Thoughts on Tasteless' casting

Let me start by saying that I am and have been a huge fan of Tasteless' casting ever since the first time I heard him cast. His great sense of humor combined with his relaxed style of analysis was a big part of what got me into watching Starcraft 2.

Lately though I haven't enjoyed his casting quite as much, and I've actually heard the same from a lot of other people.

In my opinion this is a terrible shame since I believe he has the exact skills needed in order to draw new viewers to SC2.

It's been obvious for some time that Tasteless' analytical knowledge of the game in many ways is quite inferior to that of Artosis, and many other casters.

In my opinion this is not the problem though, cause Tasteless has never seemed to be as analytical as for instance Artosis, but instead has had his own more casual style, which is also part of what makes them a great combo.

Lately though it has felt even more like Tasteless simply isn't keeping up with the constant strategic developments of the game, making his analysis often seem irrelevant or simplistic, at least to all us hardcore SC nerds.

At the same time though it feels like Tasteless has been somewhat aware of people's criticism against him not being analytical enough. In my opinion this has caused him to spend a lot of time stating useless strategic stuff or repeating Artosis' analysis when casting.

And this gets me to my main point.

Tasteless is in my opinion one of the absolute most grounded and interesting guys in the entire community (without knowing him in real life of course).

To me he actually seems to rest within himself A LOT more than many other prominent people (including players, casters, bloggers and so forth) in the community.

This is also a big part of what makes him seem like such an appealing caster and human being.

I also believe that this is why his jokes, analogies and stories have always seemed so funny in an original way that few people can copy without seeming extremely fake.

The skills that Tasteless possesses are in my opinion extremely valuable in a niche community like SC2, which it in a lot of ways still is.

In fact I believe he is one of the people that actually has what it takes to truly push the game towards becoming mainstream entertainment.

And the problem is that this entire discussion isn't adressed enough.

A lot of people and players often just criticize Tasteless of being a bit analytically incompetent, but I think the community, as well as Tasteless himself, needs to start realizing the necessity and beauty of just being entertaining when casting.

In my opinion Tasteless should just focus a lot less on complicated analysis and a lot more on entertaining the viewers.
On "Real Talk" Tasteless himself says that Artosis and him used a lot of energy on preparing jokes or comical stories when they started working for GomTV (Interview with Tasteless on Real Talk).

I think he should focus on this as he really is one of the few people that can do so without being a complete phony.
Which is partly due to him actually being able to make fun of himself and not always needing to seem "cool" when he is on camera.

If the Starcraft community is to keep expanding it's reach for non-playing Starcraft viewers, then the perfect style of casting would be one that truly incorporated both entertainment and the analytical side.
For instance by having one really analytical caster, and one really entertaining caster who could perhaps then also explain the game to noobs.

I know some people often compare Starcraft casters to casters of other established sports, and with this in mind state that SC casters must be serious and analytical in order for the scene to appear professional.

But the truth is that Starcraft is a lot different from most sports and also a lot more complicated to newcomers. Besides, most casters of other sports are in my opinion quite boring compared to most SC2 casters.

I believe the generation that watches SC2 in some ways are a lot more culturally developed, especially with regards to incorporating humor in everything they do.
Therefore SC 2 should of course also represent this when it comes to casting.

I could go on rambling about this forever but I won't.

The truth is that I have an insane amount of respect for Tasteless and I feel pretty sure that he will always cast in the way that he feels the most comfortable with.

But I just think it's a shame if people eventually grow tired of his casting simply because of his analytical flaws, when in truth, he might exactly have what is needed for this community to grow.

Tasteless should just allow this side of himself to flourish on camera simply by not holding himself back.
Perhaps he should even spend some more energy on preparing "jokes" or "analogies", since they actually often end up giving a healthy perspective to the game.

But that's just my opinion anyway...

BabyKnight vs. Ret (WCS Europe Finals - round 3)

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

We just witnessed an epic 3rd round series between FXOBabyKnight and LiquidRet!
Apart from being a series between two of our absolute favorite foreigners we also had the pleasure of watching a BabyKnight series being casted by our favorite casting duo Tastosis, which was something we do not believe has happened earlier. At least we haven't witnessed it before.

1st set on Taldarim Alter.

BabyK went for a economic pylon-nexus-pylon opener and Ret of course also did a very macro-orientated build as he always does.
Ret quickly got up to three bases and around 75 drones.
BabyK did a small push on Ret's third but it was only a small push that he didn't invest a lot in.
While he did this he took his own third and also got a dark shrine and some other tech.
Babyknight also had a neat couple of gateways on top of his ramp outside his natural so that Ret would be able to do a run-by into his natural.
Babyknight send two DTs in the natural and main of Ret.

He killed some drones but didn't really do much damage, and BabyK didn't warp in more.
Instead he focused on getting some archons and a lot of gateway units in general.
Ret took his fourth but Babyk scouted the exact timing of it with an observer.
From there Ret went up to 95 drones (which was maybe a bit too many) and also started building some spinecrawlers at his fourth.
BabyKnight pushed at Ret's fourth when he was around 160 supply.
Ret did have infestors but not any broodlords yet.

BabyK used perfect forcefields and good blink micro and was able to win the big engagement at Ret's fourth.
From here BabyK could take out Ret's fourth and move on into his third and Ret could do nothing to stop him.


2nd set on cloud kingdom.

Ret did his usual macro opener quickly going up to three hatcheries.
At first it looked like BabyKnight would do a somewhat similar build as in game 1 with a quick +1 attack upgrade.
He cancelled this upgrade however and went for a stargate instead.
The stargate however was pretty late, and from this point on he actually looked a bit flustered.
Like he had originally intended one build and then changed his mind without really being sure if this was the right call or not.
He never did any real damage with his void rays or phoenixes either.
He tried to take his third but Ret denied it and Ret actually kept denying it for a long time.

BabyK then started producing Colossi but they were very late as well and Ret was already taking his fifth base.
BabyKnight was finally able to take his third, but he then cancelled it and went for 2-base all-in instead.
At this point though Ret's supply was way bigger than BabyK's.
And as it turned out Ret had far too much and no micro could save BabyK's army whose big push was never able to truly threaten Ret.

And since it was a BIG all-in BabyK was forced to GG.
So the series was tied and at this point we were almost shitting our pants on BabyK's behalf.
Going on to the third and deciding match must have been pretty damn nerve-wrecking.
For both of them of course, but since Ret is a lot more experienced he will certainly have tried more situations like this the past.


3rd match was on Ohana

Once again it was a very quick +1 attack for BabyKnight again.
At the same time he was setting up for a very economic build preparing to take his third quite early.
Ret once again did his usual macro style, and you gotta hand it to that guy. He never cheeses!
They both macro'd up for a while with BabyKnight getting his third and Ret getting his fourth both relatively unharassed.
Eventually when Ret was at max supply and Babyknight was around 150, BabyK tried to move out on the map to try and pressure at Ret's fourth.
But Ret at hidden a big bunch of zerglings that he sneaked into BabyK's third and natural just after BabyK had left the base.

BabyK managed to return and clean them up pretty fast, but not without taking quite a lot of damage.
He then moved out again and at this point Ret was nearing completion on his greater spire so he desperately wanted to delay BabyK's push until he could get broodlords out.
Therefore he tried to do another run-by with zerglings but this time BabyK had expected it and he took them out immediately.
He was then finally able to move out for his long awaited push.
Because Ret was at max supply and because he needed his corrupters against BaByK's colossi, Ret didn't morph any broodlords.
At the first big engagement it was actually pretty hard to see who would come out on top for a long time, but BabyK used perfect forcefields and micro with his Colossi to deal massive damage.

Ret then did a new run-by with zerglings that killed a lot of probes at BabyKs third.
BabyK cleaned it up eventually and at this point in the game Ret had a lot more workers than BabyK but having won the engagements BabyK's army was way scarier.
BabyK then pushed at Ret's fourth and Ret's weaker army could not stop this push so he lost his fourth.
BabyK had also re-saturated his third again so their economy was similar, both of them being on three bases with their mains being pretty much dry.
BabyK then went for a big push outside Rets third and at this point Ret actually build a bit too many corrupters.

He was able to take out BabyKs colossi easily but BabyK had quite a big ground army that Ret didn't have an answer to.
So when BabyK kept bringing new gateway units, all of Ret's corrupters were rendered useless.
In the end Ret tried to pull out all his drones but that was in no way enough to stop BabyK's army who thus took the game and the series.
And what a freaking amazing series!!!

FXOBabyKnight vs. LiquidRet = 2 - 1

Congratulations to BabyK who has now secured his spot in the WCS world finals in Shanghai!

The feeling of relief that must have gone through BabyK's body when he was finally able to take off his headphones and fathom that he had actually made it to the WCS world Finals must have been undescribable.

In the interview after the game BabyK once again proved that he is no entertainer nor salesman. 

But the questions that were thrown at him were fucking retarded so his taciturnity was understandable and in our opinion actually made him seem even cooler.

I mean what kind of retarded question is, "If you were a car what color would you be?".

Can't believe he was actually asked that.

Anyway. Now BabyKnight can play the rest of his games at the WCS Europe finals without pressure as he has surely reached the goal he must have been aiming for. 

We wouldn't mind him taking a top3 though, so we'll keep cheering for him.

GSL code S RO 32 - group F

BEWARE OF SPOILERS

Today's group featured the only remaining foreigner in the GSL, the infamous NaNiWa (infamous as in that no one has ever provided as much perfect Reddit material as he has), going up against the three koreans Heart, Sniper and Squirtle. Well not going up against all of them, but being in the same group as them.

NaNiWa made it to the round of 8 in the last two GSLs (as everyone except my mum knows), but he hasn't really played well in any of the tournaments outside Korea over the summer, so we were pretty excited to see if he could prove that he is still one of the best foreigners by being able to move on from today's group.

First series of the day was between NaNiWa and Heart.
It was a pretty cheesy series, but Heart is known for his early aggression so it was not that different from what we had expected.

First set was on Entombed valley. NaNiWa took his natural after building a gateway and a gas. Heart went for an early factory, but NaNiWa scouted that Heart wasn't expanding so he built two extra gateways and a robo. Heart built a starport and pushed when the first medivac was done along with a few helions and a bunch of marines. He brought some SCVs as well even though we all know they are civilians and not supposed to be fighting.
NaNiWa scouted the exact timing of the all in attack though and he looked prepared at his ramp. Then Heart decided to do a fake drop, and this caused NaNiWa's units to get a bit out of position, and Heart wanted to punish him for it and went up the ramp with his helions. NaNiWa missed the forcefields, and the helions took out all his sentries. .
Heart placed a bunker next to NaNiWa's natural and took it out easily.
From here on NaNiWa was contained in his main. He went for an immortal composition and was able to push out and take out Heart's army. NaNiWa decided to do a counter push but Heart had siege mode and defended it somewhat easily. The game however seemed to be a bit even at this point and NaNiWa took his natural again and built a robotics support bay.
Around the 15 minute mark Heart went for a big all in push in which he brought all his SCVs.
All NaNiWa needed was a colossus or two to defend, so he had to buy time. Unfortunately he once again missed some forcefields, and Heart used good tank placement on the ramps of NaNiWa's natural to force NaNiWa to retreat into his main once again. NaNiWa got two colossi out and tried to break Heart that had already moved into the main with some tanks. But he could not break Heart's army and Heart took the first game. All in all a somewhat weird game that NaNiWa lost partly because of some grim mistakes he made.

Second set was on Antiga Shipyard. Heart went for a helions and a medivac and as he send them across the map to drop in NaNiWa's main, he also took his natural. NaNiWa however is a Swedish viking and they don't like to be cheesed in the way that he had been in game one. So he had decided to do a counter cheese and had already built 4 gates and even been able to sneak a pylon in Heart's natural. NaNiWa's 4 gate took out all of Heart's poor SCV's (they were slaughtered like animals), and although Heart's drop did some damage in NaNiWa's main as well, the game was essentially over and when NaNiWa's stalkers took out Heart's medivac he GG'd and NaNiWa thus tied up the series.

Third set was on Ohana.
Heart went for a 2 rax and a early marauder/marine push. NaNiWa had taken his natural but he scouted the incoming attack so he built two extra gates (making it 3 gates), and a twilight. He was able to defend by bringing the exact right amount of probes.
From there NaNiWa went for DTs. Heart went for another big push when stim and siege mode finished.
When the dark shrine finished NaNiWa had gas enough for two DTs and he warped in both of them outside Heart's main. This was probably a tiny mistake, as Heart's army did a lot of damage at NaNiWa's natural before NaNiWa had enough gas for a defensive DT. He did however kill a ton of SCVs in Hearts main with his two DTs. Heart went for cloaked banshees but NaNiWa scouted them and got out an observer reasonable quick.
At this point NaNiWa had around 4 times as many workers as Heart. Heart however did have a bigger army, that included a raven and a couple of banshees. He then pulled all his SCVs and went for a final push Heart style.
So if NaNiWa could have defended against this the game would have been his, and he did get out an immortal, morphed a few archons and while also researching zealotspeed. Unfortunately for him his three gates didn't give him enough units and he could not stop Heart's army and Heart took the game and the series with an all in.
A deserved win for Heart, but also a heartbreaking loss for NaNiWa. He did some stupid mistakes but overall he kinda looked just as good as Heart, or even better in some situations.
But in the end Heart was the smarter player today.

Heart vs. NaNiWa = 2-1


Second series of the day was between Sniper and Squirtle, and in our opinion Squirtle is top 5 protoss in the world so we had him as a clear favorite going into the game.

First set was on Whirlwind. Sniper went for pool first, and then two expansions. Squirtle did a Gateway nexus built. From there he went for a 5 gate push with around 5 sentries and a bunch of stalkers. Sniper didn't get enough units or spinecrawlers out and Squirtle took out his third without much hassle.
Squirtle even managed to keep three of his sentries alive and was able to push on and by chrono boosting his gateways he ended up simply overwhelming Sniper with units who thus had to GG.

Second set was on Daybreak. Squirtle went for a warp prism sentry drop in Sniper's main. He did the classic force field of the ramp, to prevent the units from Sniper's second and third hatcheries to provive assistance. He did damage but at some point missed a forcefield and zerglings got in and surrounded his army. He did manage to continue the attack for a while though.
After a while Sniper got enough roaches to kill of the drop and from there went for a counter push with roaches. They overwhelmed Squirtle and took out his natural. As response Squirte tried to harass with warp prism again but didn't do all that much damage. Eventually Squirtle got out an immortal that took out Sniper's roaches, but Sniper had another big wave of zergstuff and that was too much for Squirtle. 1-1.

Third set was entombed valley. Sniper pretended to go for three hatcheries, but went for an early roach warren instead and then cancelled his third hatch. He pushed out with 6 roaches and a bunch of zerglings. Squirtle had to defend with probes to gain time for defensive cannons to warp in at the ramp, so Sniper killed quite a few probes, but eventually Squirtle secured his ramp. Squirtle went for DTs and was able to send a DT to each of Sniper's hatcheries. He killed a ton of drones with his DTs and even took out Sniper's third. Squirtle kept harassing quite successfully with the DTs after this, while he himself got a super economy. Sniper went for infestors, but he never got a good economy and when Squirtle pushed out Sniper could not stop his huge amount of Stalkers.

Squirtle vs. Sniper = 2-1


So the third series of the day was the winner's match between Squirtle and Heart.

First set was on Antiga Shipyard. Heart went for a trademark early push with reactored helions and some bio stuff. He even brought some SCV's as Heart seems to believe that he needs to punish some of his poor workers in every game so they all remember who their God is. Anyway, he got a bunker up at Squirtle's natural, but with an immortal and some stalkers from the high ground, Squirtle was able to defend. Heart decided to expand thinking that he had done a reasonable amount of damage, but when Squirtle finally moved out with stalkers and sentries he was able to push all the way into Heart's main with some really good forcefields, and he took the first game.

Second set was on Entombed valley. Having shown nothing else than cheeses today, Heart decided that it was time to be extra sneaky so he built a bunker at his ramp and then two Command Centers inside his main. The idea was that Squirtle would expect another cheese and therefore not be greedy giving Heart an economic advantage. This was a good idea in theory, as Squirtle did go for 3 gates and a robo pretty early. The stupid thing about the plan though was that went Heart floated his orbital out and took his natural he didn't really built a lot of defense at the ramp, which had probably been a good idea considering his economic position. So the production facilities that he had forced Squirtle to built, ended up providing enough units for a push that overwhelmed Heart's natural and took out all his SCVs. As the attack ended Squirtle had three times as many workers as Heart and from here on Squirly played extremely safe. Eventually he overwhelmed Heart with a ton of Colossi and won the game and the series relatively easy.

Squirtle vs. Heart = 2-0


Fourth series was between the losers of the two first games, NaNiWa and Sniper. A very hard elimination match for NaNiWa as his PvZ isn't exactly his strongest matchup.

First set was on Antiga Shipyard and it was actually a pretty painful game to watch.
NaNiWa went for a 2 base push with zealots from 6 gates. The plan was to take out Sniper's third but Sniper scouted both of NaNiWa's pylons and knew exactly what was coming so he just built some roaches and all of NaNiWa's zealots were practically a waste of money. From there NaNiWa decided to go for a blink stalker push that was pretty much all in. Unfortunately for him Sniper had a changelot by his army all the time (that he never saw strangely enough) and once again Sniper was perfectly prepared. He even managed to burrow zerglings in the middle of the map and do a perfect sandwich on NaNiWa's army and NaNiWa was so far behind at this point that he had to GG.

Second set was on cloud kingdom and actually a pretty cool game. NaNiWa once again did a 2 base push on Sniper's third. This time his army of mainly Zealots were supported by a few stalkers which allowed him to micro better against Sniper's units. He did this quite well and was able to take out Sniper's third, however he also lost all of his army in the process. Sniper retook his third and at around the same time NaNiWa began his third. He cancelled however and went for another big push with blink stalkers. This could probably have killed Sniper or at least done a ton of damage, but Sniper had researched burrow and NaNiWa had no detection at all. He tried to push on anyway but lost most of his army without doing much damage. This caused NaNiWa to try to take his third after all, but for what felt like a million years Sniper had a cool sneaky zergling burrowed there. And since NaNiWa had no detection this delayed his third for a while.
After this Sniper went for a heavy infestor composition. He then did a double pronged attack at both NaNiWa's natural and third and although NaNiWa defended pretty well Sniper managed to SNIPE his third (omg that's funny...).
Not having the army or map presence to move out NaNiWa started his third again. When it finished Sniper attacked it again. This time with around 25 infestors or something crazy like that.
NaNiWa had a few colossi to defend, and he controlled them really well, but Sniper had spawned the exact right amount of infested terrans and the last one of them barely managed to take out NaNiWa's third once again. This was too devastating a blow for NaNiWa and he resigned, and he will now have to battle in code A to regain his code S spot.

Sniper vs. NaNiWa = 2-0


So the last series of the day was between Heart and Sniper battling for a spot in the round of 16.
Heart took game 1 and Sniper took game 2, but unfortunately we didn't have a chance to watch those two games. Someone told us that it was actually the two closest games of the day so far, and supposedly they both went past the 20 minute mark (which was long for today's games), so we might have to check them out at some point later.

Anyway, the third and deciding set was on Entombed Valley. Heart decided that he didn't want to play another semi long game because it ain't his style man, so instead he did a proxy 2 rax and went for a bunker attack at Sniper's natural. Sniper managed to survive although he took some damage.
Knowing Hearts aggressive style, Sniper should probably have spend all his money on spines at this point. He only built one though, and Heart, being who he is, took all his SCVs and went for a final push along with a small flock of marines he had built. This was far too much for Sniper to handle and Heart took the game and the series with a smart all in.
He goes on to the round of 16 where he will get another chance to annoy a lot of good players and fans around the world with his sneaky cheeses.

Heart vs. Sniper = 2-1


So at the end of the day Squirtle and Heart moved on into what will certainly be the hardest round of 16 ever. Good luck to both of them. They will need it.
Tomorrow we get a chance to enjoy the grand old man in action. It's NESTEA, and what makes seeing him in action even nicer, is that Tastosis always lights up a bit more on days where Nestea is present.

Debate about casters

It's obvious that there's been a growing tendency among many StarCraft 2 players (professionals as well as amateurs) to criticize casters for not being analytically competent enough. Personally we believe that this discussion is crucial to the community, but that this specific viewpoint is in some ways very damaging to the development of the game.
Basically we believe that many of these players aren't seeing the big picture, and that it's important that they do. Especially all the professional players out there because their voices are heard the loudest.

We believe StarCraft 2 can be watched by anyone. This game is brilliant entertainment and this is of course primarily due to the numerous great strategic aspects of the game.
However if the game is to become mainstream entertainment then the casters have a central role to play. And even though it's important that the casters know a lot about the game and all the constant strategy developments and so forth, we believe that it's just as important that the casters show charisma and great sense of humor.
The reason for this is that StarCraft 2 will not, and should not have millions of professional gamers. However it could and should have millions of viewers. And most of these viewers will not, and should not be experts in the game. So in order to catch the attention of all these people it's essential that the casters aren't F-king boring or pretentious. No matter how strategically competent they are.

That's also why we feel that casters shouldn't be trying to impress the professionals that are watching but instead aim to entertain everyone else. This is truly how StarCraft 2 can be spread to everyone.

The way we got really hooked on watching competitive Starcraft 2 was when we by chance saw a GSL final casted by Tastosis in early 2011. At the time we didn't know much about the game except what we had learned from playing it on the ladder (which means nothing).
What got us hooked was of course the impressive stuff that the players were doing. But more than that, is was the enthusiasm and humor that Artosis and Tasteless constantly expressed.
It felt so unique the way that they were able to illustrate beautiful strategic maneuvers, and at the same time talk about all kinds of random shit that was funny in so many ways.
Since then we have watched pretty much every game that Tastosis has casted, plus of course a ton of other games from tournaments around the world.
By now we are of course deeply interested in the specific strategic developments of the game but we still prefer charismatic casters over the analytical ones.
However, the best casters are of course both charismatic and analytical.

Anyway. If you know A LOT about StarCraft 2 then you will often hear stuff the casters say that you do not agree with. Furthermore you will notice stuff that the casters fail to mention. But viewers who are professionals or expert ought to be a minority. Most viewers (if SC 2 is to become mainstream entertainment) aren't gonna be experts and that's an important fact to remember when judging casters.

We think that many StarCraft 2 casters are so much more talented and entertaining than most other sports commentators, especially when it comes to casting with enthusiasm and personality. And it's important that the community acknowledges that.
The casters are a big part of what makes competitive StarCraft 2 so unique and also what makes it a sport that could be destined for massive success among even the masses sometime in the future.

What we're trying to say is that casters should be judged not only by knowledge of the game but also by the ability to make the game even more entertaining.
It's cool to see the way that StarCraft 2 is getting more and more professional at every event. For instance all the analysis took place at this weekend's MLG Summer Arena really made it seem like a legit and serious sport like football or whatever.
BUT we believe that Starcraft 2 can be much more than that. It can be a sport and a community that manages to constantly shine with magnificent enthusiasm and at the same time express an endless amount of original humor and self irony. 

In our 1 and a half year of watching SC 2 we've heard so many funny comments and jokes by Tastosis, Day 9, Husky or other funny casters, and we will remember many of these comments for years. That's pretty damn awesome and one of the unique aspects that we believe puts Starcraft 2 miles ahead of so many other competitive sports.

That's our opinion anyway. What do you think?