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Hey guys!
As you guys all know I've been casting in the Starcraft 2 Community for quite sometime now, and have been personal friends with PainUser for nearly as long as well.
Recently, Painuser and I were both picked up to cast for the IPL, and we began working and building on our chemistry and rapport to improve our casting and make it as top notch/ high quality as possible.
I'm sure many of you guys tuned into IPL3 at Atlantic City, and listened to both of us cast and interact with the crowd. The event has now officially concluded, but Taylor and I both agreed that it would be very beneficial to get some feedback from the community.
We're always looking to improve, and personally for me, I understand that one of my biggest faults has been lack of knowledge. I gave it my 100% effort to improve on this over my casts of late, and I hope that some of you guys have been able to enjoy the cast more thoroughly as a result. There will always be mistakes, but that is what this thread is for  In the end, we definitely attempted to find the right balance and make our broadcast of IPL3 AC as entertaining, thoughtful, funny, and analytical as possible.
Anyways, Taylor and I would love to hear more of your feedback, constructive criticism, and compliments. All of this is to help point us in the right direction, and at the end of the day make Starcraft 2 a little more fun/exciting to watch! So please let us know if you guys enjoyed us casting, or if you'd rather listen to Nails on a chalkboard , and if yes or no, please explain why or how we can improve in your post!
Thanks guys!
Update:
I just want to say, thanks very much for the comments and constructive criticism so far! Taylor and I are going to have a VERY THOROUGH look at everything and definitely try to improve and hone our craft that much more. Definitely seems like there is some back and forth with people on both sides of the fence.
Thank you guys so much for everything thus far!
Poll: Did you overall enjoy our Cast at IPL3 AC?No! (1376) 53% Yes! (1242) 47% 2618 total votes Your vote: Did you overall enjoy our Cast at IPL3 AC? (Vote): Yes!
(Vote): No!
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i like painuser but not you. theres a lot of stuff you miss and you have very little idea of how a sc2 game progresses, instead you just make bland and vague statements which are mostly corrected by painuser.
actually painuser is one of my facorite casters, up there with da9 and tastosis. his calls are fantastic and he has nice analysis too. plus he doesnt scream about chinese infantry
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Painuser is pretty good.
Wouldn't mind seeing more.
edit: Maybe I should add more... I think he did well during the IPL qualifiers too. I didn't see all the games, but I saw enough. I think his biggest fault is that most of his game knowledge is strictly Terran. There's also always a hint of Terran bias, but I can live with those faults.
edit again: A poll was added. I voted 'no'. As much as I like Painuser, there's no way I can vote 'yes' if the poll doesn't allow me to single him out. If there were a poll for only Painuser, I'd vote 'yes'.
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It was great, I thought you guys made the finals as exciting as they could have been with the 4-0 ZvZ =)
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I think you're both great, good chemistry.. painuser has really nice analyses of the games which adds quality to the casts.. I usually think of him as the artosis or day9 to HDs tasteless.
gj though guys.
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To be honest, I hardly care what the casting is like in most tournaments as long as the games are good. But since I used to be a close follower of your youtube videos and I like Painuser, I've enjoyed your casting at the IPL, including the qualifiers. I know some people will be more picky but overall good job.
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Painuser did exceptionally well, and HD you need a little more work, not that i could do better T_T. But it doesn't sound like your fluent enough when talking. Maybe its just me. Overall the cast was enjoyable. Oh Dun talk during starts of commercials you can hear from painuser "Were in a commercial" and you respond "oh"
offtopic : please host IPL4 at a noncasino I think you guys deserved a bigger crowd, the 21+ was a crowd killer for many under 21 : (
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I think you did a great job! I was actually very impressed by all three caster combo's this weekend.
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You're awesome HD. Almost no caster has a perfect knowledge of the game, but as long as you keep working at it I have no doubt you'll continue to improve. The synergy between you and Taylor has always been great (watched a ton of the IPL stream throughout the season). I would suggest just asking more questions of some of the high level players you know in order to see what's 'in' with the meta game and potential builds/counters you might see.
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Hey HD, I hope you read this message. From one caster to another, I want to say that I think you guys did a great job. Your excitement is fantastic. Don't lose it. My friends who don't play SC2 were watching with me even turned to me saying "Wow this guy gets all pumped and makes me feel excited too!" My only suggestion is to continue loosening up. It seems you guys were very tense and forced laughs. As a result, there were moments of awkwardness in terms of your co-casting dynamics.
As for the other complaints like "lack of knowledge" or whatever the general complaints--that's all hearsay and personal preference. Keep your style and just work on meshing better with PainUser. GL in the future
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Very well done, sometimes I wish some of the filler content you have between games talks more about the series or the next matchup or maps.. instead of the random conversation you have. Maybe it is just personal opinion, but it seems like when the gameplay is not live you make it into more of a radio show then a cast.
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Overall I think you both did an amazing job and don't think the negativity while not displayed in this thread (so far) was warranted. The occasional blunder due to the excitement of the moment or just needing to say something is understandable and I think people just want to pick on every little mistake. Great Job and I'm sure you are critical of yourself and know what is good and bad. Keep it up and I'm sure your next appearance will be better yet.
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I think you too often get excited about things that seem like they might happen, but then don't. I don't really know how to describe this just through words, but I'll try.
For instance, if a Terran does an 8 marine medivac drop behind the minerals, and starts shooting the queen while lings get sent over, you'll shout:
"THE QUEEN IS GOING TO..."
...and then you'll start pausing and waiting to see what's actually going to happen. If the lings come in soon enough that the marines get pushed out and the queen lives, you'll awkwardly trail off into:
"... LIVE... through the marines"
It sounds so weird. I think you should try to contain your excitement a bit in these situations. If you aren't sure what is about to happen, don't get super hyped about it because it makes for a weird announcement stream.
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I'd like to give you some feedback you probably weren't expecting. I hope you guys, IPL, and your competitors take it to heart. I know I will give definite preference to whoever does.
1. TURN OFF PROGRESS STATS BARS.
Existing stuff is fine, income is fine, just don't tell me what's going to happen in the future. It completely kills the excitement by about 300%. Don't tell me how behind someone is either. That kills the game instantly. Don't show the worker/unit tab.
2. To be honest, I don't expect amazing game knowledge, and I don't even really want it. Don't try to predict what will happen, just hype up what IS happening. Don't show skepticism of a strategy, give a player the benefit of the doubt and hype up his guts to give each variable more importance by cheesing.
I enjoy your casting in terms of delivery and excitement. Sometimes it feels a little fake, but overall you guys are good. Just give me uncertainty and excitement over omniscience and declarations that a game's over so I might as well stop watching.
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HD I think you and Painuser did great dude! You are great at making a game exciting and thats why so many people joined sc2 because of you.
Perhaps the only thing I might suggest to HD is to focus a bit more on the colour commentary part a bit more. You are so great at it and it is definitely your strength! You do have good knowledge but I always think the one with better ability there should focus mostly on analysis, and Painuser has a bit better of a knowledge base I think. It is obviously best if it is a bit of a mix though for sure so keep on working on both parts.
Painuser should just continue brushing up as much as possible on the "new" strats. He does it well already but everyone can improve and that seems the key to your position in casting pairs
Thanks for all the good casts and hard work from both
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HD you have a fantastic casting voice, personality, and are enthusiastic, but I think you are suited much more the introductory role and 'introductory face of eSports' as of now. The person who you show your friends 'Hey this is legit, look at this guy's youtube".
If by just putting in time (and there really is no substitute for time) for more game knowledge I think you be much improved. The problem really is keeping up with the current trends, metagame, players and player matchups, and so much more of what makes Starcraft so interesting. That is a lot, A LOT of hours.
Personally for me I like to have a calm and informative cast where only the truly important things are pointed out and hyped, but I am picky and have been watching pro SC for 5 years now. So I didn't look forward to when you casted games in the IPL :[
Remember that the internet can be stupid critical and keep at it!
2. To be honest, I don't expect amazing game knowledge, and I don't even really want it. Don't try to predict what will happen, just hype up what IS happening. Don't show skepticism of a strategy, give a player the benefit of the doubt and hype up his guts to give each variable more importance by cheesing.
This is an excellent way to benefit your style and suspense as well. I'd love for someone to adopt this kind of approach in casting games, especially where the production is unknown.
On the other hand a lot of people might enjoy watching because of the poker like aspect where they can see and know how much trouble or how safe a player is because of that production tab.
Extra Credits did a good episode on what makes eSports entertaining and they bring that up. (5:38)
I loved the suspense of BW partly because I wasn't sure of what was going on all the time.
There's suspense in the fact that Terran might be engaging and the viewer doesn't know if Thermal Lance is finished, 5 seconds from finishing, or was completely forgotten.
I'm just rambling now.
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To start, you guys did a good job casting. It wasn't great, but it definitely wasn't bad.
The number one thing is you need to let Painuser make the predictions and do the analysis. Do the play by play while he breaks down what that play means for the audience. I mean no offense, but he knows the game on a deeper level as he is a high level player. This doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't cast Starcraft. It just means you need to let him do the thinking stuff. Be the Tasteless, the djWheat. Don't be the Artosis or the Day9.
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On October 11 2011 15:09 0neder wrote:
I'd like to give you some feedback you probably weren't expecting. I hope you guys, IPL, and your competitors take it to heart. I know I will give definite preference to whoever does.
1. TURN OFF PROGRESS STATS BARS.
Existing stuff is fine, income is fine, just don't tell me what's going to happen in the future. It completely kills the excitement by about 300%. Don't tell me how behind someone is either. That kills the game instantly. Don't show the worker/unit tab.
2. To be honest, I don't expect amazing game knowledge, and I don't even really want it. Don't try to predict what will happen, just hype up what IS happening. Don't show skepticism of a strategy, give a player the benefit of the doubt and hype up his guts to give each variable more importance by cheesing.
I enjoy your casting in terms of delivery and excitement. Sometimes it feels a little fake, but overall you guys are good. Just give me uncertainty and excitement over omniscience and declarations that a game's over so I might as well stop watching.
Not everyone agrees with the progress bar being off. I seem to remember seeing a poll with it heavily favored to having it on
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HD you've definitely made improvements that are noticeable over the progress of the IPL. From the IPL Qualifiers to the actual tournament in Atlantic City, you definitely gained some casting skills, although they could still use a little work as you said. You're knowledge of the game is definitely increasing which makes your casting flow with Painuser's much better. As far as entertainment goes, for me it was a lot of fun listening to both of you over the course of the tournament.
Painuser does a pretty good job analyzing the game, he is fairly entertaining although he leeches off of you a bit! Still fun to listen to But Painuser could definitely tone down his terran opinion a bit, which sounds sort of dumb to say but often times it leads to incorrect statements of battles and tech transitions.
You both make for an entertaining cast that also does a great job analyzing the games. Not sure if you two plan on casting other tournaments as well as the next IPL, but I hope you do because it's only getting better
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I'm sorry to say, your game sense was below par for this one. Making wrong calls etc flies if you let yourself be carried by your co-caster. You, for better (you are sometimes entertaining, but, unfortunately not every time you try, and it shows) and for worse, do not.
Painusers sense for the T matchups is very good. People say he is biased because of this. Well, theres a Terran slant on everything he says. That is not a problem, it is an asset. Even for me as a Zerg.
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EPT
