Improving weekend coverage

    • Improving weekend coverage

      *DISCLAIMER - This thread is in no way supposed to be insulting to any casters. I personally love every minute of Hex official coverage we get, I just want it to be as good as possible going forward. I'm not interested in personal attacks on commentators, keep that between you and your favorite wall in your house. *

      I personally love the fact that Hex has weekend coverage, and two $1k tourneys every weekend to cover. However, some things with coverage need to happen IMO in order to take it to the next level. Here are my issues:
      1. This should not be a volunteer effort. If the casting was being done on personal streams, sure, but it's on the official page so compensation should happen somehow. Now, I'm not saying Hex should just hire 6 new people, see the solutions section for my ideas. This is the reason that a lot of the rough edges still exist, I think.
      2. Teams are not consistently paired together. Casting is a thing that works best when there is synergy between casters. With the exception of Jeff/Mat, no casters have the ability to see each other, so there is obviously something lost there. That could be minimized by having consistent teams, the casters will learn how to operate better as a unit.
      3. There are variations week to week on how the stream is presented. The stream should be consistent no matter which team is running the stream that day. Note, this has gotten better now that we have shared player/card slides.
      Most of these issues are small, but they add up, and can be easily fixed IMO. Here's my list of solutions:
      1. Pay the casters something. My plan would be to get affiliated with Twitch, and get sub/donations set up for the stream. Hex could guarantee a minimum amount, but the casters' pay could be offset by income from subs/donations during the cast. Patreon is another avenue. The point is that I don't think Hex has to straight hire a half dozen people for this.
      2. Have Jeff/Mat doing Bash coverage. That team has the most in-depth knowledge of constructed, works well together, and it shows when you watch the one cast they did. It was excellent, and I couldn't stop watching.
      3. Find a consistent pair for Clash coverage. Ne0/Penta with Hackey doing the tech stuff? I believe that's how it is handled now, correct? Two casters and a third person for handling the tech side of the stream. Point here is to get a consistent team together, so we can get the bond built up and have great coverage for limited events.
      4. I would have Snake do an opening video every week. The couple that he did were excellent, and having that be a consistent feature for the first 20 min. every stream would be ideal. I also assume it's good for the casters as they can scout their replay matches, get everything all set up so they just give a quick intro and go straight to gameplay for round 1.
      5. Alternate Clash/Bash days every other week. It's either that or alternate coverage, but I think having a consistent coverage time is important. If the Bash/Clash get alternated every week, we could have a limited team and a constructed team alternating coverage every week. This would also allow for consistent scheduling for the casters.
      That's all I can think of right now. If you have any comments/suggestions, feel free to chime in. I just want something to watch/listen to every Saturday, that will hopefully inspire players to play more Hex. And with PS4 coming online, now is the time to get this done, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression.

    • I think these are all excellent ideas. Paying the casters would likely increase the quality naturally, but also gives HexEnt the ability to lay out casting guidelines.

      Casting from a crowded place or giving casting less than 100% of your attention really distracts from the overall experience. It'd be nice to see that change.