My goal with observing has always been to create one unit between obs and the casters. They need to watch/listen and react to each other. If the caster says Potti is the key to this round you need to be on him. If the obs is showing a flank well you better be talking about it.

In 2003 while recording CS events with MFAVP we had a bottleneck creating videos using match demos. We started to record from HLTV right into a DV camera. Each minute of footage took a minute to transfer so we only recorded what we needed. I learned how to observe live to tape.

That Winter @sirscoots and I sat at the Hyatt bar and started brainstorming ways to make CS a live broadcast. In CS you could only go forward and back when trying to select a players POV. We needed a way around it. The 5 in game camera solution was our answer.

Our 2006 setup.

As groups started to live broadcast CS we watched in horror as the casters controlled the camera. They sat on dead bodies or clicked around trying to find the action. We knew our ideas were correct. It took until 2006 before we were able to show the world.

Funny enough we were able to use our live setup for FEAR Combat and HL2DM events before CS. Both taught us how to streamline communication and got us ready for CS. We worked on how to do correct storytelling in an observer system. Buildup and payoffs. We even had telestration.

At Winter 2006 CPL GotFragTV broadcasted live. We tied 2 NewTek VT systems together to have live cameras, instant replay and 5 game feeds. I directed the game and worked one observer PC. My brother 3 Obs and Mark and John from MFAVP handled the live cameras and graphics.

This setup is now the normal way esports broadcasts are done. We started to experiment with scorebots and delayed HTLV feeds to have better instant replays. Something I was happy to bring to back to MLG in 2015

After watching in 07 WSVG and CGS fail at trying to do a WoW arena broadcast we were given the challenge of making something fans wanted to watch.The first goal was not to miss a kill. Something the others failed often at. Understanding the game is the observers main job.

When CSGO events started picking up I started going crazy watching people try to observe the game. All the basic rules we had established were forgotten. @JoshNissan was the first person to really understand how to show the game.

I would talk to observers working events and often they had no caster audio. No real plan on what is important. I created a setup in 2015 at MLG that had a large map screen, A delay feed for instant replay and a switch between 2 observers. Mixing free camera and POV shots.

I think @sapphiReGG is the first person in CSGO that I had serious philosophical talks about observering. Working with her and later @priusOBS it has been a pleasure watching them expand on my ideas and take things to a new level.

At Eleague I added a PC so the casters could do some walk throughs using the in game map. Add in a world class replay team we start getting player reactions to big moments to match in game.

Something that I have managed to do every major broadcast is the matching shot. Take a camera moving behind a player, zoom on screen then cut to observer feed on the same player. A simple way to connect new viewers to the action. Even did it a few times in OWL.

That is enough of observer thread #1. Maybe later I will do Overwatch. That is a doozy.