I like your voice, and you could definitely be a good caster. The problem is (at least in my opinion), you know the game too well, and you let it distract you. I noticed sometimes you got caught up explaining why someone did something or what you think is gonna happen next, instead of focusing on the action (Example 6:38)
That could be a good thing, but I'd say save the analysis and criticisms for when there's nothing going on. A lot of it felt like a demo review instead of a cast. Then again I'm an idiot and probably don't know what I'm taking about lol

You definitely need a new pre-game screen, your current one is pretty iffy. I could try making a new one for you if you'd like

i enjoyed this, would love to see more!

Hey there Marxist, it's always awesome to see new people get into commentating. I'm sure there are a few hidden gem commentators out there, who just, never actually take the step into casting, but could be absolutely amazing at it with a few attempts.

I assume you would want some sort of constructive critisism, so I've had a watch of parts of the video and I'll let you know my views.

Firstly, commentating without a partner is quite hard, not because of the lack of words, but because viewers can get very tired of just having one voice talking to them for prolonged periods of time. There are a few tricks to keep viewers interested in a solo cast, the first being to change your excitement levels and voice tempo throughout the match.

If you're always just relaxed and explaining things, it can sound a bit like a University lecture, and if you're always shouting and screaming with too much excitement, it could sound like you're just crazy. By mixing it up, you draw people into the potentially exciting moments of the game as they happen, and then you can move into strategy and other information in between those moments. I think you needed a few more moments of excitement in your casts, but the information was perfect. You have good understanding of the game.

The second trick as a solo caster, is you can attempt to speak directly to your viewers. This also keeps viewers interested as they find themselves subconsciously answering your questions. For example, you could say:

"Oh my god guys? Did you just see that?"

or

"I don't even know what just happened there... did you see what happened? Because I certainly didn't!"

Both of those are interacting with your viewers, even though you can't hear their responses. It adds a slightly more personal touch for them and changes the vibe of your cast from being just a tf2 lecture.

Still, it's a very informative cast with good game knowledge, so I can only applaud your work :). Keep it up dude!

I made the pregame screen in paint, in about like 15 minutes - it wasn't meant to look really nice lol. If I get into doing these more often I'll either try harder or ask around :D I'll hit you up redban lol. TBH I spent the most time trying to get the little class marker things to look relatively the same for each team lol.

thanks arx :D

Yeah I tried to load a bunch of information down because I'd like to assume that *some* viewers will have literally no idea what's going on - maybe dumb it down less and provide more color commentary, and just assume the audience is familiar with why you'd throw a pocket out first lol.

I sort of modeled my information off of the early eXtine casts that had him explaining what an uber did and why it was good lol. I didn't take it that far though.

I'll try asking rhetorical questions :D

I'll probably make a few more just so I can get used to doing a bunch of shit at once and trying to say interesting things, and also get all the spectate stuff working properly.

Marxist, based on your comment in #6, you could benefit from deciding what audience you're really targeting. Do you want to bring in the viewers who have no idea what's going on? Then focus the entire commentary on those viewers. But then you have to actually GET those viewers to watch, which is not always an easy task and in my experience it takes a long time to build a base. But whatever, just take mine I guess. :P

lol I haven't quite decided what sort of casting I'd like to get into just gon' experiment and destroy my upload a bit, I tend not to be excitable enough to scream a bunch, but I can manage slight voice changes and a rather villainous laugh.

I do rather like teaching the game though, but that's why I have my guide vidyas'

I'll let everyone else handle the constructive criticism, I don't know enough. Definitely get more excited though!

I liked it and you have potential. With Sal, djc, and cbear all leaving/casting less, lord knows we need more casters.

Literally the only time I've tried to cast before was eons ago in a vent with some pub buddies, and with pharaoh I drunkenly commentated on a Sunday Funday IM match lol.

So I'm kinda' a big noob at it but you'll probably never hear me yell unless I see something truly amazing live - I've watched that gran match before so I'm not as surprised when mix^ comes back 5-1 to win with mere minutes remaining as I was when I watched live lol. So hopefully you'll see more emotion once we get rolling with s14 :D

Marxist is basically the greatest guy ever, really knows what he's doing. I'll watch this when i have a chance. Your voice is enjoyable and you should continue doing these. Good luck.
PS: your guides to maps are veryyy helpful to new players.

Sal literally just said exactly what I was going to add.
You will not be able to cater for all audiences, because some viewers only enjoy highly informative casts, while others enjoy crazy screams of excitement. You just develop the style you think you prefer, for the people who enjoy that style.

1. Please don't ever turn into a watered down shout-casting plebeian.
2. Duo cast with said plebeians as the color commentator who isn't autistic.

Another go around with a game I hadn't watched before - some render errors in the video but it's inherent in the FRAPs footage :( not too many errors that last too long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nuHiPOOHL0

How's your computer? Instead of fraps how about recording with a different tool like dxtory or Afterburner (free) which has a choice of VFW codecs like x264/lagarith/UT Video. [UT video is Fucking fast lossless]

Some video stuff
-Disable frame blending because the panning scenes are jarring. If you're on vegas, make sure the project FPS matches the media fps and the export FPS matches the project fps.
http://i.imgur.com/JUbhXNk.jpg

-The bottom part of the introductions were difficult to read.

-Different hud with more readable spec thingy.

yeah that particular set of fraps videos got messed up somewhere in a few places and would have just had to be remade to work correctly. I've messed around with bandicam and dxtory but dxtory is all messed up from when I tried to stream lol awful video quality (I have literally no upload) lol.

Once I take myself more seriously I may invest is getting multiple huds to be all official like.