First of all, I feel that accesibility is not even the biggest barrier the fighting game community has nowadays. There are so many resources, and “easy” games (I state this very, very loosely) I feel that fighting games are way more easily to be understood because of it’s nature. It is two people beating the living crap out of each other. Obviously there are more mechanics and aspects to it such as, “wow, did you see him, he saved his meter this round when he was at a major life defeciet to use it all in this round to seal the deal!” While games such as Brood War or Starcraft 2 are really hard to understand whats going on, unless you invested time into knowing what is going on. While “new comer” commentary is great, it alienates the true fans. I’m sure you know but a lot of people despise the play-by-play commentary in sports, and they would much rather hear color-commentary.
While your idea on the forced break is a decent idea, in practice it sometimes hinders the players. Fighting games are more of a mental momentum-based activity. In boxing, they do this to give the fighters a rest. Instead of using the break, state what happened, such as “Wow, that was a great read on player x’s side” and go into depth after the whole match is over and explain what happened. When players are changing you have all the time in the world (well, not really) to explain what happened instead of ruining the pace of the game.
Your facts about why Starcraft blowing up are hardly true. Many people that follow x youtube SC2 commentator do not even own/play the game, let alone even care about learning the game. They are merely fans of the personality. The biggest reason why Starcraft 2 is doing so well is because it is on an easily accessible platform, with multiple sponsors, and the producing company actually sponsors the game at tournaments. When was the last time Capcom actually sponsored a tournament outside of Evo? (Actually, does Capcom even throw money at Evo?)
Commentary, imo needs 2 people involved. One’s sole intent is to provide color commentary + bits of insightful commentary, while the other commentator is there to provide the juicy information, while still being able to bounce off one another.
Also, Starcraft 2 commentary for the most part outside of a small handful is boring, and absolutely horrible. I kind of feel that Starcraft 2 commentary is a step back in good commentary. Have you ever seen a Korean Brood War match commentated? That is more of the direction I feel that Starcraft 2 needs to go towards. eSports, is not the direction we want to go, Korean Brood War is where we want to go. And funnily enough Korean Brood War is more professional than most eSports streams (as it has its own dedicated tv channels!)
