The Impact Factor

Watching (Colorful) Paint Dry: Overwatch eSports Casting
Perspectives

Over the weekend I tuned into Overwatch's largest tournament to date, the "Agents Rising 10K." Held at the eSports Arena outside of Los Angeles, the eSport event featured some of the scene's most well known teams like Liquid and Cloud9 competing for the largest prize pool to date. I was excited to tune into the event, not only because I've been looking to expand my eSports viewing horizons (I've stuck mostly to fighting games and Hearthstone), but also because I have been having such a great time playing the game. Overwatch has been spectacular so far.

I will go into more detail about why I am loving Overwatch next week with a full review of the game, but one thing I'll share now is this: Overwatch is the epitome of fun. I don't mean to imply that nothing is more fun than Overwatch, but rather, Overwatch was designed from the ground up to be a problem-free fun experience. Despite the years of pain-staking work that went into making Overwatch so exceptional, there's a certain lightness that characterizes the entire experience. From characters to maps to guns to lore to everything in between, the game pops with colorful vibrancy. Overwatch is full of life. A kind of life that makes you feel better for playing it. Dark and serious and dry Overwatch is not.

You can imagine my surprise then when the Agents Rising 10K stream teetered between boring and O.K. throughout its duration. And it wasn't the gameplay. The players were pulling off crazy moves, cool strategies, dynamic team compositions. The technical side of the stream was great too -- the perspective shifting was the best yet for Overwatch in terms of making it clear what was happening. The issue was the casting. The commentary. Not even one week into the release of Overwatch and the commentary had already devolved into numb and sterile talk of strategy (what players could and/or should be doing). It's a pitfall so much of eSports has fallen into. The casters don't make the game sound fun. Hell, the casters don't even sound like they're having fun. The casting was so bad I took to Twitter to complain.

Overwatch eSports commentary is the absolute worst. The on the fly analytics and serious tone is totally at odds with the game itself.

— Alexandr S. (@alexsamocha) May 29, 2016

It's the definition of 'generic eSports commentary.' eSports has the opportunity to be more, not just boring analysis & criticism.

— Alexandr S. (@alexsamocha) May 29, 2016

Will NO ONE take cues from the FGC? For better (&sometimes worse) at least there is some life & joy & personality. Overwatch so far has none

— Alexandr S. (@alexsamocha) May 29, 2016

I have become so sick of this deep-thinking, overly analytic approach to eSports commentary. It plagues the Hearthstone and CS:GO scenes. If casters aren't careful, DOTA2 and LoL fall into a similar trap. What made me more angry when it comes to Overwatch was just how at odds it felt for the game itself. Overwatch is fun incarnate, filled with life and color. The drab analytics and theory crafting on the fly don't fit the game. It would be like shoutcasters at a golf event. The tonal dissonance creates an unpleasant viewing experience.

I've long compared Overwatch to fighting games, and especially after playing, the comparison feels more apt than ever. Everyone wants to claim that the characters feel like MOBA heroes. For me, they're much more similar to the fighters in SFV or Soul Calibur than anything from DOTA2. Regardless, the life and excitement of Overwatch demands some life and excitement in casting. As I noted in my tweets, the Overwatch scene could learn a lot from the fighting game community. After years of practice, the FGC has found a near perfect balance of strategy talk and hype casting. What's happening on screen is exciting, so why shouldn't the commentary be exciting and get people excited?

I only want the best for a game I love to play and I would love to watch. Overwatch is the most fun I've had with a multiplayer shooter in years. I want it to be the game that gets me into watching FPS eSports, too. But with what was on display at the Agents Rising 10K, I'm not so sure. If you're reading this and have any pull at Overwatch tournaments, local or gigantic, please put some thought into how you cast the game. eSports needs less paint drying and more paint excitedly brushed on Twitch's canvas. We would all benefit from more joy in our lives.

Because I know that playing Overwatch has brought me a ton. I'm effusive about it on TIF podcast and can play for nearly 3 hours at a time. The world could use more heroes. Specifically, better Overwatch casters. Those kind of heroes.