Talking
Talking-Esports-FINAL-2 Talking-Esports-FINAL-2
HANDLING CRITICISMOften you will get critique from people either during or after thecast, and frankly this is natural. If you don’t have the thickest skinand don’t take kindly to harsh critique, then this is probably not thejob for you. However, there are things you can do to avoid or atleast lessen the dent to your confidence, especially in the earlydays. You may find people say things like “Oh my God, you’re crapcompared to ”. Comparisonis understandable, especially if you cover a game that has hadone particular caster attachedto it for a long period of time.You’ll need to ignore most ofthese, although you can studythose who people say are greatand see if you can learn fromthem. Be careful not to clonethem, though - you need yourown personality!Try to be selective about whatyou take on board. Read pastthe fan boy comments (good and bad) and look for those that offeradvice from respected community members or other casters. Youcould even ignore Reddit posts, forums and news comments for awhile until you’re comfortable in the scene you commentate in. Youcan’t run or hide forever, but those early few weeks can be veryharsh on you unless you take some form of preventative measure toblock some of the rubbish out.And please, for the love of God, do NOT take anything in Twitchchat seriously. As much as it can be fun, it can also contain some ofthe most putrid bile of ‘feedback’, and rarely will it help you.19
I could spend an age analysing why this occurs, but that’s not reallyimportant right now to you, the budding commentator. All you needto remember is why you started doing this in the first place. Eventuallythrough numerous casts you will improve and grow to haveyour own fan base of people who enjoy what you do for them or atthe very least respect the time and effort you put in.LEARNING FROM THE PROFESSIONALSOne of the best ways of learning from experts I found early on wasto listen to sports radio broadcasts. It actually doesn’t matter toomuch which sport, but try and find something that has the samekind of pace. Football (or soccer) worked for me. Those on BBCRadio 5 in particular offer excellent insight into the world of radiobroadcasting. Listen to the way they explain things, their energy,their pace, how they interact with their co-commentator and howthey bring in the action and do hand-offs (throws).I learned more from listening to this style of commentary than anythingin esports could offer me.Obviously, commentating in your home is very different from doingthe same thing for a large televised show like LCS or WCS, and evenmore removed from a tournament event like Intel Extreme Mastersor ESL One in a huge stadium. But that’s for a later chapter!At this point, you need as much help as you can get, regardless ofwhere you think you are in your progress. Help comes in the form ofadvice from your peers and fellow broadcasters (who are likely tohave felt just like you do when they first started). It also comes inthe form of reading books on TV production (particularly sportsproduction), biographies of professional sports commentators (I canparticularly recommend Murray Walker’s biography and John Mot-20
- Page 1 and 2: Talking EsportsA guide to becoming
- Page 3 and 4: CAMERAS! ..........................
- Page 5 and 6: INTRODUCTIONIt doesn’t matter if
- Page 7 and 8: HOW ON EARTH DID WE GET HERE?We’v
- Page 9 and 10: on a dedicated gaming channel (Xlea
- Page 11 and 12: BROADCAST ROLESBefore I jump in to
- Page 13 and 14: STREAMINGStreaming is an important
- Page 15 and 16: If you get stuck, remember that the
- Page 17 and 18: GOING PUBLICWhen you’re ready to
- Page 19: Using the same words over and over
- Page 23 and 24: THE KEYS TO SUCCESS ON ANY FORMATRe
- Page 25 and 26: I’ve included a recent spreadshee
- Page 27 and 28: GAME-SPECIFIC PREPARATIONIf you are
- Page 29 and 30: efore the tournament. Make sure you
- Page 31 and 32: Likewise, being professional doesn
- Page 33 and 34: So how do you deal with all these?L
- Page 35 and 36: self saving them occasionally, but
- Page 37 and 38: emember that very few people are an
- Page 39 and 40: THE VOICEI won’t lie to you here:
- Page 41 and 42: more expressive at the same time. Y
- Page 43 and 44: son as to why you should avoid alco
- Page 45 and 46: That said, stamping your own person
- Page 47 and 48: If you work on your own, it’s rel
- Page 49 and 50: STORYLINESAnother area often underu
- Page 51 and 52: a broadcast. That means, above all
- Page 53 and 54: HOSTING AND PRESENTINGOne of the mo
- Page 55 and 56: For large tournaments in arenas, it
- Page 57 and 58: GRAPHICS AND STORYLINESUp to this p
- Page 59 and 60: even four different cameras to use.
- Page 61 and 62: There is an old saying that you can
- Page 63 and 64: the conversation can often lead to
- Page 65 and 66: The simplest and easiest way to do
- Page 67 and 68: THROWSThe art of throwing is one th
- Page 69 and 70: ENHANCED THROWSOnce you’re comfor
I could spend an age analysing why this occurs, but that’s not reallyimportant right now to you, the budding commentator. All you needto remember is why you started doing this in the first place. Eventuallythrough numerous casts you will improve and grow to haveyour own fan base of people who enjoy what you do for them or atthe very least respect the time and effort you put in.LEARNING FROM THE PROFESSIONALSOne of the best ways of learning from experts I found early on wasto listen to sports radio broadcasts. It actually doesn’t matter toomuch which sport, but try and find something that has the samekind of pace. Football (or soccer) worked for me. Those on BBCRadio 5 in particular offer excellent insight into the world of radiobroadcasting. Listen to the way they explain things, their energy,their pace, how they interact with their co-commentator and howthey bring in the action and do hand-offs (throws).I learned more from listening to this style of commentary than anythingin esports could offer me.Obviously, commentating in your home is very different from doingthe same thing for a large televised show like LCS or WCS, and evenmore removed from a tournament event like Intel Extreme Mastersor ESL One in a huge stadium. But that’s for a later chapter!At this point, you need as much help as you can get, regardless ofwhere you think you are in your progress. Help comes in the form ofadvice from your peers and fellow broadcasters (who are likely tohave felt just like you do when they first started). It also comes inthe form of reading books on TV production (particularly sportsproduction), biographies of professional sports commentators (I canparticularly recommend Murray Walker’s biography and John Mot-20
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