Observing in Majors. My thoughts

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I wanted to stay quiet about the observing during the current Major. On Sunday I found myself getting angry watching the games but put it down to a bad day/games. However, after watching yesterday, and watching the Grayhound/Vitality VOD again the whole thing just feels like a kick in the teeth to our audience.

I also find the whole thing disrespectful to observing as a job/my career and therefore I’m glad the community is being so vocal. I’ve heard rumours the reasons are budget and language barrier (not sure if this is true). They have 8 observers for this event. I worked the whole Faceit Major + Minor live stream on my own with Keita (current coL coach) as the secondary observer on a delay for replays. As for language barrier observers normally mute everyone except the casters and maybe one person in production. It’s the same as the casters it’s impossible to focus properly with all the comm's that happen back stage in production.

I worked 14+ hours everyday that minor and major just hoping for that one sick game where people would notice it. I spent countless hours learning 20+ overviews for 7 maps and worked for years for this one chance. I checked reddit and twitter every single day to see if there were any complaints so I could go rewatch it and see it for myself. I'm not saying hire me for these events because I am more than happy to stay at home and watch the Major as I love watching CS but please just hire tier 1 Observers. They worked so hard to get to where they are today.

It's time to accept that observing is an integral part to the stream, the same judgement when hiring analysts and casters needs to be used. Also if you ask the casters I suspect they would all agree that tier 1 observing massively improves their own performance. I hadn’t worked with ESL for 3 years but they still contacted me for their latest Major because they care about having tier 1 talent including observers for their tier 1 event.

Here’s a list of current tier 1 observers in my eyes :

Prius @priusCSGO
Rushly @Rushly123456
Sapphire @sapphiReGG
Jak3y @Jak3ycsgo
Efren @eencg
MC @MC_csgo

I’m sure their are others out there that just need that shot or that one good game to prove themselves but that’s what the minors and other events are for.

For the current observers at this major the most important matches are still to come and you have time to learn from these games. It isn’t all about % kills caught so stop worrying about that. It’s about building the moment, showing the strats, the flanks, the utility damage and usage. All these things make up the story that’s unfolding before you. Everything these teams spend hours and hours practising, the moments they have been dreaming of doing at the biggest event of their careers, it is your job to catch these. Use the mini map more to keep up with the action and there is nothing wrong with showing a death over a kill, the story is still the same. There is a reason we have replays. You have a day off today to go back and watch your games and a chance prove you were hired for a reason.

I just want to watch the event I've been waiting 6 months for without getting triggered every other round. Apologies if you believe this is an unprofessional tweet.

TLDR: Observing is a craft that takes time be good at. If you are a TO for Major aka a tier 1 event. Hire tier 1 Observers

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