Re:What I learned from watching six hours of Starcraft
by baddox on Wednesday February 02, 2011 @07:24PM
(#2172934)
One could argue that, while being a successful professional gamer is hard and rare, it's probably much harder and rarer to be a successful caster of professional games. Casters also have to tackle a broader range of skills: they have to remain very current with the game they cast (and they're generally expected to be above-mediocre players themselves), they have to understand the production and distribution process (audio, screen capturing, uploading to Youtube/other video site, etc.), and most of all, they have to get and maintain fans.
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Re:What I learned from watching six hours of Starcraft
by ohashi on Wednesday February 02, 2011 @10:42PM
(#2173491)
Many of the casters are skilled players themselves. Artosis (one of the commentators for GSL) was quite highly ranked. I believe Tasteless and his brother Day9 are as well. What's interesting to me is Husky, who I don't think is anywhere near their skill has the largest audience.
I've got friends who don't play starcraft who watch husky and love it like it's any other sport. So I definitely agree there is a lot of skills involved and even different target markets. The hardcore players like the best player/casters. There appears to be an even larger casual/not playing at all audience that enjoys the sheer entertainment value of esports.