Recently I was asked what makes casting Valorant challenging by another caster and while my initial response was about the pacing of the game and finding ways to work with a color caster to inject analysis in the small respites of action, I feel its something else (a thread)

Valorant is an amazing game, as its drawn so many unique communities together. With pros coming from CS, OW, FN, Crossfire, PUBG, Apex and more, everyone brings their own interesting approach to playing the game.

The fans also have certain expectations as a result

Those expectations apply to many things but one of the areas that stands out to me is on screen talent. I've noticed that lately, the audience (whether its reddit, twitter or twitch chat) has become much more vocal with their opinions about the casters, hosts and analysts.

Reddit appreciation threads are countered by hate on twitch and socials, as well as the reddit match threads themselves. While its normal for fans of X to say the talent is biased to Y and visa versa, this was completely different. We started seeing the Simon Cowell's of casting

"This caster is too hype" could be followed 2 minutes later by "These casters don't even care about the game." "These casters are boring" followed shortly after by "I'm loving this relaxed style of casting." This feedback is seen all over in ways I haven't seen before.

Even some of the best casting pairs in Valorant have had people shred them apart because it wasn't what they wanted. Seeing hate for DDK and Sean Gares on a broadcast totally blew my mind considering how incredibly talented and brilliant the 2 of them are.

Today I finally realized that the cause is our unique backgrounds that we came to Valorant from. Each game we came from had its own style of casting, with its own pace and approach. But what we're accustomed to casting, the audience isn't always accustomed to hearing.

Casters from Game A might be used to hyping more where casters from Game B are more analytical. Casters from Game C might be used to killing down time with entertainment via jokes and banter where as casters from Game D might be used to a more serious and "professional" approach.

Fans from ABC&D expect those styles to apply to Valorant, despite it being incredibly different game than what they come from, the game casters come from and the game players come from. Even games like CS with many similarities, have a wildly different competitive cadence to Val.

As Valorant continues to grow, we will continue to see new styles and new approaches brought to the game and the broadcasts. Casters will bring their own personal flair to the show and we will take all of the features we like and build a unified voice and tone for Valorant.

While COVID made 2020 seem like it was way longer than it was, Valorant is barely 1 year old as both a game AND an esport. We need to stop pretending that there is 1 way to cast Valorant, 1 way to play Valorant, etc. This is a scene that is still developing.

You might think a certain style is the best way because that's all you've ever known or experienced. If you grew up eating plain vanilla ice cream, you might scoff at the idea of adding hot fudge but the second you try it you'd realize you were missing out on something all along.

While many draw straight lines between Valorant and CSGO, we have to remember where CSGO was and where broadcast were at when it was first released compared to what it eventually became. It took YEARS to get it to the level its at now. Valorant will get there too, be patient.

We need to be accepting of players and talent alike from all backgrounds, giving them a proper chance to show what they can do. We cannot act like Pro Valorant is already etched in stone when it is very much a developing product. Lets be constructive instead of destructive. <3