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I was surprised there was nowhere on TL for the community to comment on their favorite casters or to post their favorite quotes from recent streams, so my intention with this thread was to create that place. The conceit here is that using the feedback on this forum I'll try to rank the community's favorite English language casting teams. There is no specific criteria for these rankings, anything and everything can be taken into account: knowledge about the game, entertainment value, chemistry, good lucks, whatever. I'm ranking teams, because I think a casting team should be judged as a team. That said, some casters like Day9 don't really have a regular casting partner so it's not unreasonable for him to make the list solo. This first week will just be a list of my five personal favorite casting teams to start things off, but the goal is to create a rough community consensus as the weeks go on. I would just ask that if people are going to be critical that they keep their criticisms constructive and civil. I don't wish for this to be a place to harp on casters for making wrong calls. I know threads like this have been closed in the past. With that preamble out of the way here are my inaugural English Language Casters Power Rankings(ELCPR):
+ Show Spoiler +
1. Tasteless and Artosis+ Show Spoiler +The gold standard of SC2 casting since day one of the GSL. Excellent game knowledge, highly entertaining, and unbelievable chemistry. These guys score high marks across the board. I expect them to have on Iron lock grip on the number one spot on this list for a long time to come. The ironmen casters of the NA scene these guys never forgot to bring the Hype. RotterdaM and nathanias make up what they might lack in game knowledge with an infectious enthusiasm for the game and it's not as if they lack game knowledge, especially when it comes to Terran and Protoss. I'M hesitant to include these two this high on the list as their continental divide prevents this from being a regular pairing, but the chemistry is undeniable. It doesn't hurt that ToD is about as knowledgeable as one can be when it comes to Protoss thanks to his continued high performance as a player. Probably tipped my hand for his inclusion in the preamble, but the spot is well deserved. Decent chemistry with anybody he's Paired with, and a talent for breaking down the game that makes it easy for even the noobiest of players to understand. Holding down the fort in WCS EU, these guys have Solid chemistry and Great game knowledge especially from Apollo. Not the most strictly entertaining pairing, but consistently improving.
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Unfortunately, this is a lot more subjective than player rankings, because you can actually look at results of players, but community feedback and even the number of gigs casted might be dependent upon vocal minorities and availability. You also have no facts or statistics anyway, so you'd need to do a lot more research if you wanted to make this into a credible idea.
Also, what about pros who spend a significant amount of time casting like iNcontroL? I think his casting is top notch, because it has great analysis and his style keeps me interested. Which is something that other people might completely disagree with me on.
Also, putting Apollo last... lol.
And you need a lot more casters... Khaldor, Wolf, etc.
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I would consider the single casters rather than the "teams"; usually tournaments have 3-4 casters who rotate so you have a different team every match.
At the moment Nathanias and Rotterdam are probably my favourite, followed by Apollo, Artosis, Day9, Incontrol, ToD, Kaelaris, Khaldor. I wouldn't list axeltoss, but he is ok to me, just not amazing.
I must also note that there are many progamers which we've heard casting occasionally who were quite enjoyable, in particular qxc did a really good job in wcs america.
Yes this is subjective, just like everything, what makes a caster "good" is when most people say that he's good. Statistics are also subjective anyway as they can be manipulated and interpreted.
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Austria24417 Posts
On July 19 2014 01:29 NarutO wrote:
TAKE AND NARUTO
:[
I actually watched all of ATC on Take's stream even when there was an english one available. You guys are awesome.
Apollo's my favorite though, I just love his style of casting. He tells the story of a game based on game knowledge, very very rarely calls stuff wrong (calling bad forcefields good, misreading a situation, calling a fight wrong). That means he only gets excited and hyped when it's time to get hyped. His sexy british accent also helps.
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Canada8157 Posts
I'd like to see Nathanias/QXC cast together, they're great at hyping up a fight, wonder what it would sound like with both of them doing it
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On July 19 2014 01:32 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Also, what about pros who spend a significant amount of time casting like iNcontroL? I think his casting is top notch, because it has great analysis and his style keeps me interested. Which is something that other people might completely disagree with me on.
He only can be ranked one rank higher than Day [9]! Incontrol is too inconsistent, though very entertaining. And he does more these days than Day [9] soo... :p
On July 19 2014 01:29 NarutO wrote:
TAKE AND NARUTO
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#1 in language area Germany without a doubt. Maybe even higher? :o
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Best team - Gretorp and iNcontroL
Edit: Bitterdam close second
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On July 19 2014 01:29 NarutO wrote:
TAKE AND NARUTO
:[
Indeed 
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Tastosis and Rottiboard are my fav
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Personally I prefer Apollo and ToD (separately) over Tastosis, as the latter sometimes swing between hyperbolic and dogmatic ("best RTS player ever", "this isn't the right way to play" etc). Tastosis chemistry is hard to beat though. At the very least I'd put Apollo above Day 9, who is good at after-the-fact analysis and generic knowledge but rarely offers remarkable insights or predictions about the ongoing situation.
Also what about Khaldor, Wolf + Brendan + Moonglade, Incontrol etc? Many seem to dislike Wolf but I find his casting consistently decent (sure he's wrong many time but who isn't, the game isn't an equation with a solution). Wolf and Artosis together in GSL were rather awkward though  but I found Wolf and Tasteless quite enjoyable.
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I love Apollo casting as well, if that means anything from another caster °_°. He knows his shit and I really feel he has the right passion about the game. RotterdaM has the same passion as a player and caster. He also doesn't really hype everything because he is not afraid to point out a mistake. I really believe its important as caster to not draw a wrong image of the game if you know otherwise.
The best casters are active pro players though, at least analytical wise. I really love Harstem, ret & HasuObs for example, because they are good at expressing their knowledge (HSC for example) and I really like that deeper knowledge.
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On July 19 2014 01:32 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Unfortunately, this is a lot more subjective than player rankings, because you can actually look at results of players, but community feedback and even the number of gigs casted might be dependent upon vocal minorities and availability. You also have no facts or statistics anyway, so you'd need to do a lot more research if you wanted to make this into a credible idea.
Also, what about pros who spend a significant amount of time casting like iNcontroL? I think his casting is top notch, because it has great analysis and his style keeps me interested. Which is something that other people might completely disagree with me on.
Also, putting Apollo last... lol.
And you need a lot more casters... Khaldor, Wolf, etc.
I like iNcontrol too. He's eligible for the list. I see where you're doming from but these aren't supposed to be anything resembling a scientific ranking of casters. I would hope people don't take the rankings too seriously. That's not the point. The point is to give fans a place to heap praise on their favorite casters or to post quotes from recent streams. The rankings are just going to reflect the amount of love they're getting in the forum. If things get out of control, I'll ask a mod to close the thread.
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Fiddler's Green42661 Posts
My favorite casters:
Rotterdam and Nathanias
Tod/QXC + anyone
Take + Naruto
Vasacast
Apollo
Maybe Tastosis, but I can't remember the last time I saw them cast.
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On July 19 2014 01:34 KingAlphard wrote:
I would consider the single casters rather than the "teams"; usually tournaments have 3-4 casters who rotate so you have a different team every match.
At the moment Nathanias and Rotterdam are probably my favourite, followed by Apollo, Artosis, Day9, Incontrol, ToD, Kaelaris, Khaldor. I wouldn't list axeltoss, but he is ok to me, just not amazing.
I must also note that there are many progamers which we've heard casting occasionally who were quite enjoyable, in particular qxc did a really good job in wcs america.
Yes this is subjective, just like everything, what makes a caster "good" is when most people say that he's good. Statistics are also subjective anyway as they can be manipulated and interpreted.
I'll take a wait and see policy on the single casters vs teams question. I'm not opposed to changing it to a single casters list.
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You would need to go back through every single game and quantitatively analyze every prediction that was made, and failed. But there's still no way to measure humor.
Always Remember: Monkey Milk.
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On July 19 2014 01:43 oGoZenob wrote:
no Mr.Bitter / rotti ?
I don't believe Mr.Bitter is active. I think he's full time behind the scenes now. They were certainly a great team.
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Artosis is a good caster but Tasteless is not even mediocre, i like their chemistry and all but i would not say they are the best duo. Personally i like Apollo and Day9. Nathianias is a great caster to.
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1. Mr Bitter
2. Artosis
3. Tasteless
4. Rotterdam
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EPT
