Or they just need to stop acting like all of their opinions are widely accepted factual statements. 90% of commentary is people explaining their opinion on the matchup instead of actually talking about what the PLAYERS ON THE SCREEN are doing. Not to put Prog and D1 on blast, but every single set they commentate sounds almost exactly the same. You could take the commentary from any one of their matches and paste it into another match with the same characters, and no one would be able to tell. They talk about the same matchup things like they were reading a script. When I hear Lovage or Wobbles commentate, they're always analyzing what the player is doing and the only time they tend to repeat any of their comments is when they're commentating the same player in another match and the player is implementing the same strategies. The last match I've heard from Prog and D1 was actually RoM 7 pools, Mango vs. Jman.
Good examples of Prog and D1 pointing out relevant stuff:
0:40 - Jman's usage of shine after Mango's dair fails to knock him over
1:25 - Jman knows when to jump out of certain setups
3:18 - Jman DAed with the intent to steal Mango's jump (10 seconds and 1 stock after the fact I might add)
3:35 - Jman's FH drill after getting lasered, and Mango's DI afterwards
4:27 - Mango looking for a roll
Unfortunately, that amounts to a whopping 5 instances of the commentators talking about the actual decisions being made by the players. I'm also being very generous with these because most of the things they pointed out aren't even decisions per se, just automatic habits for certain situations. I understand you need some light talk about other stuff, especially when you're watching pools matches between less notable players, but this is Mango vs. Jman in one of the most exciting, fast-paced matchups in Melee. Instead of discussing spacing, crossups, shielding, move choice, option coverage, teching tendencies, or anything related to what actually determines the winner in a Melee match, the commentators are concerned with what colors they are wearing, how close Jman is to the TV, and my personal favorite, what year it is.
Again, I'm not trying to insult Prog and D1 because as far as most commentators go, they are really solid. Melee is also a really hard game that is even harder to commentate because of the speed of the decision making, but the insane number of decisions made per second should also kind of make it easier for commentators to notice just ONE every 10-15 seconds and point out what impact it had on the match. I hope commentary can get more insightful with time, and perhaps TOs of major events can start picking commentators with better game knowledge. Obv not everyone wants to commentate, but some of the players I hear commentating relatively important matches can go entire sets without pointing out a single decision made by either player. When they aren't criticizing or lauding opinions, they are spouting their own (usually ridiculous) opinions about how broken or impossible a matchup is for either character.
To me, and I think to most competitive players, getting a glimpse into the mind of a pro player is the whole appeal to watching them play, and commentators are there to facilitate that. There are tons of people who just like to be in awe of the pretty combos, but they aren't going to be in any less awe just because the commentators are talking about how that combo started or worked. If anything, they might learn why a particular combo was so awesome and be even more amazed by it. That is certainly what attracted me to Melee. I thought the combos looked cool because I couldn't do them, and then as I figured out how to do them myself, I realized just how complex they are. In the grander scheme of things, I think this overall focus on the gameplay convinces more people to start playing than a focus on hype or player personalities. Those things are important to stay invested, but if the viewer doesn't understand the skill required to play the game, Melee tournaments are just one big soap opera. There's no reason for a random person to pick Melee over Marvel, football, or any other game unless you can convince them Melee players are more vastly more skillful and impressive human beings (whether or not you think they are isn't really relevant to the point).
