About casters
A discussion has started on twitter. I saw Loda was a part of it, i dont know what started it but i'd like to say my words about it. Atleast a few.
If we look at all casters from all regions, that would be most fair, but as this is hard when you have a language barrier i will focus on the international casters/commentators. Because i also think this is who the discussion is about.
First off, you cannot put aside the fact that these people work their asses off or atleast have been working their asses off to get where they are. They have stayed up late nights, and early mornings and they have provided all their love for the game to even be remotely famous and get the chance of the bigger games. That has to be respected. And i respect that alot too, since i without a doubt have done the same.
Casters and talents are really competent in what they do, if they stick to what they should do. If you are a hypecaster you should hypecast. If you have no experience from the dotascene as a player, you shouldnt talk about it as if you have experience of it. You can make comments, but you cant make them as an expert since you have no expertbasis on it.
I saw a good example of just that today, when i joined bulldogs stream temporarly and he spoke about earthspirit. He stated that something was wrong with the build, but added that hes not a earthspirit player. For my sake i didnt need that addon, but thats a way of showing the viewers respect.
I belive that this is lacking from some of the hypecasters - i will not name anyonwe since my point definently not is to point someone out or make someone look bad. This is just a general thing and the people have to judge themself regarding this.
Another problem that i experience is that its clear that casters are rooting for certain teams, but instead of admiting this they are trying to make it sound as if they are professionals who are not rooting for teams. This makes the cast even worse then mine in that sense according to me - i do root for alliance and the other swedish teams and i will keep doing this. Its obvious also in my statement. This means the viewers understand that sometimes my analyze might be abit extra positive towards those teams. But if you say that you are none-biased and i can just listen for 3-4 minutes on a discussion and its clear that you are not. Then it makes it really dumb.
And i also understand that Allianceplayers react to this. Think about what kind of statements the English cast generally has done about this team. About thier way of playing, about certain players heropools and other things. Comments which is telling us more about what you think about how dota2 should be played rather then you actually commenting on the fact WHY THEY WIN.
The last thing i would like to talk about is nepotism. It could be called networking aswell, but these groups are extremely small and hard to get into. Especially for female casters, but also others. Some people just get their shot while others have to work their asses off. This is fine for me, i have been asked to participate in the English analyse desk for TI4 but i wanted to focus on the Swedish coverage instead. So dont try to turn this into envy, i just really feel bad since we might be lacking alot of competent casters due to this reason. Look at Odpixel. He worked really hard before he got a chance, and now hes one of the most competent hypecasters out there.
Lastly i have to say that there are different ways of casting. I also get feedback or critisism regarding my casting, you cant make everyone happy. But i do think that one of the most important jobs we do have as casters is to pay real respect towards the sport and towards the teams in the sport - unless they have done something really bad like cheating etc - all the time.
Drayich