Commentators

[past_b]

Just a thread about commentators. My favorite is dogy followed by a close second with wobbles and wife.

Wobbles has a vast amount of knowledge about the game, but I feel like

1) his interaction with the other commentatory i.e. vro was lacking. I like a swap of info and banter between two commentators which was lacking at the big house.

2) I'm not a fan of his interviews. While I like some input from the interviewer, I felt like wobbles provided to much, interrupting the interviewee more than ideal.

Dogy, in antithesis, provided too little input in his interviews IMO. A medium between the two would be great.

Wife is solid all around. Prog and d1 are good but has their faults for reasons I don't want to get on because I'm typing from my phone.

Who are the beat commentators? What are your reasons? I'm curious just in case melee gets into evo!

 

[Bones0]

Wobbles, Wife, and SFAT (he hopped on the mic at KoC and I thought he did amazing).

Also, Bob$. Mostly because of his "OMG!", but also because he's insightful.

 

[Sacredtwin11]

Ken and Hugs obviously. I'm telling you man.

 

[Construct]

Lovage best commentary 2012

 

[Wretched]

I think Lovage is definitely my favorite right now. He is the perfect balance of game knowledge, practicality, and **** talk.

One thing I'd definitely tell commentators to avoid is just yelling out everything that the character does. I know melee is fast and you can't really break everything down, but maybe try to be actively aware of the strategies of the players and point it out. I hear most commentators like "NAIR, SHINE, NAIR, SHINE. OH GRAB OH GRAB" when I'd really like to hear "player is definitely putting on the pressure now. He has been repeating that sort of pressure throughout the match but the other player still seems lost"

 

[KanyeRest]

my personal favorite is waffles, just cause his commentary has provided so many memorable and quotable moments, and i'm always hyped to hear him on the mic. i know he's not the best objectively, but he's definitely top 1 for me. s0ft's commentary is also ****ing hysterical.

best overall has to go to wife or wobbles. very insightful commentary that flows well. imo, flow is probably the biggest thing i look for in a commentator, except if it's waffles. he can be hype as ****

 

[MikeHaggarTHAKJB]

I am the best commentator. Evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ox4I28Hxuw

 

[KrIsP!]

I think Wobbles and Prog at apex would make a perfect team. Prog is good at interacting, with the stream and with the commentator and just generally charismatic. We talked about the art of controlling a conversation in a lecture yesterday and after that I went home and listened to prog commentate at RoM and he did all the basic stuff we talked about, it was kind of interesting.

He needs someone both analytical and not monotonous though, wobbles hits the nail on the head there.

Just like any sports commentating team you need a duo, one giving background information and controlling the conversation, the other explains what's going on. They work together; with just one you get either bored or feel like there's no actual commentating. Too often just random players step up to try which is fine but you end up with two charismatic guys or two analytical guys or worst case scenario, someone who barely plays smash and gets on mic because everyone's playing pools. Can we not let random people step up and admit it's their second tourney on mic?

 

[TaFoKiNtS]

Any suggestions for me? i did commentary for teams at KoC

 

[Wobbles]

If I got the chance to legitimately cast with Taj, I think the end result would be pretty flipping sweet.

 

[DerfMidWest]

Wobbles, Lovage, Taj are all my favorite currently active commentators.
Im also a fan of KirbyKaze's commentary, but he dunt wants to speak no more, so w/e.

As far as best commentator goes, currently I'd say wobbles. Hands down.

In regards to the whole interaction thing, to be fair... It was Vro. Not to say he's unknowkedgable, but he is clearly not at the same level of understanding of the game as Wobbles, and tbh, I found him to be awkward and a little uninteresting on commentary.it felt like wobbles really had to carry the conversation.

Wobbles is probably the best commentator this scene has ever had, followed closely by wife and lovage, imo.

 

[Youngling]

HMW and phil

 

[RFrizzle]

Top tier: Lovage, Wobbles, Waffle, Phil, Dogy, Prog, Mango, s0ft, D1 (No order)
Ehh: MDZ, KK, DJN (Acronyms yo)
poop: Benteezy, like ****ing everyone who wasn't notable who did commentary at Zenith.

 

[EthereaL]

In the framework of "for evo":

Wife, followed closely by Wobbles, and then Prog.

Waffles is pretty bad.

 

[Jockmaster]

*****s come on waffles and lovage are god tier, wobbles is good but talky (in the bad way).

I would also like to see Hugs ****ride Mango more i was actually laughing

 

[The Star King]

Waffles is terrible. Sliq needs to commentate more.

 

[Kite91]

Wife and wobbles = god tier commentators

 

[MikeHaggarTHAKJB]

Wife and wobbles = good tier commentators

Good tier indeed. Only I am god tier.

 

[Wobbles]

This whole topic is kind of ridiculous though. Different people want drastically different things from commentators.

If you want someone on the microphone getting really excited and shouting when people land hits, and that helps you get more into the match and enjoy it more, you're going to like people like Waffles. I'm never going to be the progenitor of a Wombo Combo video because I just don't get that loud even when I'm really pumped up about a match.

I'm also not a fan of that kind of commentary. I actually get UN-hyped if the commentator is getting excited over very basic stuff, or if they make their bias too obvious. When the commentators start verbally wincing and going, "ohhh he needed that c'mon man" I end up muting it and turning on music. I don't need the commentator to hype me because the match itself is what hypes me.

Some people really like my style. Some people get annoyed because I dip into very literal play-by-play and talk A LOT. Part of my idea on how to commentate though is skewed by the casts and streams of other online games (LoL/Dota/Starcraft) where sometimes action is so clustered you can't even track it, but then there's dead time to explain things afterwards. I'm still finding my voice when it comes to this whole thing since I've only done it twice, but if I'm going to do anything, I'm going to try to do it the best I can. But people want contradictory things. Somebody suggests "hey, you should occasionally just say the stock/percents for people who are tabbed out or listening but doing something else," and then someone else says, "dude we can see the stream." People want you to be the authority and expect you to sound confident, then someone criticizes you for being a know-it-all.

It's all good though. I'll just get better

 

[DerfMidWest]

Wobbles you should just talk, because you're amazing

 

[past_b]

I forgot about taj. And you are right, vro is not in any way comparable to wobbles when it comes to smash knowledge making interaction between the two challenging.

Edit: also true in that I hate when commentators point out the obvious... I like a little more in depth analysis, something that wobbles excels at and dogy does relatively well. If you have limited to no knowlege about the game, you shouldn't commentate.

Wobbles, Lovage, Taj are all my favorite currently active commentators.
Im also a fan of KirbyKaze's commentary, but he dunt wants to speak no more, so w/e.

As far as best commentator goes, currently I'd say wobbles. Hands down.

In regards to the whole interaction thing, to be fair... It was Vro. Not to say he's unknowkedgable, but he is clearly not at the same level of understanding of the game as Wobbles, and tbh, I found him to be awkward and a little uninteresting on commentary.it felt like wobbles really had to carry the conversation.

Wobbles is probably the best commentator this scene has ever had, followed closely by wife and lovage, imo.

 

[prog]

Wobbles you should just talk, because you're amazing

I concur, I love listening to his commentary.

 

[Battlecow]

God tier: Wife, Bob$. The excitement they bring is invaluable, but they're not going to say some of the stupid stuff that waffles or dogy say.

demigod tier: Wobbles. He talk good and I'd rather have him than anyone for most matches, but honestly in the GRAND FINALS I don't need to know more about melee I need to get my excited on. I guess he'll never get excited, but could he bring himself to commentate with someone who did? Maybe he could provide the PLAY-BY-PLAY and we could get our color elsewhere.

Great tier: I honestly really like prog and D1 and hazz. not perfect but good. Lovage is pretty good too.

My dream team: Bob$ and wobbles

 

[Riio]

cosign on Wife and Bob$, really enjoy their commentary. wobbles says a lot of informative stuff but sometimes i feel like he's just talking to himself and i get annoyed when he shuts down the other commentators with sarcasm and explanations of how they're wrong

 

[C.SDK]

+1 for Lovage

 

[Battlecow]

cosign on Wife and Bob$, really enjoy their commentary. wobbles says a lot of informative stuff but sometimes i feel like he's just talking to himself and i get annoyed when he shuts down the other commentators with sarcasm and explanations of how they're wrong

Lol where did you pull that from

he's generally very nice to his co-commentators

 

[Moooose]

lovage is the best commentator
wobbles is okay but i agree with op about flaws. also doesn't know enough about spacies which is pretty important since about 80% of matches have a spacie in it

 

[Twinkles]

I agree wholeheartedly that Wife & Bob$ are amazing.

Favorite new-school commentators: Bob$, Wobbles, and Lovage in some order.

Dogysamich was always good afaik, prog and D1 make a good team, hazz was really funny during the rom5 stream.

Ken was really fun on commentary, probably not because he was a good commentator, but that really didn't stop me from liking it.

HMW in his later years was kinda hit-and-miss, but that 07-08 Norcal commentary is the stuff of legends. Never laughed so hard in my life and was an incredibly big part of why I got into melee, so I guess I'd have to say that I have a huge soft spot for the dude.

I'd say we have a lot of good commentators currently, but I dunno, I do want another HMW somehow or somewhere. Not someone analytical or even necessarily good (though I do know HMW is good, don't get it twisted lol), but I do want someone who can bring hype, who can make any great future set the next Genesis 1 Grand Finals.

 

[Jockmaster]

Hazz for best commentator in an awkward situation

 

[Twinkles]

mogwai or hazz, good sir?

 

[Jockmaster]

mogwai or hazz, good sir?

hazz my b brutha

 

[Tarv]

Honestly, I think the best commentary is a pairing that showcases a balance between hype and analysis. Take a look at the legendary NFL commentating duo of Pat Summerall and John Madden for instance. John made no analytical contributions to the game, and half the time you couldn't understand him but HE MADE IT EXCITING TO WATCH. On the other hand Pat was... boring, but he at least provided an intellectual/analytical insight into the game. Melee needs this balance and I feel like a lot of commentating teams are too heavy on one or the other.

...And if all else fails just get some latino/european soccer(football) announcers to announce fox dittos.

 

[Yung Mei]

I forgot who was commentating at rom5, but around the same time that m2k forfeit, the commentators were like

"m2k is so angry right now, he just through a chair, it flew and hit Alukard in the head, then m2k ran over and picked him up and threw him against the wall, and just started kicking him and sheik fairing him"

that **** was ****ing hilarious

 

[past_b]

I wish i wasnt on my phone...
Rom was sad. I still advocate for a dogy wobbles team for a possible evo appearance. Dogy has the necessary hype and knowldege to make it an ideal team. Dogy provides the hype, wobbles provides the inside knowledge that dogy can relate to... What can be better? Taj is amazing too.

 

[KrIsP!]

Dogy doesn't provide much hype IMO. He's quite analyitcal and works as an actual commentator. He doesn't even really play smash, he knows the game and is good at commentating, I'm fine with him being up there but referring to my last post we need a good duo and Dogy + Wobbles would clash.

 

[the_CAM_factor]

ive been saying this for years. you need two commentators, each with their own role.
one with hype and personality (but not random hype over things that dont matter)
another with in depth analytically ability (but still able to actually communicate with their co-host)
these together is what can really perfect a viewers enjoyment watching a game

 

[standardtoaster]

I like prog but I wish he would stop saying "is this what you wanted from X tourney"

 

[prog]

I like prog but I wish he would stop saying "is this what you wanted from X tourney"

but i really want to know

 

[KrIsP!]

But I love that. Except it didnt work last night. It did the first time e asked and then...

 

[Daa]

I think the best duo would be 2 progs