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After reading feardragon's farewell to full time casting, I wanted to mention something i've struggled with in casting of basically all casters in SC2. Before anyone thinks i'm going to put down anybody please be patient and read.
The chemistry between casters in basically all english streams is lacking. What I mean by chemistry is the ability for casters to create interesting banter when the game is slow, or general interesting commentary about a player or matchup. Often times I see one caster trying to make a joke or say something interesting only to have their casting partner to not get where they are going and then the conversation becomes awkward and disjointed. Its this aspect of commentary that I think is often overlooked and what also makes a decent cast become a great cast. Good chemistry between two commentators and value and depth to the game and makes professional games and tournaments more enjoyable to watch. The best example I have of good chemistry between commentators is Artosis and Tasteless. They have worked together for so long casting the GSL seasons that they are able to play off of funny quips and thoughts the other person has. So when the game is slow there isn't dead air.
This leads me into my suggestion I'd love for the WCS to pick up on. Instead of rotating out casters in this sort of musical chairs mix-and-match style. Casters should be hired and evaluated as a pair vs individually. They should be an organized team and always cast games together. By doing this they would build chemistry and create a more substantial back and forth dialogue, and ultimately create a superior quality stream.
Another thing I want to touch on is the level of professionalism exuded by the english casters at the "desk", while I'm sure every event carries its own set of technical issues and surprises, there is a level of professionalism within the banter that should be maintained (and usually is). If you watch any TV news cast, you see the back and forth friendly banter anchors have with each other. You also see that they are prepared to fill time and know how to handle curveballs during live broadcasts. I'd love to see the desk of WCS casters show these attributes more often during casts. Maintaining a level of professionalism during a large tournament helps viewers know they will receive a consistent cast quality. While I specifically don't want to call anybody out for bad behavior I think sometimes these casters can confuse the WCS setting with their own personal streams and its that mindset that causes the problem.
While this may just be me, and an overall unpopular opinion. I just want to say I really like a lot of the casters out there and I just want to see them improve. I want to have more than one caster team that I get excited to listen to and I believe this is the way it can happen.
EDIT:
After reading much of the replies, I wanted to clarify something, I don't think the casting is bad in the slightest, and in fact I think the casting is good and with the addition of some new casters the lineup the commentary has been better than ever. My suggestions are mostly for taking casting from good to great.
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Ego. Ego ruins shows. All Casters in the SC2, in my opinion, except for Rotti, has too much Ego.
Can we get some people with great personalities instead?
I agree with you for mostly everything you said though.
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I feel that ex-players are oftentimes the best casters. I loved Grubby as a caster, I really enjoy Snute, Harstem, DeMusliM casting, and many more. So I'm hoping to see some of the players of yore join as casters, and I think that - in general - they have good chemistry with most other (hype/play-by-play) casters + Show Spoiler +except with Rifkin, but he's truly... unique
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I like the European/Aussie casters (Rotti, ToD, Demu, PiG, Maynarde, etc.) because they feel more laid back and also articulate their points pretty well. The pro/GM insights also help. I'd say a duo should always have an Euro/Aussie caster and someone else. The Americans are too "post-modern."
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United States33342 Posts
you weren't utterly deferential and apologetic so casters aren't gonna listen to this man 
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Honestly, I like WCS cast most of the times and I'm fine with all of the casters. The only problem I have is when they start with cringe jokes and go on with that mood for hours, ignoring what's happening in the game. There was a day in WCS EU challenger , can't remember if Winter or Spring, that I had to turn off the sound of the stream because the annoying jokes became unbearable. I thought I was the only one who was bothered, then I watched the VOD of the day on Youtube and most of the comments were complaining about the cast.
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One of the biggest issues is rotating casters, and casters not understand there place. You cannot have 2 play by play guys and 2 analysts at a time. It doesn't work, it has never worked, it never will work. And people need to know what they are good at, if you are good at calling the action, stick to that most of the time and wait for your partner to bring up strategy to talk about it and vice versa. And what was said about ego is true. There are a few casters who think that they are the most important thing in the production, they talk over others, and they don't note things happening in game because they are talking about something else. It is just a clusterfuck right now.
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I don't see it, there are many great casting combos and it always seems very natural.
Rotti and ToD
Rotti and Demu
Rotti and Pig
Rotti and Maynarde
Rotti and iNcontroL
Rotti and Nathanias
Just to name a few.
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Canada8989 Posts
I like pretty much everyone, I don't think anyone is particularly out of it and I can't remember a time the WCS casters got on my nerve
The only problem I have is that sometime there's too many play by play casters and not enough analysis casters, probably because there is not that many casters that can do deep analysis both because it take an incredible amount of time to study the game and because it's hard to find the timing to do it.
I think it's mostly a SC2 problems, it's harder to get than other games by just watching it, for example if you take Wardi, I like him a lot and he's a great casters but despite casting probably more than everyone else in the world I don't feel like he has that much of a better understanding of the game than an hardcore fan who would just watch all his stream, Rifikin would be another good example of that or Kaldhor if we go old school.
It's not necessarily a criticism, it's hard to be a solid analysis caster without being able to be full time in SC and you can get thrown out of the meta loop pretty fast (for example Nate who's now more of a play by play/host instead of an analyst after he started doing some more things) and no one is 2014 Day9 level yet we are ok.
But right now we have about 3 pure analyst in Rotti, Artosis and Demuslim and 2-3 who are kind of in-between with Pig-ZG-Tod and Incontrol, so maybe more analysis would be nice sometime, or have a solid rotation to give everyone a more defined role.
WCS analysis is also a lot harder since you can't prep for the games, if you cast GSL you already know who's playing and everyone has a big number of replay, when you have 2 groups of NA ladder heroes, or learn who's your gonna cast 30 minutes before it, it's pretty much impossible to have a good feel on everyone play and sniff out the builds or the mind games.
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I just think a main issue is lack of actual professional training in the side of broadcasting. Filling dead air and creating conversation between casters doesn't come out of nowhere - it takes years of practice and work on dictation and proper English to really be successful. Proper casting akin to traditional sports is very difficult to achieve without specifically working towards fixing mistakes.
I would say out of all the casters out there, those with the most experience are the obvious frontrunners in terms of quality, i.e. Tastosis, Rotti, Incontrol, and Nathanias. With the exception of Incontrol who is an English major and has a good grasp on flow and technique when it comes to casting, the remainder are "career casters", meaning they have spent a large amount of time working on their abilities and getting used to it. This is not meant to exclude other "career casters" like Wardi, Rifkin, Maynarde, ZombieGrub or even feardragon, but these are prime examples of the pinnacle of SC2 casting talent.
Besides consistent practice and adjustments over time, natural talent also plays a factor, and knowledge of the influences it as well. Some people just have a knack for it based on intelligence, personality, knowledge of the product and "intangibles". An excellent example of someone who broke into the sports casting business is Tony Romo of the NFL, who is considered one of the best in the business after two years being a commentator, with no prior experience in the field. Obviously, as a past player, he is extremely knowledgeable of NFL talent and strategy, but it is also his charm and charisma that puts him in high regard.
SC2 casters seem to lack that "charm" a lot of the time. With the exception to those I named above as top-quality, the remainder of casters tend to be more "by the books" and straight to the point. Jokes and banter oftentimes feels shoehorned in just to fill gaps, but this is not the fault of the casters. The way most major SC2 tournaments work is that they swap commentator groups and combinations on the fly based on matchup and availability. This means that throughout a weekender, the same duo of casters may be together on main stream for a limited number of matches over the course of the weekend. This means that chemistry doesn't have time to develop and a steady flow and comfort level isn't easily achieved. In most traditional sports, the same 2-3 commentators stay together - going back to the NFL for example, duos like Jim Nantz/Tony Romo, Joe Buck/Troy Aikman, and Al Michael/Cris Collinsworth all have a steady schedule of working together and the ability to work together to make eachother better. This does not exist in SC2, outside of Tastosis.
This is why casting is so hit-or-miss with a lot of people. Consistency, experience, and raw talent are huge factors that cannot be ignored. Duos with more experience together are more likely to be better, and those with less experience may struggle more and receive more criticism.
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I disagree wholeheartedly. I just hate to listen to casters who are really good at filling time with their stories but don't seem to give a shit about SC2, and even during important moments in games would rather talk about unrelated stuff. WCS casting is way better than GSL.
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On June 06 2019 04:23 Musicus wrote:
I don't see it, there are many great casting combos and it always seems very natural.
Rotti and ToD
Rotti and Demu
Rotti and Pig
Rotti and Maynarde
Rotti and iNcontroL
Rotti and Nathanias
Just to name a few.
You forgot Rotti and MustacheRotti, Rotti and EyepatchRotti, and Rotti and CastingSucksBallsWithoutMe
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On June 06 2019 07:13 yubo56 wrote:Show nested quote +On June 06 2019 04:23 Musicus wrote:
I don't see it, there are many great casting combos and it always seems very natural.
Rotti and ToD
Rotti and Demu
Rotti and Pig
Rotti and Maynarde
Rotti and iNcontroL
Rotti and Nathanias
Just to name a few. You forgot Rotti and MustacheRotti, Rotti and EyepatchRotti, and Rotti and CastingSucksBallsWithoutMe
Top comment!
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Learn french and watch O'gaming 
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As a Chinese audience, I think too much "chemistry" will ruin the tournament.
There are no professional caster in China, only anchors with memes.
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On June 06 2019 07:13 yubo56 wrote:Show nested quote +On June 06 2019 04:23 Musicus wrote:
I don't see it, there are many great casting combos and it always seems very natural.
Rotti and ToD
Rotti and Demu
Rotti and Pig
Rotti and Maynarde
Rotti and iNcontroL
Rotti and Nathanias
Just to name a few. You forgot Rotti and MustacheRotti, Rotti and EyepatchRotti, and Rotti and CastingSucksBallsWithoutMe
Should be MustacheCaster and PirateCaster 
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On June 06 2019 04:38 Nakajin wrote:
WCS analysis is also a lot harder since you can't prep for the games, if you cast GSL you already know who's playing and everyone has a big number of replay, when you have 2 groups of NA ladder heroes, or learn who's your gonna cast 30 minutes before it, it's pretty much impossible to have a good feel on everyone play and sniff out the builds or the mind games.
I would rather say that is an opportunity for casters to distinguish themselves. It's not totally unreasonable for a caster to research almost everyone playing in WCS. It's not like there are that many new faces everytime. And preparation is already a big part of the job. Sure, it might not be as easy as just looking at Twitch replays for lesser known players, but there are other ways to inquire if you are invested.
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some of it is just a lack of talent
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On June 07 2019 22:55 Tayar wrote:
some of it is just a lack of talent
Lol, be careful saying that
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i think all the casters are great. not even joking.
some of them have sub par analysis sometimes imo but that is okay. Casting/entertainment wise I think all of them, even fear dragon who quit in part because he felt he was not good enough, were well spoken and interesting and enhanced entertainment.
incontrol and rotterdam are my favorites though. they bring the lolz
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EPT
