The issue doesn't reside in people being dicks or yelling Hitler slogans in the commentary, the issue lies in what I expect to happen in the commentary. Whatever you think is required to be a commentator, it correlates not much with your playing skill.
I agree that giving the participants self a platform to join the casts between the matches (if feasible) is a nice idea, hiring 5-20 commentators looks like needless bulk of people to organize and rotate around. ztrot, Tasha and deadbeat are the solid core. They will commentate it. You lose the overall perception of planning ahead. While I understand that your interest only resolves mostly around this tournament in particular, there are actually 5 world cups every year. I am not planning to exchange the core commentary every time.
The point is not issuesome people. The point is unreliable people. The point is people having an idea but having no guts to commentate. The point is that people are obfuscating their commentary to a level that the majority of the viewers are incapable of understanding it. Yes, you participants are ALL profenient in this game, used to terms, used to some sort of meta. Our viewers are not. You might think that the commentary is very basic because the commentators have no clue and are just brabbling basic stuff. No. That's an instruction made by us. You are free to follow mania and ctb tournaments. I heard a lot that the same people having an idea about standard only found the commentary in the CWC alright. However, they found the OWC one shit. Why? Because they had no clue about CtB, therefore found the CWC one okay. But when it was about the OWC, it was too simple for them. In fact, both commentaries were made on the same level of understanding, usage of terms, repetitive explanation of basic gameplay mechanics, etc.
I watched the allstar stuff occasionally. It was well made for the audience of professional or established players. But it was alienating the entire idea of the game with insider terms, abbreviations, lack of basic explanations, that the average clueless viewer would have not understood it.
Read twice what Halogen- said. Read it three times, even. He sums it up perfectly fine. Also, you are unsatisfied because you are comparing a one year old tournament with a recent one, while we hosted 4!! other world cups meanwhile, with an entire different roster of commentators every time. The comparison is invalid. Please pick up the MWC4K for valid comparisons in future. This goes for every comparison anyways. Every change or setup you see in the OWC was actually already present in 4 previous tournaments. I would appreciate if you would not always refer to the oldest tournament to make your points, as we fixed things with every single other tournament.
What ztrot is referring to that some people started to raid personal contacts of him to bribe themselves into the commentary. If you are interested, claim your interest appropriately. Bugging the heck out of someone's peer group or friends pretty much excludes you for being unreasonable and attentionwhory. We also exclude everyone that is doing this only for their own welfare (more fame, more popularity, etc.) we also exclude everyone that is too self-centered, too proud of their skill, etc. A long list of character traits is involved here. ztrot makes the final calls here, however, make your interest in this known in a professional and proper way.
We also have no need for one hit wonders that only commentate when it floats their boat. You are interested? Then be willed to wake up at 3am and commentate 8 hours straight if needed. Unreliable? Too much obligation? Then this is nothing for you.
Interested in non-existent sleep schedules, being on constant coffee, talking 8-12 hours straight without peeing for the next 7 weekends? Being full of hype, able to break down your knowledge to the very basics? Capable of explaining things? Charismatic? Good microphone? Good team worker? No arrogant asshole? Be my guest!