[Idea] "Radio Friendly" League of Legends Championship Series

Peveler·Aug 21, 2015·5 votes·1,166 views

Hello Summoners!

I have an idea for Riot Games to put into their League of Legends Championship Series, a "radio friendly" version of the stream. There are times I want to watch LCS but I'm on the run and switching the Riot Games stream to "audio only" on twitch mobile, sometimes I get lost in the game. The current Riot Stream works in a way where you are encouraged to use Visual Cues to pick up things that are said vaguely, or not said at all.

ie TL v TSM "Oh my god Turtle just got a triple kill! starts talking about the team fight" My problem: Turtle got a triple, gotcha, whose dead? Did he get Quas, IWD, and Xpecial, or did he get Piglet, Xpecial and IWD? What did they gain from the fight? Did they get baron or another turret?

The solution have thought of, possibly two different casters cast the game, the stream will look the same but these casters will be talking as if you can't see the stream. Referencing to the thresh as "Xspical's Thresh is godlike" instead of "That Thresh is godlike" or back to the team fight issue, saying something along the lines of "Oh my god Turtle got a triple kill! He took down Fenix, IWD, and Piglet. talks about the team fight" then TSM takes down the 2nd tier middle tower, "And TSM pick up the 2nd tier mid lane tower."

Same issue with champion select, after the picks and bans, no one reads out "So for TL, Quas is on Lulu, Dom on Nunu, Fenix on Azir, etc" for both teams. This is a great example of the visuals cues I was talking about earlier in the post. You are encouraged to look at the stream to know who is playing who. I'd love if Riot made another stream, it'd make it much easier to listen to while I exercise, while I'm at school (I'm looking at you EU streams), or while I'm just out and about.

Please Note: Sometimes things that I have mentioned are mentioned on stream but often they aren't.

Thank you for reading this post, Flame

9 Comments

Calibretto9Aug 21, 20152 votes

I agree 110%. I've thought this on several occasions while traveling and not being able to watch the full vid cast but wanting to hear the action. I definitely support this.

LeeDarkAug 21, 20152 votes

This would require casters that don't suck at play-by-play. I don't really believe Riot has any that meet that requirement.

DeathToHereticsAug 22, 20151 votes

Riot has good play-by-play, Phreak, Riv, Quickshot, Doa, and Pastrytime just to name a few are great. The problem is that people don't want to just hear what they can plainly see happening in front of them. If it's constantly just repeating what you seen on screen, it becomes annoying and pointless. Usually with how League is (supposed to be) a somewhat strategical game, the why sometimes matters more than the what.

LeeDarkAug 22, 20151 votes

I've seen every one of those miscall plays, get players confused, and generally just fail at play-by-play. Now, I wouldn't be expecting a flawless performance, but all of them would have to get some serious practice in before they'd be adequate.

It isn't just a matter of adding more because they are on a visual medium. It's that they use the visual medium as a crutch that allows them to screw up player names, positions, champions, abilities, and such.

DeathToHereticsAug 22, 20151 votes

I'd like some proof on the casters making miscall plays, confusing players, and generally just failing at play by play. I can't even think of any times that the casters made a horribly wrong call that absolutely ruined the game for me and forced me to close down twitch because of how bad they suck at their job. Why? Because that doesn't happen. The amount of times they miscall plays is a minuscule number compared to the times that they excel at their jobs, which is 99% of the time. You also have to remember that very little is scripted for the shoutcasters, except for the few questions they ask. Everything else on the shows is made of improv, which is very difficult mind you, because of the nature of LoL.

It's very easy to sit back and criticize them for what you believe to be glaring mistakes and horrible casting, but have you tried shoutcasting multiple games that can go over an hour long, in front of 150,000 people? Try walking 50 feet in their shoes, before you critique them for tripping over a rock 8 miles down the road. If you think you can do a better job, then please try.

LeeDarkAug 22, 20151 votes

Of course it doesn't ruin the game and force you to close Twitch... because it is a visual medium and you can easily see what they meant. I looked for a compilation of their fails, but I couldn't find one within five minutes, and I can't be arsed to bother much more than that just to prove a point.

They do not excel at play-by-play, and I don't have to excel at it in order to notice that. Your post is so full of fallacies that I don't even know where to begin. I can criticize whatever the fuck I want without any ability or desire to do it myself. I don't have to walk 50 feet in their shoes to know that I wouldn't want to listen to ANY of them giving sports radio style play-by-play. It just wouldn't be useful, because that's not their cup of tea. You'd be confused while listening, still wouldn't know what was going on in the game, and wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Radio play-by-play is an ENTIRELY different skill than doing the same job in a visual medium.

It is simple. IF, as the OP desires, Riot were to introduce an audio only stream of the matches with play-by-play shoutcasting, the current casters simply would not be able to handle it. If you think you CAN'T do a better job, maybe you should take your own advice and just shut the fuck up.

DeathToHereticsAug 23, 20151 votes

Why are you so angry?

LeeDarkAug 23, 20151 votes

Oh, great... we're at the part where you attribute things you don't actually know to me because I said a couple words kindergarteners are told not to say. We're done here.

DeathToHereticsAug 23, 20151 votes

I'm just asking, you seem like something's wrong. You okay?