- 54
- France
Hello everyone, today I will present you an idea that I think could be great to improve the live event experience for the viewers, but maybe I'm the only one thinking so so before trying to send it to Polyphony, let's have a debate.
So I will present this idea to you in 3 parts, first I'll explain the general idea of what is an analyst desk, then why in my opinion it would be nice to have such a thing in the live events and finally what would indeed be the job of the said "analysts", and finally simply sum up what would they have to do in order to be able to do the job.
Intro:
So first I want to say that I respect the commentators and that they always do an amazing job, (at least I can talk for the English and Spanish broadcasts that I watch after the events and I always find them very entertaining) , keep it up guys, you're amazing.
This was just to say that the analyst desk would work like an "assistant" for them, and by no means it would take to much of their role.
Part I: What is an analyst desk ?
So let's jump right into it, if you are familiar with other esports broadcasts, or even some other real life sports broadcasts, you might be aware that there is often at least two different person (or group of person) talking during the live broadcast, and that they are not doing exactly the same thing, some of them are indeed referred to as "commentators" that is to say they describe what is happening, what they see during the game/match..., and they try their best to make it as entertaining as possible, then sometimes what I would call a "field reporter" is walking between every player/manager... to get their feeling before/during/after the matches, and finally we come to the said "analysts" who are usually people who know the game/sport by heart, all the rules, the strength/weaknesses of each player/car, (each bump on the nordschleife... ) etc... So basically they are the pros when it comes to go more in detail on what happened during a race (let's talk in our words ) that led to the result it led to, and what should happen in the next one given the datas they have gathered by playing/talking to the players...
They usually appear during the live events between each game, (the commentator announces them after the summary of the previous game, they do their thing and then they give it back to the commentators to start the next game). So I would definitely see it happening in GT live events, like 3 to 5 minutes between each race, time to let the drivers practice a bit a the commentators getting ready for next round.
So now let me explain how to implement it to the live events, that is to say what would they have to know/say....
Part II: Why would they be here for ?
So I can already see you all thinking, "we already have the commentators saying a lot of stuff during the live events, what would these plebs say that we don't already know ?"
First, when it comes to live events, and I'm sure a lot of you are aware of this fact, there is often a custom BoP (for the nations cup at least) to try and balance the cars, but only the guys that are taking part in said events actually know the BoP. That makes a lot of difference than just thinking "Yeah this car was OP on my daily race so this guy will win", you have to talk to all the drivers to get a feel on which car is in fact really strong and which car will send you directly to repechage (or even to end oft he event after one race), obviously for new cars you can't know until the very end before the race, for example, I knew the Ferrari and Lamborghini for DT gardens where strong cars because I went to watch all the practice sessions, something that the commentators can't afford because they have no time (briefings, rehearsals...), I also knew the Ford GT and the MP4 were beasts on Fuji because I asked the guys that were going to do the race to tell me what were the best and worst cars and again I watched the practice session and it confirmed what had been said. There is also the mental side of being in a live event, after spending some time with every driver, you can determine how he feels racing on stage, which is a crucial part when it comes to perform on live events, again something that commentators can't afford spending to much time. The analysts would also be able to interview the drivers at the end of a race to get his feels on the moment. And an other important thing, they would be able to pick some interesting moments of the race and explain what happened in detail, to help the viewers understand how pros are planning overtakes, defending, lines....
That might also release some pressure of the commentators who have to stay on point during more than 2 hours, and I have to say that even if I would really enjoy being able to commentate the races for the french viewers, it must take some endurance (particularly on the side of MC_Epsilon (for spanish) who is giving it all during all the live events, such a legend ).
Part III: How would an analyst(s) work on live events
So I thought that it would be great to say how could someone become an analyst on the GT Sport live events, so to begin with, you have to be a great player, not mandatory to have the level to be able to compete on the events but it would be great, obviously if you're at this level then you already have all the basic knowledge for when it comes to analyze moves/crashes... Then obviously gathering datas has to be your full time job when on live events, talking to all the drivers, going to briefings to have the last rule changes, watching every practice session, studying the race settings, Bops, to determine which strategy should work and which shouldn't before the races are run, and know which car would be better if they were all driven by the same driver (because of course there will always be some cars better than others for a given track).
That's pretty much everything, if I think of something to add I'll edit this post and tell you the update in the comment section, thanks to everyone who will take some time to read and answer, and it's very important that you answer with constructive criticism, I have no problem with people that don't think it's a good idea as long as they explain why in a clear and understandable way
If there is a point on which you want more explanation then feel free to ask and I'll try to answer quickly and clearly
So I will present this idea to you in 3 parts, first I'll explain the general idea of what is an analyst desk, then why in my opinion it would be nice to have such a thing in the live events and finally what would indeed be the job of the said "analysts", and finally simply sum up what would they have to do in order to be able to do the job.
Intro:
So first I want to say that I respect the commentators and that they always do an amazing job, (at least I can talk for the English and Spanish broadcasts that I watch after the events and I always find them very entertaining) , keep it up guys, you're amazing.
This was just to say that the analyst desk would work like an "assistant" for them, and by no means it would take to much of their role.
Part I: What is an analyst desk ?
So let's jump right into it, if you are familiar with other esports broadcasts, or even some other real life sports broadcasts, you might be aware that there is often at least two different person (or group of person) talking during the live broadcast, and that they are not doing exactly the same thing, some of them are indeed referred to as "commentators" that is to say they describe what is happening, what they see during the game/match..., and they try their best to make it as entertaining as possible, then sometimes what I would call a "field reporter" is walking between every player/manager... to get their feeling before/during/after the matches, and finally we come to the said "analysts" who are usually people who know the game/sport by heart, all the rules, the strength/weaknesses of each player/car, (each bump on the nordschleife... ) etc... So basically they are the pros when it comes to go more in detail on what happened during a race (let's talk in our words ) that led to the result it led to, and what should happen in the next one given the datas they have gathered by playing/talking to the players...
They usually appear during the live events between each game, (the commentator announces them after the summary of the previous game, they do their thing and then they give it back to the commentators to start the next game). So I would definitely see it happening in GT live events, like 3 to 5 minutes between each race, time to let the drivers practice a bit a the commentators getting ready for next round.
So now let me explain how to implement it to the live events, that is to say what would they have to know/say....
Part II: Why would they be here for ?
So I can already see you all thinking, "we already have the commentators saying a lot of stuff during the live events, what would these plebs say that we don't already know ?"
First, when it comes to live events, and I'm sure a lot of you are aware of this fact, there is often a custom BoP (for the nations cup at least) to try and balance the cars, but only the guys that are taking part in said events actually know the BoP. That makes a lot of difference than just thinking "Yeah this car was OP on my daily race so this guy will win", you have to talk to all the drivers to get a feel on which car is in fact really strong and which car will send you directly to repechage (or even to end oft he event after one race), obviously for new cars you can't know until the very end before the race, for example, I knew the Ferrari and Lamborghini for DT gardens where strong cars because I went to watch all the practice sessions, something that the commentators can't afford because they have no time (briefings, rehearsals...), I also knew the Ford GT and the MP4 were beasts on Fuji because I asked the guys that were going to do the race to tell me what were the best and worst cars and again I watched the practice session and it confirmed what had been said. There is also the mental side of being in a live event, after spending some time with every driver, you can determine how he feels racing on stage, which is a crucial part when it comes to perform on live events, again something that commentators can't afford spending to much time. The analysts would also be able to interview the drivers at the end of a race to get his feels on the moment. And an other important thing, they would be able to pick some interesting moments of the race and explain what happened in detail, to help the viewers understand how pros are planning overtakes, defending, lines....
That might also release some pressure of the commentators who have to stay on point during more than 2 hours, and I have to say that even if I would really enjoy being able to commentate the races for the french viewers, it must take some endurance (particularly on the side of MC_Epsilon (for spanish) who is giving it all during all the live events, such a legend ).
Part III: How would an analyst(s) work on live events
So I thought that it would be great to say how could someone become an analyst on the GT Sport live events, so to begin with, you have to be a great player, not mandatory to have the level to be able to compete on the events but it would be great, obviously if you're at this level then you already have all the basic knowledge for when it comes to analyze moves/crashes... Then obviously gathering datas has to be your full time job when on live events, talking to all the drivers, going to briefings to have the last rule changes, watching every practice session, studying the race settings, Bops, to determine which strategy should work and which shouldn't before the races are run, and know which car would be better if they were all driven by the same driver (because of course there will always be some cars better than others for a given track).
That's pretty much everything, if I think of something to add I'll edit this post and tell you the update in the comment section, thanks to everyone who will take some time to read and answer, and it's very important that you answer with constructive criticism, I have no problem with people that don't think it's a good idea as long as they explain why in a clear and understandable way
If there is a point on which you want more explanation then feel free to ask and I'll try to answer quickly and clearly