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So there was a lot of drama/whatever the last couple of days which I'm not going to talk about here as I've talked about it elsewhere. A lot of feedback on my casting was thrown up in a lot of ways during this drama and over the last day I have read through all of it multiple times and decided to make a post about the criticisms raised, my thoughts on them and how I will look to improve when I personally feel applicable.
I've read through a mix of what I personally feel are malicious reddit comments and also very supportive messages to gather the opinions which I comment on in this post. All I ask is that if you disagree or have further criticism, or if you want to continue the discussion on any of the topics I write about here, to please try and post it in a constructive way.
Why no co-caster?
A lot of people have the feedback “I don’t watch because I don’t enjoy solo-casts” or something to this extent. Some people don’t like them, some people think my casting is bad when it is solo. That is fine. The reality is I am not going to be casting with a co-caster on a regular basis on my channel.
I’m going to pre-face this section by saying that every time I do have a co-caster on the stream, chat is incredibly negative toward the experience. I have gone back and looked through chat logs to check if it was just me, but there is a genuine large percentage of viewers that are not happy with the co-casts in the past. They also tended to be streams which gathered less support than my usual streams. Of course, if it was a regular thing this could shift, but I always thought this an interesting trend considering how often I am told that my biggest issue is solo-casting.
The biggest issue with a co-caster: paying them. I do not agree with people working for free on a regular basis. A one off helping hand is very different to a regular position and I do tend to stream most days of the week. A lot of people have been very forward with me saying that they could help me out and just to ask (CatZ, Rotti, ToD, feardragon and more), but the reality is I feel bad that they are trying to be a helping hand and I have nothing to give in return. And even when I have had some of them on in the past, it feels awkward to ask them to come on so much more regularly, giving up their own time to essentially work for free, or “exposure”.
A lot of people have said, well then just hire some up and coming talent who would love exposure! My straight up honest opinion on this is that up and coming talent who want “exposure” and nothing else for casting multiple times a week are probably not at the level of casting that I want to have on my channel. You can’t just get people on because they want to be casters, there are a lot of skills and experience that they are lacking: not knowing when to talk, cutting in when they shouldn’t, struggling to find synergy, lacking game knowledge/understanding, lacking player knowledge, and so much more. Now not everyone has all of these problems, but for me those that are at the level which I would be comfortable with putting on my streams are really at the point where they should be growing their own brand at the very least, not just being my co-caster.
To quickly go back to paying somebody: people are saying that I would naturally increase my sub count massively if I was to have a co-caster and hence be able to pay them. Even if I doubled my sub-count, if I had a co-caster who joined me for every stream I would be paying them less than minimum wage for their hours spent on the channel – and that doesn’t help me either because I would not be benefitting from the higher sub count.
I also personally find solo-casting less exhausting than co-casting. I can solo cast for hours, but I could not co-cast for that long. This is an opinion and experience I have that I know a lot do not share, so I will not go into it much further. I enjoy co-casting when I don’t have to worry about production, creating lobbies, shout-outs and so on, but I don’t share that same enjoyment when I do have to do all of those things on a regular stream.
Looking forward I’ll look into the guest casting thing again more, but solo-casting is the direction the channel will continue to take. I truly understand those that do not enjoy the solo-casting, in which case I say the channel isn’t for you. This is not a topic I just brush off lightly, I have thought about it a lot to get this conclusion.
The way I talk
Another piece of feedback was that I have poor enunciation, diction and in general am monotone. I can get behind that I do not have the best of voices for speaking – I have actually come a huge way in terms of my speech since I started casting. If you go back to my first YouTube videos you probably won’t even believe that it’s me – I certainly don’t. Before casting I could barely hold a conversation, never mind the thought of speaking out to an audience. I’ve already come along leaps and bounds with my voice over the years and it is something which I feel like I work on every day.
Some days I’m tired, or I had a bad day and it can be hard to get the passion going and my mind trails off, which will definitely make me talk in a less interesting manner. I think that’s just the reality of trying to cast every day, some days I’m not going to be in my best shape. It’s not like at the big offline events where the entire set-up allows you to fully focus on casting the matches. If you compare my casting at WCS Leipzig for example to some of my streams, I think you will be able to hear a big difference immediately in the way in which I talk.
And I do bring that to my streams sometimes – just it is difficult to keep it up for multiple hours and it’s something I need to keep working on. I’m always listening back to VODs and talking to myself in the car to figure out how I can say things differently or how I could phrase something in a different way to make the casting more interesting. I have thought about hiring a voice coach, but I don’t think it is something I am in a position to invest into at the moment.
This is feedback which is always going to come up I feel and it is something I am already working on daily to improve.
Only saying what I see
It feels like a lot of people are frustrated that I only “cast what I see” and that I don’t give any insight or analysis into the games. I personally feel like I have a good balance of play by play and analysis in my commentary, but let’s talk about that. Today I was casting a Blink Stalker all-in from PartinG against Nerchio. When I was watching the VOD back and reading chat, somebody said something which when summarised meant “why is he just saying what is happening on the screen?” This happens a lot, but I personally don’t feel like during these big game deciding fights it is time to analyse the game and what could be done differently when it is just a straight up fight already happening.
It can be difficult to switch gears, maybe when PartinG pulls back I could try to talk more about how he could reposition or why he is going to continue building Stalkers or what Nerchio might try and use these few seconds for. Perhaps this is a downside to solo-casting, because when in a “hype” play by play fight, it can be hard to think ahead to what you can analyse, where as if you are co-casting you have the time to think about that for when the other caster throws to you.
A lot of my casting does describe what is happening: “he is building some Hellions, an Overlord is moving up to this location” etc. I tend to think of this as filler speech: it keeps the audience generally on track with a couple of things that yes, they can see, but is now also being slightly mentioned too. It fills gaps in analysis / true play-by-play. I agree, these phrases do not always add a lot to the game, but it’s often because I am just building up to say something more interesting and I’m trying to think about how or what I am going to say.
One really good suggestion has been to maybe reduce this time by talking a bit more about players play-styles or typical ways certain races approach maps and so on, which I actually really like. This will definitely take some time and practice to phase into my casting, but it’s something I would like to do more of. There will definitely still be some of this filler-speech, which I think is fine, but it will only get better if I can find ways to phase that out more. For now it is a useful crutch to allow me to not just have straight up silence in the cast.
As for my analysis/insight: I genuinely believe I am capable of analysing somewhat in-depth. I’m not going to give you the insight of a pro-player, nor even that of PiG or Rotti, but I definitely feel I understand the game well enough to deliver meaningful analysis and summaries which can help viewers to understand tech choices, moves which have been made or whatever else. I would appreciate if people who genuinely believe I can’t do this show me proof, because otherwise I can’t identify that I’m not doing it as I personally feel as though I am.
Be more hype/excited!
When you are sat in a studio in front of your PC casting online cups, it is very difficult to be hyped for every single game. Some feedback said I should be getting excited about the game and the builds and the action – which I do! Maybe I’m not very good at expressing my excitement and perhaps this is something I should work on more? Someone in a thread some months ago said that they think I do get excited, but it doesn’t come across in my voice well because of my accent which I try to suppress. It feels like this loops back to a previous topic about always trying to improve my voice work.
I would like to say I think it is unfair for people to compare me to TB, Maynarde or other big casters when it comes to being excited, because they are very rarely casting in the same situations I am, naturally at big offline events it’s much easier to express excitement and hype throughout entire games, series and the tournament. For larger online events with more on the line and great players, it is too (and again I do feel like I get excited when sick matches are coming up, but maybe it isn’t coming across?) In online qualifiers and $100 cups, that same excitement is not going to be there naturally.
Promoting ways for people to support / “begging for subscribers”
Yes, I promote the ways in which people can support the channel a lot. It is something I started to do a lot more on the suggestion of Rotti, who said he didn’t think I do it enough. I generally aim to mention how you can support me / the channel once per hour or so (either by quickly stating you can follow/sub, or benefits from subscribing etc.) – repeating yourself at this rate is fairly common because of the constant turnover of viewers.
The issue is I have limited times when I can do this. Sometimes I can do it after a game, or before a game, but often times I have to throw to a break in order to rest my voice, grab a drink and take a moment to mentally refresh. I actually streamed today for 5 hours with one single 5 minute break to try it out, and it simply was not feasible. These breaks also give me a good opportunity to find the next match, sort out vetoes and get lobbies set up.
When out of breaks if the game is ready to go I can’t take forever because I don’t want to slow down the players or the action for the viewers! So sometimes I do my sell-out speeches at the intros of games, mostly when the build orders are looking normal and slow-paced for the first couple of minutes. Some people have said there is so much else I could say in this time – which is definitely true, but mentioning the ways to support the stream is something which I have found to be very important to growing the channel, so it makes a lot more sense for me to say it then than 10 minutes into the game.
I am always trying to judge when the time is right to talk about stuff like this, and sometimes I do get it wrong, it is something I can always work on and look back to and say “should I have seen that this was a bad time?” I am definitely going to be more self-aware going forwards that I get my speeches out quickly and concisely, to take up as little time as possible and also to try and keep it as far from the main action of the game as possible.
RE: “Begging for subscribers”, some people think I am constantly begging for subscribers, the reality is I am just being truthful that I love doing what I do, but to do it on the scale that I do I need the support. I am going to re-evaluate some of my sub speeches to make sure this is being done in a clearer way to make it not sound like “begging”.
Thanking supporters ‘during games’
This is a topic which just blows me away when people criticize it. For some reason some people tend to think I spend 80% of my streams begging for subscribers / asking people to spam wardiHearts when a new subscriber comes in, but I can only imagine that these are thoughts from people who have seen it happen once or twice when it causes me to miss something important and then decide it must happen all the time.
Thanks subscribers, donators, hosts and so on is something which every streamer on Twitch does. Most streams have visual pop-ups and sound alerts for when these things are happening as well. Because my stream focuses on casting I have always thought it too much of a distraction to have pop-ups / sound alerts which could come up at any point of the game. Now when I thank subscribers or so myself, I can choose when to do it and I will generally try and squeeze it in when not a lot is going on.
I will frequently say a quick thank you and mention I will come back to a sub or donation after the game. With the Twitch culture we have, some people do expect a response to the support, even if it is a simple shout out. It’s something every Twitch streamer does and I really do feel I rarely come out during a big moment of the game and say “can we all just stop and throw some wardiHearts in the chat because of THIS!”.
Yes, sometimes I misjudge when to say it, sometimes when you watch streamers playing games they will be thanking a sub and suddenly be like OH CRAP. The biggest reason I can come up with is that a lot of people who are bothered by this are tuning in for the game/players and not the stream. Of course they will find it non-valuable and maybe ‘interrupts’ the game, but without the support a lot of the games I cast either would not be cast in English or just straight up would not be cast at all.
Showing emotion on stream
Not going to write a lot on this, sometimes when I’m upset/mad I’m bad at hiding it on stream. I should be more careful with what I say and acting stupidly. I would say this is a rare occurrence though.
Looking for “sympathy subs”
Some people have stated they think this entire thing was a publicity stunt to gather more support/subs. Simple response from my end is that I often talk about being full time in StarCraft, I write blogs about it, I talk and tweet about it as I genuinely believe it is something which a lot of people who follow me are interested in. This was no different, the tweet just had a more negative tone to it than usual and as it got posted on r/starcraft it reached more than just to my followers, which was never the intention. I deleted the Tweet as soon as I realized it was on Reddit and people were reading it that way.
Why cast if you don’t enjoy it?
I do enjoy it, I love it. I could make more money in another job if I put my degree to use, but I don’t because I love casting StarCraft. I do this because this I my passion & my dream and my disappointment to lack of support is not because I’m hoping to make a quick buck, it’s because I’m sad about the possibility of not being able to continue with my dream.
I hope I’ve covered all of the feedback given in the thread, even some of it which I personally feel was given in an unnecessarily vicious way. I’ve read all of the comments multiple times over, but if you have further criticism I would be happy to hear it and respond to it (but please try and provide it constructively so I don’t break down again ;d, thanks!)
I want to take the chance to say thank you to all the people that sent me supportive messages over the last couple of days. Some people really took their time to write long meaningful messages and I honestly read them all, but I will be reading them all again in a day or two when my brain will process it better and make use of the valuable advice shared. I didn’t reply to anybody for the last two days or so, so please don’t think I just ignored you <3
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I think What I really appreciate here is that you stand up for yourself. People en masse can be a bitch. Add to that the anonymity of the internet and it gets even worse. I think the people who sub to you like the way you differ from other casters, I know I do,
Somebody wise once said "Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth".
And to be honest, if you have so much spare time that you feel like a good way to spend it is to shit on other people, then I feel sorry for you. That can't be much of a life.
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I'm not very good at critical analysis but all I do know is that I sub to two channels on twitch and Wardi is one of them. I sub to wardi for the very simple reason of I think he is great at what he does. (Also wardiHype is my favourite emote anywhere on the internet which makes it a mega value sub)
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On the subject of analysis and insight into professional players and current trends in races, I'd have to say that you do an excellent job of giving a quick overview, but of course being a solo-caster you have a certain monologue that needs to keep going for the entirety of the game (with short breaks to cast the action). I think you could probably solve some of this by being verbose or long-winded but that's up to you (I know I'd never be able to cast for 5 hours without having to stop and recharge). Personally, I've never had a problem with you being silent in the lulls of a game and while I love to hear Tastosis or Rotti & Tod talk about what's what it's relaxing to get a play-by-play especially when I feel I can look away for a second and not miss anything (which is a good thing when you stream as much as you do). I've also never had a problem with your pronunciation or accent but that's probably 'cause I started watching starcraft casts on Lowko's channel.
Overall I think you're a great caster and you're certainly unique. If I had known that you were struggling to stay sustainable I would definitely have started watching on your stream rather than just on youtube. :D
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Hey so jeah i kinda just made a account to give you my thoughts in a more and hopefully better way. you know i love youre casting and everything you do. so i will give my thought on every point aswell.sorry in advance for my poor sentence structures etc im germanX)
Why no co caster: jeah i totally agree with you in everything there i for myself rly enjoy you casting solo and for me wardi on his channel should always be a solo caster... i can see why people think the way they do but in my opinion thats whats make you stand out that you have no cocaster and sometimes i fell like having a cocaster can get anoying aswell. i love you when you cocast aswell but i think having that on wcs events mainly is the better choice like you said youre wcs leipzig cast was rly good but that came from the whole set up of the show and people think that just when you get a cocaster it will be like that are just naive in my opinion. and like you stated the times you had a cocaster you experience more negativs than positivs. i would say that might come from the expectations someone has when he comes to youre channel if hes thinking *wardii is on lets see some sc2* they expect you to cast alone and then finding you having a cocaster can sometimes straight up anoy them for that reason alone.
the way i talk: that for me is a point where you just never rly can have everyone on youre side regardless what youre doing i rly enjoy the way you talk, and for me the best thing is i can clearly understand what youre saying it might be a bit monotone i admit that but that makes it easier to understand. i sometimes have problems understanding what guys that have a bit more ups and downs say couse im not native english so i think youre way is better for non native english people so i think in this topic there will never be a way you can make everyone happy there always guys that dont like how you speak...
only saying what i see: i cant see why people complain about that but maybe thats couse im not twitch chat gm (honostly i dont even play ladder)
be more hyped/excited: this is also a personal opinion. i think you get excited in the right times and hype in right times maybe sometimes its not as hyped as it could be but jeah i dont see a problem with that. have you ever heard a german cast... the german language is just not made for hyped...its cringy thats all so for me youre totally fine in that regarD .p
promoting ways for people to support: this argument are cleary made from people who dont know how twitch works and dont know how it is to establish you in twitch- i dont know i have seen people make way more and way aggresiver promotions than you did so i dont see a point in changing any of what you do in this regard (maybe if people complaining that you always say it on stream run a bot that spamms chat is better in there opinion?^^)
Thanking supporters ‘during games’: this one aswell theres just no way twitch works without it you could clearly see it on homestorycup the moment they tunred on notifications shoutouts gifs what ever the support blow through the roof..why didnt it before hand couse supporters want to be ackkowledge. persons that thing youre doing it too much prob never have seen some of the big twitch streamers. if you watch someone that has 20k watching nearly everytime and hes thanking everyone that subs/donates everytime it gets fucking anoying and they still do i most of the times couse thats what you do.
showing emotions on stream isnt a bad thing to begin with we know youre a human so you should act like one maybe being salty on stream isnt the best emotion to have but thats whats makes you who you are since no one wants to watch a robot you should consider this. couse if youre happy you dont want to hide it aswell right....
the other 2 things are so stupid i dont want to write any thing about that....
so theres just one last thing to say. Thank you Wardii for what you do and keep at it!
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These are mostly all crap criticisms and say more about the people making them than they do about you Wardi. Some people are so entitled, they not only expect free content, they expect that the provider of said content not make overt efforts to monetize their work. Perhaps they should take a look at themselves and ask why that is and get a clue about how the world works. You should just keep doing the great job you're doing and try not to let ignorant, worthless opinions, from people who have likely never supported your stream, get you to question your abilities.
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Hey,
A few thoughts and suggestions of mine from the last few days. For background, I'm a 2 year sub. I respect the effort you're putting in trying to build something up and I want you to do well.
1. Do less. Your schedule seems absolutely brutal, sometimes casting events across 3 regions in a day, plus all the hours of off-screen admin that must go with it. It's something people can do in short bursts but it's not sustainable. If you're always running at 99% capacity then it only takes a knock like a no-show player or a crappy reddit thread to cause brain collapse.
Perhaps drop some of the lower value casts and use the time to have some fun instead (on or off-stream) then hit your main casts with loads of energy. To an extent, if you're having fun, the audience is having fun (Demu is a good example of this).
2. Ditch the flakes. No-show players are making your life miserable. Dump them. By my count it's 4 cancellations in 3 days for a tournament with a decent prize pool, which is appalling. Everyone gets 1 warning, the 2nd time they cancel at 0 notice or don't show (without arranging a peer-level replacement) it's a ban. Co-ordinate the ban list with BaseTrade. Perhaps if they thought they'd lose access to all decent community tournaments for a year they'd make the smallest effort to show up.
If that means the reliable players have a disproportionate chance of winning prize money, so be it. I'd rather watch a chill tournament with Optimus than a load of drama involving Byun.
3. Something is better than nothing. You're not obliged to do any of this stuff if it's making you neither rich nor happy. Any changes/restrictions you make will still mean more content for the world than if you burn out and quit completely.
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personally i like the calm/chill style of casting, i don't need to be hyped up for every single match of sc2 i'm watching. and more importantly, it sounds natural. i really disagree with the people saying "just be more excited", if it isn't genuine or you're forcing it, then you'll run the risk of sounding awkward and fake.
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Reddit is just toxic, don't take the criticism too serious, those people just enjoy shitting on other people. You're doing an awesome job, of course when you want to watch a stream full of banter and jokes you need to watch something else but you have really good analytic commentary.
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People have different tastes! I wish you the best of luck.
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Reddit is definitely shitty. Like even people don't love your style, its seems weird to try to change the way you cast. I do have 1 piece of advice tho.... I want to watch your tournaments, but I have trouble following the storylines because I do not know which games are part of which tournament. I would live a weekly rundown on twitter or linked on twitch that just explains what tournaments you are casting, and a liquipedia link. Cheers mate!
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On February 18 2018 19:46 Melesmelee wrote:
2. Ditch the flakes. No-show players are making your life miserable. Dump them. By my count it's 4 cancellations in 3 days for a tournament with a decent prize pool, which is appalling. Everyone gets 1 warning, the 2nd time they cancel at 0 notice or don't show (without arranging a peer-level replacement) it's a ban. Co-ordinate the ban list with BaseTrade. Perhaps if they thought they'd lose access to all decent community tournaments for a year they'd make the smallest effort to show up.
If that means the reliable players have a disproportionate chance of winning prize money, so be it. I'd rather watch a chill tournament with Optimus than a load of drama involving Byun.
If you do co-ordinate a ban list with basetrade, i think we should give the banned players one last chance. I wont say the name, but I know who it is since I was watching live both times they didnt show up and they are definitely a player people want to watch... If potentially the best player in the world is banned your doing it wrong lol. Dont get me wrong im on wardi's side, but I think giving them one last chance is for the best, and making it known that no shows are not tolerated unless you have a legit excuse (medical, family issues,etc.) and create the new rules/banlist with basetrade and possibly gauntletsc2.
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Wardii, I don't tune in too often and I almost never participate in chat, but I do dig the casts when I do watch. Don't let a few haters get to you. I'm sure that's easier said than done. I agreed with almost all of your opinions above regarding your casting style, skills, things you need to work on, and many of the realities of the situation you presented (ie. enthusiasm levels, co-casters, etc).
Compare the number of people making negative comments with those making positive comments. And don't forget the people who watch and don't comment at all. I'm sure a significant portion of your viewers aren't active chatters, but they still routinely tune in. They would only do that if they were enjoying themselves.
If there's one thing free work meals and events have taught me its that no matter what, there's always going to be someone who complains.
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Just want to say I have huge respect for your work ethic, the idea that you'd be in it for a 'quick buck' is absurd. Always enjoyed watching your channel for qualifiers or open brackets.
I think the negative voices will exist no matter what you'd change since casting preferences are just subjective and it's impossible to please everyone. So you'd have to find a way to just accept it exists somehow. But I realise this is one of those 'easier said then done' things and it's something most people will struggle with naturally. Don't feel bad for getting upset or emotional
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I appreciate your passion. You are clearly improving in what you are doing. I think you would benefit most from some image management. Change glasses, hairstyle, clothes and you will get where you want much faster. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to help here but you do appear to have an image of a nerdish conservative person that doesn't fit the situation and this could be improved without too much effort.
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On February 19 2018 10:30 Kafka777 wrote: I appreciate your passion. You are clearly improving in what you are doing. I think you would benefit most from some image management. Change glasses, hairstyle, clothes and you will get where you want much faster. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to help here but you do appear to have an image of a nerdish conservative person that doesn't fit the situation and this could be improved without too much effort. No
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Austria24413 Posts
I agree with very little of the criticism you've received. I think you're a very good caster. Here's why:
1) You bring a very nice blend of analysis and play-by-play. You don't pretend to know more about the game than you do, but you can tell, say, how a fight is going and when a player has good positioning, or what the overall story of the game is. There are some casters who will criticize players for their decisions even though they lack the basic understanding to realize why decisions were made. You don't do that, and I very much appreciate that.
2) I have no idea why people criticize the way you speak. I really don't. You're very good, actually.
3) I feel quite comfortable with you not getting overly excited over every single thing. As a viewer, I realize that what you're casting is mostly online games. I would feel awkward watching someone yell at their PC screen at home, while no real audience is around. That excitement is, in most cases, fake. I much prefer your casting to that.
4) The amount of tournaments you cover that would go unseen otherwise is immense, and I have nothing but respect and appreciation for that. I get to watch StarCraft almost daily because you exist.
I think your reaction to all this is perfectly reasonable. The community can be extremely hostile to content creators for no fathomable reason, and it really gets annoying getting bitten every time you feed them. I hope the response to all this has shown you, though, that there are a ton of people in SCII that do appreciate and support what you do. Unfortunately, the good ones always stay quiet.
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About speaking all the time and casting what you see perhaps you could inspire yourself from real sports on TV, where the casters use dead air much more than in e-sports.
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Keep it up wardii, I love the hard work you put into casting and the way you cover so many online events!! Don't stress about the haters! Keep improving but also be confident because you are already an excellent commentator in my opinion.
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Calgary25937 Posts
I just opened and watched a few random videos. They sounded great to me. Good job I subscribed.
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Exposure to masses is very demanding, and I respect everyone who is able to do that. I respect every caster that tries to cast, no matter my opinion of them. And to you Wardi, I would consider it a loss to the community. And what I like most about your casts is that you stay with the game and you don't "recount funny stories" and I'm especially thankful you don't joke around for half the game. (especially since you have no coaster)
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There's an overweight guy from the US who should take notes from the OP.
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you r a good guy! just take some singing lessons or visit your local choir. I think the biggest reason why I am never watching your content for extended periods of time is because you don´t have a soothing smooth full-of-honey-and-whisky voice. And luckily for you thats actually something you can improve on relatively easily!
I havnt checked in for a while tho.... so this is retrospective for your older content.
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