Great gameplay, terrible commentary: Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Tournament grand finals, Brasil
Everyone loves an underdog. Close matches are exciting, and seeing a “loser” rise battle for victory can be invigorating.
So when Breno Fighters came back from loser’s bracket to challenge Tokido for the grand finals match in Brasil’s most recent high-profile tournament, it’s understandable that the crowd was going wild. Their country’s champion was suddenly back in the game, fighting for national pride.
But the commentators, too? Frankly, it’s none of their business to play favorites.
You see, the commentators aren’t/shouldn’t be there to scream at the top of their lungs, to generate hype, or to live vicariously through the underdog. That’s the job of, say, every other goddamn person in the room. The commentators are, ostensibly, present to provide insight, provide an audio component to a mostly visual match, and give viewers background information they might not otherwise have.
I don’t know who exactly provided the narration for these videos, but fairly early in the matches it’s obvious they have no interest in a Tokido victory. Even farther along, they pretty much stop commentating at any point that Tokido’s in control, probably because they’re holding their breath for a Breno Fighters comeback. That’s not good commentary; that’s biased, one-sided fanboyism.
Regardless, the matches themselves were excellent, with both Breno Fighters and Tokido providing incredible pressure, mindgames, and clutch victories. I won’t say more – you deserve to see the results yourself. Just try to observe the irony of such top-level play being executed parallel to such bottom-run shoutcasting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz7JchuR8gE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OgEebug89w
Street Fighter commentary is almost universally terrible. Even a lot of the well known American commentators are terrible at actually analysing the game as it’s playing, at least on any level beyond “he’s on the attack!” or “he’s feeling pressured!”, etc.
Having said that, I don’t think there is anything wrong with commentators getting hype; as long as it doesn’t turn them into frothing retards it can help to bring some of the atmosphere of the live event to the stream monsters at home. Killian gets hype as hell on the Daigo parry vid and it’s a huge part of what makes that moment so iconic.
Agreed on most points. I think the difference with the Daisho parry, however, is that the commentator was still calm until it actually happened. He was giving objective commentary, and even objectively the parry into SA was astonishing.
By contrast, these guys just sat there fishing for a Cammy win at every single poke.