200 Subscribers on YouTube!

[FML|Mage]

Well, it doesn't seem like that long ago that Worpex decided we should try to shoutcast a game.  He recruited Magadansky and myself to shoutcast a Season 14 qualifier match.  It went miserably, the audio was choppy.  The video lagged, and we were still playing full time on GGC at that point.  Still, it was the kick start that really got FML's shoutcasting started.  A couple months later and I was struck by the bug that decided this was really a brilliant idea and we needed to implement it.

So I put out a few feelers to see if the interest was there, and it turned out that it was.  One player in particular took a shining to the idea of casting with me.  That was how Mog[Skynet] and myself got our start, and it went pretty much just as badly as the first had.  Still, we had ourselves a baseline and I was pretty sure that we were on to something since Mog had the perfect voice for casting.  I put out that video while apologizing for the quality, and to my shock there was a great reception to it.  People were very understanding and gave us tips on how to improve and what equipment to use.  It was almost like this wasn't on the internet, people were just that helpful.

After a couple of months fooling around with this and trying out some different co-casters such as Magadansky, Wrecktify, Redkeekee, Worpex, and even Persuade it was suggested that I should upload these videos to YouTube since that's where a bigger/better audience is.  I was warned however that it was harder to gain traction than on Twitch, especially for a niche game like WC3.  Still, I started uploading them there and average 20-30 views.  As time went on we started to get a bit more traction and I learned to improve upon the videos a bit. 

After about 7 or 8 months we managed to hit 50 subscribers which was a huge milestone in my mind.  It was a nice shiny number, and it indicated there really were people listening to the hard work that everyone was putting in.  After that the subscribers started to come a bit quicker, and about 4-6 months later we've manged to hit 200 subscribers, despite my negligence in the past few months.  Along the way I've done casting with some more great casters such as Purebe, Ugri, and Hayder.  It really has been quite the ride so far, and I hope to continue it for a long while.  While I haven't released anything recently, I realize that there's no excuse not to.  I hope to get back to posting once a week now.  However what really makes all of this worth it is the time and dedication that all of the FFA community, and even the WC3 community at large, puts into watching these.  We have an astoundingly high average view time on our videos, and it's great to see so many people appreciate it.  So, thank you to everyone and here's to the next 300!

[ Invalid YouTube link ]

[FML|Mog]

That is awesome! I really enjoy casting games and it seems to have just worked out perfectly that we had some natural casting chemistry together even though we both were/are new to it. It has been great listening to other people cast more too, and I hope it is something that continues! NOW COME CAST WITH ME NOOB! <3

[FML|Renaud]

I'm not sure if I prefer when 'pulling a Renaud' is being used when someone has no lumber and tons of gold or when someone wins a game because he hid around for hours :P

edit: then again, I suppose the reason I can run around for hours is because I have tons of gold and no lumber :P

[FML|WorpeX]

It was my idea? Huh. I don't remember that, I thought it was mages. Haha

[FML|Mage]

Nope, very first cast was your idea. Twitch was mine, however we did the first cast before we had twitch even haha.

[FML|red7z7]

Congrats to you guys. I only started following/watching a few months ago, but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far. I definitely appreciate the air of professionalism that you guys give with the casts and I have consistently learned new facts/aspects of the game from the commentary. I know one of the limiting factors in casting FFA is that a lot of the games, if not all of them, are pretty darn long and so there is the worry that if they are casted that viewers may lose interest. You've probably considered it (maybe even done it in the past, I don't know) is casting the whole replay on 2x, or picking certain parts to speed up in order to make casting a longer game more feasible. This would allow you to cast notable high-level games (such as the Round 2 Mog/Renaud/soso game) that were very long but still really interesting. Just food for thought. Again, props to you guys and keep up the good work.

[FML|Mage]

Thanks Red!  This is exactly the type of advice that really helps. 

We have done some games where we speed the game up, but the biggest problem is that there are parts I'd like to do at 1x and others faster.  When casting with other casters this creates some issues with keeping in sync with each other.  The easiest solution is to cast alone, however that's not all that much fun.  In game we can do it by doing 3 2 1 go, and then trying to time it back down, but I feel like that hurts the casting a bit.  The other option would be for me to work on my video editing abilities and just cut bits out of the game so we could do the start and then skip next 20 mins etc, but I think this has it's own downsides as well.

The last option that we've done a few times is to start the game an hour into it, give a recap of what's happened, and go from there. 

With all those things being said, I'd love to hear some feedback from people who watch as to what they think the best method to approach this is.  If I'm doing a replay then I think an hour is right around the sweet spot for it, if it's lie obviously I'll go as long as need be.