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    Dota 2

    Game » consists of 3 releases. Released Jul 09, 2013

    The official free-to-play sequel to the Warcraft III custom scenario that originally popularized the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena sub-genre.

    Looking for feedback on casting.

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    EpicVandal

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    Hey guys,

    I haven't ever really tried to put myself out there for public criticism yet but I figure that I should do so if I want to try to improve. I've done a few casts as local recordings and uploaded them to youtube. I don't have that great of internet so I don't stream currently, though hopefully that'll change soon.

    Anyways, I know that there is a league going on for the industry people and something just made me want to contact Crispy today and try to see about maybe helping to cast and work on my skills that way. He suggested I put up a forum thread and some of my videos.

    I feel more comfortable coming here instead of reddit or something since I've been a part of this site, albeit silent, since the start. Please skim through these videos or any of the others and give me some feed back.

    Thanks!

    I've done some commentating of a couple of amatuer games and put them all in a play list. My channel is Errant Gaming and a couple of videos at random are:

    And

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    darkwhitehair

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    Find yourself a co-caster and just keep practicing. Me and Grant (ajamafalous on GB) just hosted GB inhouses on the GB chat channel every day and casted them together. Eventually you learn what you're good at, and what you need to work on. No one is organizing or casting GB (or neogaf) inhouse games, so you got to take the initiative.

    GRANT I MISS YOU! :(

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    Crispy

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    I watched chunks of the first video. It's kinda funny watching games from the older metas, seeing as how drafting is completely different now. Some notes/comments:

    - Draft analysis isn't too bad, but needs some work. For example, you should always strive to explain what the lineups are capable of, both in terms of what they're gonna look to do (gank, push, 4-protect-1, etc.) and how the teamfights will shape up (i.e. "They have great initiation with Clockwerk's Hook, after which the enemy team will be forced to gather or sacrifice their teammate").

    - You sounded unsure of yourself when predicting the lane configurations during the draft. Whenever you're not sure how they're going to lane it, just list the different possibilities while explaining the strengths/goals of each.

    - Radiant ended up aggro trilaning; make sure to elaborate on why they would make that decision, and what can be gained out of it (usually either killing or disrupting the enemy carry's farm)

    - You criticized the Alch for his skill build several times. It's ok to voice your opinion or to question something, but there was a point when you were basically berating him. Try to keep negativity in casts to a minimum, cause it only invites people to question your own ability.

    - Part-way through the cast, you were kinda jumping around the map saying "boring, boring, boring". Even if you're not aspiring to be a play-by-play caster, you should at least try to liven up the game, or to sound genuinely excited about plays (when first blood came out, you sounded nonplussed. You could always spruce stuff like that up with something like "And ______ gives up the First Blood, going the way of _______. Mythical Penguins are off to a great start in game 1 of the series.")

    - In the same vein as that first blood example above, try to mention team/player names whenever you can. It helps keep the viewer involved in the game and encourages narrative ("Loda dies again! Pieliedie's mission in this game is to keep Loda down, and boy, is it working!").

    - Any time there's a lull in the game, make sure to bring up the different graphs (Last Hits, Net Worth, team XP, team Gold) to help portray the state of the game. Again, try to explain what each team wants to accomplish with their lineups.

    - Some of your commentary was a little inaccurate, but that's not too bad since it'll only get better with time and familiarity.

    - If you're looking to be more on the play-by-play side of the fence, make sure to describe the action, step by step. ("Morphling dives in with a Waveform! He's looking for Clock! Clock is juking through the trees! Morph is microing his Replicate to cut off both exits!", etc.) Watch some Tobi/LD replays for examples of teamfight casting. If you're more interested in being a color commentator, try to find a casting partner who can take on that main caster role while you explain strats during lulls. Also, keep studying pro games to broaden your game/meta knowledge.

    I didn't watch all of it (watched ~30 min), but you have potential. I'd say the biggest thing you have to work on is learning how to make things sound exciting (again, watch VODs of the top casters). Hope that helped a little?

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    EpicVandal

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    Hey Cripsy,

    Thanks for checking it out and giving your feedback. I appreciate it. I'd done some casts since these two but I just picked these two out randomly as they were next to each other in the playlist. I think I've improved on some areas since these but I haven't tried to cast a game recently. I'll add these to my list of things to work on, I usually try to make one improvement a game and focus on that. I keep notes for improving on a second monitor so I can glance over and be reminded of what to do and not to do.

    I think having a co-caster would go a long way as well. I'm also not sure what i'd be better at or what i'd enjoy doing more in regards to play-by-play or color since I've only commentated by myself. I know that I need to work on my camera control too, I am constantly displeased with my camera work.

    I hope my responses don't sound defensive or dismissive of your comments. I appreciate you taking time to look at what I've done and offer feed back. I'll try to find a couple more games to commentate soon and try to improve even more. And thanks for saying I have potential, it means a lot to me when someone I don't really know says that vs my friends who look at my stuff for me.

    You criticized the Alch for his skill build several times. It's ok to voice your opinion or to question something, but there was a point when you were basically berating him. Try to keep negativity in casts to a minimum, cause it only invites people to question your own ability.

    This was something I realized immediately after the game and i talked to a friend on how & why to play alch mid and what he tries to accomplish in that role. I immediately reflected and didn't like what I had done there and thought that it was really bad form.

    Part-way through the cast, you were kinda jumping around the map saying "boring, boring, boring". Even if you're not aspiring to be a play-by-play caster, you should at least try to liven up the game, or to sound genuinely excited about plays (when first blood came out, you sounded nonplussed. You could always spruce stuff like that up with something like "And ______ gives up the First Blood, going the way of _______. Mythical Penguins are off to a great start in game 1 of the series.")

    This is something that is hard to overcome for me. Thanks for pointing it out. It's really not easy to think about things like that when also trying to pay attention to the mini-map and also on the things going on in the game. Until I started to try to cast myself I never realized how mentally taxing it can be. It's times like this when having a co-caster would be really helpful i think.

    I'd say the biggest thing you have to work on is learning how to make things sound exciting

    Another thing I know I need to work on. It's so hard to do that and focus on everything else. I know that calling out abilities and prioritizing them is something else that I've tried to work on since these casts.

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    diz

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    You have a great voice for casting. Keep on at this and I hope to hear you casting some pro games in the near future.

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