Explaining the flamecasting tweets a bit more

I thought it would be a pretty good idea to explain the tweets from earlier today more.

First of all, there is something quite important that I would like people to understand : I never said or thought that you need to be a 9k pro players in order to cast games. Having tried casting myself I know how difficult it is, and I have the biggest respect for all the casters, and by all I really mean all of them. It is the main reason for me not calling out anyone, because I do think that they are all doing a great job, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, like we all do in everything we try in life.



A lot of answers come from people blaming the fact that I did not name a specific person or point out a situation. Pointing out a situation does not make sense for a very simple reason : what I dislike in this way of casting is the way the point is made, not the point itself.



Let's take an example :

A caster sees Oracle disarming a sven, which also makes magic damage irrelevant. Void, Oracles team mate, then proceeds to chrono the sven in order to stop the heavy physical damage output. If the casters thought the disarm was not good because Voids bashes become ineffective, I respect that opinion even if I disagree with it ( which is the case here ). I think it is fine to just go with the flow of the game and describe what happens and also have a negative opinion of what just happened. What I heavily dislike and criticize is the way the opinion is expressed. Casters, 95% of the time, don't have fog of war when they cast, they also don't have the audio, what the other players in the game are saying / asking for. It is almost impossible for them to know exactly what the players were thinking at that time. So instead of having the instant mindset of blaming the player and questioning his play, why not be open minded about it and although you think it is a mistake, try to understand why it happened while pointing out the mistakes. Which is what most casters do anyway.

I can either go : "Oracle by trying to help void ended up saving sven because disarming him also blocked magic damage, he's gonna be unhappy about himself!"

Now I have the mindset of giving someone credit for his plays, after all he is the pro player that qualified for this tournament right.

Or I can be like : " another sloppy play by the oracle that saved the sven in the chrono, he must have forgotten that his spell blocks magic damage"

Now I am just bashing on the Oracle and I also look quite stupid because I forgot that spells first aim is to disarm Sven in that situation, which is quite ironical.

This is not what has been said, it is just a talkative example that expresses well what I meant with my earlier point.



Additionally, I think 'blaming players' can happen, I have never said something about it. But this has to be the 100th game I have listened to this happen literally from minute 0 to the very end.



I was listening to Purge casting, yes.

Why did I not call him out specifically ?

Well, maybe because I respect his work immensely and I think a lot of what he does he does perfect. Calling him out without mentioning the good side of what he does just sounds awfully wrong. Additionally, and this also explains why I would rather tweet about it then just go to people directly, I am just afraid that this might be a trend that happens more and more, so opening a discussion about it even if it puts me on the spot once again seems like the best move.



It is very frustrating to listen to this type of casting, when players are always given close to no credits for their choices in game. Especially when in most cases I know for a fact that the criticism being told is often completely wrong. These people work their asses off to get where they are today. Their choices in-game and game play is the result of hundreds of hours of practice.

People also argue that the aim of a cast is to make it entertaining not to praise players. I do not disagree, and I never thought that players should be praised no matter what. There is just a respectful way to do it. And I don't even mean that some casters are being disrespectful intentionally, it just happens.

I listened a lot to Lacoste lately for instance. He calls out players constantly, but in a way where he also gives them the credit or explains the reason of why mistakes happened. If people find player-bashing fun to listen to, then fair enough, but it is pretty ironical when I have these people complain on reddit about me saying how much I dislike it. You are either fine with criticism or you aren't, choose where you stand once and for all.

Listen to most of the casters, Purge included, they often hype what players does and even when they don't they make the game way more interesting to watch, way hyper.



At the end of the day I do not want to be seen as the guy that dislike the way casts are handled, first of all because I do not consider my opinion more valuable than anyone's opinion , and I literally mean anyone. That is why it's always funny for me to have these tweets telling me about how shameful it is for me to say such things when im in the position that I am. I do not consider myself being in any position. I am just another dude that plays dota and watches streams. I do not speak as a Major winer, in fact I am not, neither do I speak as a personality. I have never considered myself being any of that. I speak as Sebastien Debs period. And when I feel strong about it, I express it, and the story ends here.

Secondly I am actually one of the biggest supporter of casters. I just keep tweeting or messaging them about how great their casts are and how impressed I am at the value that they bring to the games. If I looked down on casts or did not care about them, I would have stayed silent and just closed the stream. Or even privately complain about it.



Reddits gonna make a big deal out of this, when there is literally nothing to it. It is just a opinion expressed that will open a discussion. Which is always a good thing. Hearing flame-casting drives me nuts because I feel awful for the players that might just be watching this later and be heart-broken. If that makes me the bad guy, then so be it. But at least keep the discussion open and let everyone put themselves in question in order to keep making this better than it is. Cheers

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