Fundamental principles of commentary in Tactical FPS

This essay aims to highlight the major pillars of esports commentary in the Tactical FPS genre. With a better understanding of underlying principles, our ability to improve broadcasts as commentators should follow. As ever, analysis allows us to break down complex ideas to be able to better tackle them and grow as opposed to wasting energy with blind trial and error. This essay will be the first in a series about commentary and will serve to lay some basic groundwork.

Engagement is the name of the game and the underlying principle that comes before all others in the context of broadcasting. If we are engaged in something, we choose to maintain or further invest our attention on that thing; in a world where there is constant and compelling competition for our attention, we need to have a strong grasp of this concept and employ everything at our disposal to make our argument to keep the viewers engaged.

Before we further break down engagement in the context of esports commentary, we have to recognize that fans choose to open up a stream of a professional match for a few reasons:

1. A player and fan looking to learn from the professionals to become better
2. A fan invested in the teams that are playing and their outcomes specifically
3. A fan who enjoys high level competition in esports and the general spectacle that it provides
4. All of the above

As commentators, our job is to take this basal engagement and to supercharge it through use of these 4 pillars: narrative, education, fun and delivery.

Narrative

Here are some common examples of narratives you will find in any esports broadcast:

1. Strategic — the long term goal(s) in a round that tactics are working in line to achieve or the vector through which the round winning advantage(s) is found.

Here are a couple examples:
(a) An attacker default, generally, uses a slow to medium pace to win the information game and condition the opponent. This opens a lot of possibilities for advantages that can be chosen as the opportunity is presented.
(b) An anti-eco round strategy may involve slow pace to stay safe against rush timings, gather as much information as possible, stay away from positions of strength for close range weapons, and manipulate opponent rotations.

Certain teams will opt to use some strategies more than others and it’s up to us to be able to track that narrative. We need to do this because it helps us to tell the story of adaptation between the two teams. You can think of it this way: in most competitive contexts there are two competing entities. Each entity stands by itself in its identity: its strengths and weaknesses. When coming into contact with the opposing entity on the battlefield, there is a clash of styles. Each team is trying to maximize its own strengths whilst minimizing its opponents strengths as well as attempting to actively exploit weaknesses. As such, we need to know what the two teams are like as they walk into the battle, but more importantly we need to be able to follow the interactions of styles and adaptations as they lock horns.

2. Tactical — the tactical narrative is something that someone like Sean Gares is an absolute master in deciphering and communicating. This concerns which tools or plays are being employed to achieve each small goal that aligns with the overall round strategy.

Here are several examples:
(a) Using a boombot lineup to clear hookah at the beginning of a round
(b) Using a drone to gain information in a specific area or clear spots
(c) Using a Jett dash to break through trips whilst Omen uses paranoia to clear other positions simultaneously

These examples sound dry and uninteresting. But we know in reality that in the context of a professional match that there is an immense level of depth to the tactical choices that teams use to achieve the various goals they may have. Depending on your strategy, you need to choose tactics that will align to do what you need to execute that strategy correctly. There is a large range, here are a few examples: denying information, creating space, punishing rotations, gaining information, denying angles, creating untradeable kills, scaling, spacing, double-peeking and much more.

3. Meta — the meta narrative speaks to what we expect to see in strategic and tactical choices from the professional teams before the game has even started.

Here are a couple examples:
(a) During the period where players understood the stinger to be extremely cost-effective, we were seeing a high prevalence of that weapon and rounds constructed around that approach, “the stinger meta”. Players from CS:GO will be particularly familiar with the various metas that revolved around weapon balance (UMP, CZ-75, Tec-9, Aug, Krieg, etc).
(b) If we expect to see a Jett in every match, one can make an argument that we’re in a “Jett meta”.

Understanding the meta is notable because it also gives us additional information as to what will be relevant to talk about. A meta is built around what feels strongest at any given point in the game. If something is strong, it will likely have a large impact on the end result of the match — and that is something worth talking about and being able to consider or explain as we should expect the professional teams to have prepared approaches to deal with what is strong in the meta.

4. Human interest — The emotional or personal elements behind a player as it relates to the game in the context of their career and life.

Here are a couple examples:
(a) Understanding the history of brax, his playstyle and his current team situation.
(b) Recognising Wedid as a first generation VALORANT player
(c) Noting FNS and his history as an IGL and his character and style in the community

The context that exists behind each of these players expresses a huge level of depth that is related to their performance in the game and the meaning behind the results they achieve or do not achieve. Again, some fans may care less about these elements, but in general the human stories are relatable to anyone with a pulse. We all understand and can connect to feelings of failure, success, rejection, acceptance, etc.

5. Historic — the history of competition, patches, players, teams, strategies, tactics, esports, etc.

Let’s look at a couple examples:
(a) Sage being nerfed repeatedly
(b) TSM being on top for the first parts of VALORANT history
(c) High profile CS:GO players that made the switch

Understanding the evolution of the game, just as we benefit from understanding world history, gives us great perspective on the present and future. It allows us to connect fans to longer running narratives and allows us to use that to build more perspective and meaning around the action we see happening in front of us. If a team is doing very well, it means so much more if that team has struggled for a long time, for example. It also helps to give us a sense that we are living in and a part of history which is a powerful aspect for fans. This is in part why live broadcasting is so compelling compared with catching a re-run. To live something is often better than to live what was already experienced.

In conclusion on narratives, as commentators, we have an abundant choice of things to choose to talk about in this sense and it can be difficult at the best of times to select the most appropriate ones. We’ll talk more about how we do that, but first, we need to look at the other tools of an engaging broadcast.

EDUCATION

As we mentioned, some individuals derive enormous value from learning more about the game as it’s played at a professional level. Being able to educate viewers as to why certain choices are made allows us to help the fans better appreciate what is truly amazing about professional level play which effectively further invests them.

In an ideal world, we have the best possible understanding of the game and we can decode it for the audience just as though it were a language and we are its translators, bridging the gap between the expert and the layman. To effectively accomplish this we need to be able to be good analysts in our own right, and failing that, we need at least to understand the basic macro flow of the game and know when the space should be given to the color commentator to do the translating for us. Without going too deep into it, as we will talk about this later on, the tricky part here is selecting what to talk about and for how long — education is great but it has to be relevant and uttered with brevity, otherwise it may step on the cast in a negative fashion.

FUN

This pillar is critical and overlaps with all the others. No matter what you do, having fun is important and infectious. You are able to have fun with almost anything that happens and, even when nothing is happening, you can still have fun. This can be in the form of a joke or playful banter with your co-commentator, etc. The masters of this for me have to be Tasteless and Artosis — it does not matter what game they are commentating, whether it is even good or not, you know by listening to them that they will deliver fun.

Having this as a strength is useful because sometimes games will be boring, and being educational and informative will only get you so far, talking about narratives or backstories will only get you so far — sometimes nothing can substitute just being a little silly, being self-amused and sharing that and having fun with everything that is going on. This is also a great way to respect the audience because again, if you think the game sucks, so will they! But our job is not to make a sucky game better, but to make the broadcast better, and we can do that by having fun. The key here, of course, is that it is in good taste. That should go without saying. But you know, here I am, saying it.

DELIVERY

This pillar is something I see most people focusing on before they focus on having good substance to deliver. The reason for that is because it is the first thing you “see” when you listen to a broadcast. Developing the tools of good delivery takes a long time and is one the most important things, especially for a play-by-play commentator, but certainly not exclusively. Again, as evidenced by Sean Gares, a colour commentator, when he speaks about something there is a “sense of urgency” . This is one of the most important skills in delivery for a color commentator as it adds weight and pressure to the statements made— the audience will know based on the tone of what is being talked about that it is extremely important and they will be hooked and invested in the outcome of what is being talked about. As we will write separate articles that explain these pillars in much more depth, I’ll briefly go over some other skills that are important in delivery:

1. Rate / Flow — these are great tools to help you slow things down when the action is slower, or to speed things up when the action is faster. If you imagine you have a metronome in your head, this sense of consistent tempo, as though you were dancing to a beat, is extremely helpful. This is a great tool for when you feel you are about to trip on your words, you are able to pause and just pick right back up on tempo and it will seem as though nothing happened.
2. Volume — like tempo, volume connects directly to the action. As we use compressors in modern esports broadcasting, the volume is not too disparate even if you are trying to be very quiet or very loud, instead it is more-so implied by what happens to your voice when your voice is loud or quiet into the microphone. As such, this is more about finding the right base level that sounds good for your voice and understanding how much quieter or louder you truly have to go to effectively deliver what you feel the play deserves, because again, like tempo, our voice should be somewhat linked to what is onscreen.
3. Articulation / Pronounciation — being able to develop clear speech and to correctly pronounce things is of course something to be mindful and critical of. Especially given how global our viewership is, being as accessible as possible with our voice is key. My voice has changed enormously over time so that I am easier to understand and I feel like I still have work to do in these areas.
4. Say what you see — sometimes keeping it simple and saying what you see goes much further than shoehorning in a catchphrase or through overuse of hyperbole, especially if you have the correct tempo and volume throughout the play. Eg. “THE JUMPING DOUBLE FROM COLD”. This is something Sadokist is truly expert at, too. Although he has, most likely, the best word play in the business, he rarely abused it. His casting is world class because his fundamentals are so strong. In the clip we see that he plays with tempo incredibly well and sticks to the rhythm, adjusting his volume and choosing to stretch syllables to emphasize when something big happened (kills) but then snaps straight back into the original tempo.
5. Remove filler words / brain farts — this is huge but will be immensely helped through improved skill in rate and flow. It takes conscious practice but is vital for any speaker. Again, I really emphasize using that internal beat. You want to be talking on that tempo at all times, just as though you were rapping or doing anything musical — stay on beat. If you have to have to pause, so long as you catch up on the beat that you’ve established, you are fine!
6. Tonality / Tonal variance — this can be a difficult one to perfect, also. Tonal variance allows you to play with pitch to create different effects. Every commentator will have a difference baseline here but it is useful to note how often you should leave that baseline pitch. I found for myself that I was all over the place in this regard in my early work. It took time for me to find my baseline and understand how much I should depart it and for what reasons. Equally, when trying to assert authority, we want our pitch to go down at the end of sentences. If we stay level or go up in pitch at the end of a sentence it indicates uncertainty or a question. We want to be speaking, generally, in a series of statements. Also, there are clear areas of the cast where we want to embolden certain statements and make them heavier using tonality and volume, like the title of an essay, ie. at the beginning of a match we might want to launch with “IT’S TIME. MAP ONE. 100T VS SENTINELS. VCT MASTERS SEMI-FINALS. SEN START OFF ON ATTACK.” This is also a great moment to throw to your color and it allows them free reign to setup the expectation in the buy time in whichever way they want.
7. Building moments and creating space — Knowing how to slow the cast down and to leave dead air is extremely important. If you are commentating a good game, you should have spots where, if your co-caster doesn’t mistakenly jump in, you are able to just leave space. Leaving space is extremely important and knowing how to drop into a pause and come out of it is a crucial skill in our delivery arsenal.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

All commentators need to grasp and understand the basic skills of the craft to be able to develop their styles and preferences. As we can see here, the major pillars describe our job as broadcasters to keep the viewers engaged. How we decide to place emphasis, where we decide to hone ourselves the most, begins to shape us as commentators. We have a large degree of choice in how we want to approach this which makes every commentator completely unique. Good commentators will be well versed in all of the above. When we apply these general skills to a specific game, it gets a little more complex as to where emphasis should be and how we should conduct ourselves to honor the game and the viewers the best. And as it happens, this is the focus of my next essay, “Good Approaches For Commentary In Tactical FPS”.