He was pretty mediocre. . .
then doctor doom and friends came on stream, and it all went downhill from there
People that complain about bad commentary should really go out and offer to do commentary
Just so everyone else can have a chance to say they’re bad too.
Saying it’s necessary make it sounds like there’d be 0 viewers if there were no commentary during a major. I’m saying that the group who literally cannot watch a fighting game match/tourney with 0 commentary are a small group. My evidence would be the years of match footage without commentary and viewers in streams that are of a language they don’t speak/understand.
fuck commentators behind some desk, like its a job
stream from a tripod between the players
Yeah.
Additionally, people that complain about bad music should refrain from doing so because they aren’t musicians. You also can’t criticize bad acting unless you’re an actor yourself. Bad writing? Unless you’re a writer, don’t say a word about it. And as for bad games, well… you get the idea.* This is making so much sense.*
The only difference is that there’s money in all those examples that you listed.
And a bunch of people in this community that think there might be some money in their interest. How many people give a fuck about fighting games compared to musicians/actors/authors/etc?
If you don’t think commentating adds a tangible excitement to viewing FG streams that would be missed by many then we agree to disagree. Understanding a language isn’t necessary when human emotions transcend those barriers when they’re filtered through a microphone.
I’m done here.
I mean the commentators aren’t trained or paid and literally just show up though. Everyone on commentary is just a fan there willing to give insight to those watching at home who aren’t as informed instead of doing something else at the event they paid to attend.
But you guys don’t care or refuse to acknowledge this.
It’s clear that throwing anyone on a mic just doesn’t work. From sounding bored or just not knowing what to say, commentary sucks.
I think one of the issues is that alot of times when I click on a stream, they talk about the game too damn much. Yipes and dogface and ski would talk about players history, jokes, etc. I dont need play by play on fighting games, make it entertaining. 99% of stream commentary is droll bullshit
I’d leave to if I was putting words in others’ mouths. 
We know that; that doesn’t mean we always have to like it.
If I was at an event providing rambling, dry commentary simply because no one better suited for the task was around, I wouldn’t just expect the viewers to appreciate it because it’s coming from the heart. If it’s fodder to be praised it’s also fodder to be criticized.
Serious question
Are they suppose to get better without practice or experience?
I disagree, I’d take the professionalism.
professional just means getting paid for doing it
…The problem is that most people are downright afraid of commentating because well people are so selective on what they want to watch.
Yes. How else will I know what has happened in the match displayed clearly on my monitor? I will never know if Ryu has thrown a hadoken as shown on the screen without a man wearing a beanie telling me that he has thrown a hadoken.
It’s weird how even Evo of all places consistently gets this wrong.
Daigo parry had such a broad appeal, even to people who never played SF, because hundreds of the people were losing their shit as something flashy was happening. It’s not because of s-kill’s commentary (no offense, most of us have love for Seth Killian).
These events have the kind of emotion that showbusiness is constantly trying to fake, when they put laugh tracks underneath shitty sitcoms and flash applause signs to the audience during talk shows. We have favorites and we recognize underdogs and close matches, and comebacks, and traps and we react with genuine surprise when we see things that we’ve never seen before. We genuinely applaud at the end of something great, and sometimes there’s even ironic applause- the latter sometimes followed by the former.
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While I won’t put forward an argument that there’s no need for commentary, the literal voice of the community itself is an outstanding resource, and is something that should be heard. The current streaming trend has become more like sports, as far as commentary goes- but we’re better than sports, so who gives a shit.
tl;dr- audio mix should include more crowd audio than it does.
top 3:
yipes
matrix
spooky
honorable: jwong, rayray, …most top players who get on the mic and give the knowledge
tops 4 ppl who only play online (aka most stream monsters)
low gameplay understanding commentators like ultrachen
but at the same time yipes commentary is so fucking godlike that he fits here too. everyone loves spooky too, matrix is hit or miss for most
POINT: if you dont know much, you think shit like ultrachen is godlike. personally i cant listen to that shit, its like james chens like OMG WHY DID HE DO THAT? all fuckin confused and shit. its like uh…he was trying to, u know, fucking get a W.
i am NOT talking shit about ultrachen, they are the best when aimed at low level players (the audience they cater to)
if you know the basics, and u wanna hear some like shit other than what you already know, spooky, yipes, matrix, etc all provide hype commentary with humor with better analysis, with better…really everything…
No Dogface?
I used to have a lot of appreciation for James Chen until he stopped doing what he’s good at – guides and combo videos – and moved on to something he’s bad at – live commentary.