Beginners Commentary Direction

Greetings future casters! My name is Sparky, a SoCal raised, Washington State born, Smash 4 Pikachu main and this is my basic guide to commentary.
I'd like to address that iv had the luxury of meeting (and living) with noteworthy community leaders and professional players such as D1, Sky, Mew2King, Zer0, NME_Tryant, NMEZex, NME_Xzax, and K9 . Each person has given the advantage of throwing myself feat first into the smash community and I cannot thank them enough for it(but I can try!).
I wouldn't be writing this guide, commentating or attending tournaments today if not for their generosity, discipline, and advice. From me to you guys, thanks a bunch, for everything.

Now, with formalities out of the way lets talk about you, the budding commentator.


So you've mustered up the guts to jump on the mic a-and y-you s-start to spill all of your spaghetti on stream. Lets get real here, streaming and broadcasting is not for everyone. Just like there are introvert and extroverts there are good casters and bad ones, like, really bad ones. If you are the type of person who does not do well on camera, crowds, or talking in general, then, obviously, casting may not be right for you, as commentary plays a big role in keeping viewers, pumping out information, and breeding the excitement of a match. Although, finding yourself dry-mouthed and shaken can be the worst and pretty awkward. You should combat this insecurity by listening intently to streams, such as VGBootCamp, MVG_League, or even tuning into sports hosts via radio, talking with friends, family members, and yourself, casually, before your first event as this can help with nervousness, speaking with strangers and to the camera. Next I highly recommend taking notes by listening to recordings of yourself before you go to your second event, listen to the way you projected voice, the way you didn't project and be honest/Critical of yourself. Using these tools as a means to improve will assist finding out what role you play as a smash commentator and you'll hear yourself get better over time.


There are multiple types of broadcasters in Esports today i'm only going to cover two; analytical and comedic. Analytical commentary is exactly as it sounds, this type of commentator, respectively, has a wide knowledge of smash games in general, from its core to the outer layers. Within this knowledge and preperation analytical casters posses, they project the facts to the audience via gameplay. For example: neutral micro transactions, percentages, map statistics, players stats, combos, frame data, and much more. The analytical caster should do a wonderful job teaching viewers things they may not known about the game quickly,efficiently, and without hesitations. Upholding a duty to stay updated on patch notes their information should be accurate; without mistakes and with total confidence with what they're telling the audience. If you're unsure of something you shouldn't be saying it. If what you say ends up being wrong at least it will be seen as a genuine mistake.

Comedic commentary is not an easy feat as timing and execution are crucial in the entertainment world. Comedians take advantage of well, comedic moments such as SD's, pop off's, hard reads, or just taking their natural talent and /making/ something funny. Comedy isn't really something thats taught, in my opinion its born, harnessed and has mostly to do with personality and projection. Comedians should mind player stats and browse community forums such as smashboards, reddit, facebook, and especially twitter as these are where you can stay on the up-n-up for the latest in salt-tech. Knowing twitch chat lingo is also a huge advantage so find time to watch streams and integrate with the small/large smash communities as you'll find them all over the world. Again, comedy is difficult to project but I hope I gave at least a sliver of advice.

These terms go for all commentators, as is general knowledge that you should posses before putting on a headset. These are pretty much bear minimum but it will help you along in the early process of commentating.

• Tournament name
• Tournament host
• Location, Location, Location
• Players and their respective tag, sponsor, or crew
• Co-commentator (Name, tag, social media)

When you're more comfortable with some of these terms it'll add to your preparation and give you subjects to announce during transitions like if a match becomes completely one sided you can then keep the attention of the viewer. On an intense match you usually wont need these but do keep in mind as you seriously will need them.

From my first time commentating with "Gluten" at SSS I was terrible and im very glad to have had her there to pick me up when I fell. Here are some of the rules I was taught after the trail run.

• Over projecting: forcing a false level of excitement by being loud at the wrong time can be cringey and will get you berated by the twitch chat. Be honest with covering the match as you can provide. Know when to hype up a moment and when projection is valuable.

• Talking too much: I'm very guilty of this one(Sorry Socal!) and its a pretty common issue. I'v recently found the art of "dead air", one of the most underused techniques in casting, it helps save your voice and is paired by assisting the flow of commentary. If used properly it can reset the tension, make intense plays more intense, and pique intrigue

• Cussing: If you're looking at professional commentary you're going to have to mitigate swearing if you want to succeed. I asked D1 about this personally and his advice was to "terminate the use of swearing/cussing in everyday use". I recommend that and projecting the professionalism unto yourself even if the event is casual, you never know whos watching, you'll impress the younger audience but not the guys looking to hire you.

• Repetitive words: The best way to overcome this is by using a dictionary and a thesaurus. Write down the words you find and take them to your next game, challenge yourself to use as many as possible. rinse and repeat, this way your commentary will always be fresh and relevant. Use of 'ah' 'um' and 'errs' are bad habits that need to be broken

Here in this video I find myself solo commenting which makes it easier to practice and use Dead Air as a means to not only save my voice but also create tension in the match. In the beginning you'll want to cover every moment of silence with words but try and retrain this urge. With a co-commentator this is especially difficult as you'll both be waiting on each other. Find the time between matches, stocks, smash attacks, to give yourself a breather or build up hype for the next play. Remember that you are commentating for the viewer and to enthuse them, not to talk their ears off!

I myself am very early in the stages of commentary and Esports, iv made my own mistakes and casting sins but with this guide I hope it creates a staple for those who want to enthuse and intrigue the smash community with their own talent and charisma but also improve my own. Please feel free to reach out to me directly by replying to this guide. Let me know if you have and requests, need help with something, or would like to share your critique and you can reach me on twitter @BrandonWWoodie . Id also like to cite Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner's book "Talking Esports" as is a huge influence to this guide and I highly recommend it to any serious aspiring caster.