Caster Biases Taint Shows

TurnDaBeatAround·7/7/2017, 7:45:36 PM·3 votes·962 views

Watching Rift Rivals this week, I'm more frustrated by this particular crew than usual with the very heavy slant of commentary against NA teams. I get that the crew is an EU-based crew, and I get that translates into a certain amount of desire to watch "your region" do well. But it really sucks having no choice other than to listen to this particular commentary crew all weekend root against every single team you are cheering for, for hours on end.

Solutions include:

Train your casters to take a more neutral tone when calling these games and breaking down matches.

Offer an NA-centric cast/team to also watch the series from so I don't have to listen to the biases against my teams all weekend long.

Curious if others felt the same way about the coverage this week. Have a fantastic Friday and a great weekend!

11 Comments

BigBellBrute7/7/2017, 8:25:00 PM5 votes

On the contrary, I love to watch the EU castors when they're sad.

Virgin Ray7/7/2017, 7:57:56 PM4 votes

they should've swapped casters from different regions to avoid bias

Mr Nielsen7/8/2017, 12:21:08 AM2 votes

I honestly didn't see any bias at all. I think the most biased person I've seen at RR is Phreak both on twitter and as a caster.

Randomonium7/7/2017, 10:44:18 PM1 votes

I didn't think it was too bad at all. I noticed the EU casters applauding how well the NA teams were playing on multiple occasions and were generally excited for great outplays no matter who made them. Glass half full vice half empty I guess.

GForce9x7/7/2017, 10:33:49 PM1 votes

If this were MSI or worlds or some other 'neutral' tournament, you would have a great point. However, it's Rift Rivals. NA and EU trash talk each other all the time. This is a tournament for bragging rights and to at least temporarily settle the score until Worlds. The casters should be allowed to take jabs back and forth as well.

Expectations by casters on both sides were that EU was favored. Even this past Sunday on LCS Tonight, Dash, Zirene and Azael were all in agreement that EU had the advantage going in.

I personally would have liked to have seen more trash talk back and forth between the casters, but I thought they kept it pretty professional. Casters on both sides getting that hyped up excited tone when someone on either side makes a big play.

I watched most, but not all of the games over the past few days. If I'm not mistaken, each game had a caster crew of 2 EU and 1 NA or 1 EU and 2 NA.

Now the analyst desk was always run by Sjokz and the player analysts were from EU teams who were not competing, which is to be expected given location and logistics.

The casters bring life into watching LCS matches. You get used to hearing them and I'm sure most people have their favorite casters just like they have their favorite players. I honestly would have been bored if it were cast by casters from other regions. It's not that the other regions have bad casters, but you don't feel the buy-in or connection to our 'home' teams as you do with the ones you usually hear. I feel this sometimes while watching games at MSI or worlds.

III BAKURYU III 7/8/2017, 3:37:21 AM1 votes

Honestly I didn't notice any "Bias", maybe I wasn't paying any mind tho.

Late For Tea7/8/2017, 11:52:50 AM1 votes

Are you watching the same broadcast as I am? Because Sjokz repeatedly states that NA should bask in their glory, whenever Kobe or Jatt is being humble. And both Trashy and Amazing show pretty much no EU-pride, instead blatantly saying over and over that EU is getting stomped by NA, and that the NA teams are plain better. The only caster who has shown some favoratism towards EU is Jatt, but even then he's just being realistic instead of trash talking.

Both the analyst desk and caster crew is a mix of both EU and NA representatives. It always includes at least one NA member. So I don't know why you accuse the europeans of favoratism.

In fact, the caster/analyst who has shown the most favoratism for a region is Phreak, in favor of NA. Listening to him as an EU player is annoying.

The Lexer7/8/2017, 10:17:51 PM1 votes

a) The EU casters are, in my opinion, better than the NA casters b) The EU casters are in agreement that EU is sucking at the moment c) It's nearly impossible to be completely unbiased