. I'm not saying he's bad, I'm not even saying that he's "average" - I voted "good" but he's still not my favorite caster. Almost all the "catchphrases" used in the GSL drinking games are tasteless lines (except "so many banelings/here come the banelings") and to have that kind of predictability in supposedly the TOP casting duo around.... eh. I give tasteless a "good".
I really liked Kelly. Yes, she had an accent, but really if you can't understand her, I DARE you to go to college anywhere, and take a math/science/politics course. Your TA, or even your professor will be MUCH worse. I considered her easy enough to understand, and as a play by play caster she brought excitement to the match, even if she didn't have the best "understanding" - that's not her job. I would like to see Kelly come back to the GSL (i still watch some of her casting) if it weren't for the ridiculous number of nerds who hate on her. I gave Kelly a "great".
Doa was downright awful. When he came on, I stopped watching Code A for a while. His voice grates on my nerves, his analysis is not worth while, and he's behind for a play-by-play caster. This was the only 'horrible" vote that I gave, and I would not watch a match he was casting, even if it were between my favorite players.
Moletrap is average IMO. He's not the greatest caster, but he's definitely not a bad caster. I really can't complain about anything he did in GSL, but there are certainly areas left for him to improve in.
The Wolf solo-casts in the end of Code A last season were actually fantastic. I really enjoy wolf's casting, but he doesn't have much of a distinction in the analytical-color/pbp caster designation. He's a very middle of the road caster who, as FXO coach is delving more deeply into the analytical side, but can still stand there and do pbp work when his co-caster requires it. Wolf is the kind of guy that GOM needs to have casting code A if they're going to keep switching out his co caster, because while he isn't the greatest at anything just yet, he's extremely adaptable and he works well with other casters no matter their strengths, or even alone. Wolf would be the second "excellent" vote I would give out.
Torch... eh, I haven't heard much from him besides him casting team league with wolf the other day. It was certainly an awkward pairing, the two of them having no real chemistry or overlap, despite the fact that they had the whole "casters on opposing teams, rooting for FXO/ST" to build off of through the whole first game. Torch knows his stuff, and he's a decent caster in his own right, but he strikes me more as someone who should stick to solo casting.
QXC I only caught one game of last night. It was pretty average, but he needs to work on his game rather than his casting anyway (dt's =(). Qxc Hwaiting!
The problem I have with Unanimously all Code A casters is that they too often shit all over the players. They focus way too heavily on the negatives and mistakes that are being made, and sure I get that that stuff is important, but personally I think it makes the game less enjoyable. Tastosis really only harp on a mistake when it is truly truly bad, to the point of being game ending. If the mistake is not that bad one of them will say something along the lines of, "You know that was a blunder but I don't think It will matter too much in terms of the overall game". But most of the Code A casters well just talk about all the mistakes being made to the point where it seems like its all they talk about.
I don't watch these games to hear about how bad the players are, I watch because these are the best players in the world. I want their new and innovative strategies to be given a chance. I hate to be harsh, but these players certainly know more than the casters about the game. So I don't want to constantly hear players being denounced as terrible unless time has proven them to be terrible. Focus more on the positives and less on the mistakes and Code A casters will do much better. Also keep QXC because he is actually super smart and tells jokes that are actually funny.
On June 29 2011 01:28 how2TL wrote: I'm really curious if people on sports forums, poker forums, or anything similar spend as much time talking about casters as people on TL do.
I mean, you're all so damn eager to not only criticize but do it in the most public and humiliating way possible.
I can't think of a single positive thing to come from this thread.
In sports and poker, there is more to see.
In sports you can watch the gestures and facial expressions of the players to read what they think. You can watch fans cheering for their team. In poker, you can watch how players play their hand and trash talk with each other.
In sc2, the caster plays a central role to make the game more interesting.
I think the main difference is that Sports and poker on the outside are easy and basic to understand.
Starcraft 2 on the other hand is complicated and explanation of strategy is needed. The dynamics of each match-up and meta-game shifts need to be flushed out and articulated by the casters. Trying to explain why the 5 Rax reaper opening was the standard TvZ to someone without decent knowledge of Starcraft wouldn't be as easy as explaining why a Royal Flush beats other hands or why hitting a home-run is good for the team.
5 Rax reaper had a specific plan and abused certain aspects of the Zerg race. It was meant to put a ton of pressure on or just outright kill a Zerg player who built too few units. Now just think of a casual bronze to gold level player trying to understand Starcraft without commentators, without someone there to sit you down and explain the ins and out of the game.
I know I wouldn't be in diamond league if it wasn't for watching Tastosis feed me knowledge and insight as they cast the GSL for 5 months prior to me starting to play SCII. If Day[9] didn't make his "when to drone" daily for Zerg players I would still be a 2 base 30 drones Zerg who was too scared to stop making units until 200/200. Watching commentators analyze and crack jokes has made Starcraft II one of my favorite games to watch and play, and without them I doubt the community would be where it is today. My opinion on the Casters:
Tastosis has to be top dog. They have 7+ years of chemistry as friends and it has carried over well to Starcraft. They bounce off each other well and even when they don't, they make fun of themselves and crack jokes. If there is anything off-putting about them it is that they tell too many jokes (not a negative in my book) and that tasteless sometimes is repetitive and butts in. I actually am such a blind fanboy though so I can't see their problems.
I have complained about Kelly enough in the past. I don't think highly of her English or her game knowledge. I'll pass on her for now.
DOA seems to be nice, but seems a bit too shy for me. Might just be too straightforward and boring without enough analytical knowledge. Seems to be an above average play by play and average in-game knowledge.
Moletrap has amazing play-by-play, his excitement is genuine but his game knowledge is average. I'd think him + Artosis would be excellent to see.
WOLF just rubs me the wrong way. He looks like he is a bad guy in some movie to me. He makes fun of almost foreigner not on FXO and loves to talk about how Korea>ALL. Nothing outside of Korea is legitimate in the eyes of Wolf. Besides that blatant bias toward everything non-foreign, he has master league knowledge and decent play-by-play. He is an above average caster, I'm just biased against him.
EPT
