What is Observing? The Unsung Heroes of Esports Broadcasting

To your average outsider, esports can be intimidating to watch. But even if you can wrap your head around the onscreen nonsense, none of that matters if you’re not given a chance to actually see it.
As annoying as a misplaced camera, or a poorly timed cut away can be - it’s more than likely that your nerd rage is going to be directed at one target in particular: the observer.
Written by: Devin Jones (@milkshks)
Edited by: Colten Gowan (@TheOnlyZoltan)
Produced & Hosted by: Miles Hackett (@miles_hackett)
Shot by: Matt Massey
Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).
Video Sources: pastebin.com/r9FH2UgJ
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[@puncturedbicycle7264]

Observer : I'm just gonna put this Replay in... *PLAYERS DECIDES TO TEAM FIGHT* Observer : EXCUSE ME WTF?!

[@yahomboi3014]

Every league pro game ever😂

[@sangerzonnvolt6712]

Not in Dota 2 cause they never do replays and they miss 60% of the kills. After 9 years they still suck

[@maximiliankilian9911]

not really.. i m doing the replays with a system called evs ;-)

[@maximillianhuang864]

Observers protecc Observers attacc ...but more importantly, Observers are the Heroes at the bacc.

[@alifizharulhaq3370]

They play em bacc

[@yeah5874]

JJ- PimpmuckL, the best observer of Dota is also HUGELY nice and spends his time creating tools making the game so much easier for viewers/ casters (some things have even been implemented into the game), and helping people play dota better, as in making sure theyre using all their hardware properly and shit, hes so good

[@georgemoore7238]

yeah dude that time he switched perspectives mid cast animation to show that a stun was a blind skill shot was wild

[@kappachino3431]

Shout to my boy pimpmuckl weppas and skrrff

[@schizoid8186]

TTours PogChamp

[@Raven-kb8xo]

Shout caster rapping like there's no tomorrow

[@potatosummoner6296]

And Phreak shouting every time

[@KingBLUCK]

Kixstar

[@franciscarranza4670]

ODpixel

[@acinixys]

@@franciscarranza4670 Yup, hes the best

[@120rikeshlawoju2]

@@acinixys Ceeeeeeeeeeeeeb

[@beyonder.d5486]

This channel has the best eSports coverage and I appreciate the topics you pick. Love you guys truly ♥️

[@mileshackett4781]

Thank you for the support, hopefully we can keep you coming back for more!

[@bassismydrug1]

@@mileshackett4781 It is consistently great content, you guys should be proud!

[@mileshackett4781]

@@bassismydrug1 thanks Barry, we are proud, but we are also always looking to out-do ourselves. 😁

[@bed693]

esports

[@fritzjowettaquino5307]

Esports

[@GodinSpace]

Bruh the overwatch observers have a lot of shit to deal with there was like 500 things all happening at once in that clip

[@TheBullet0012]

Exactly.. essentially the observers need to know the strategy, that a team is going to use, before it happens, so they can show it all.. that’s pretty much impossible, so they’ll just have to do their best.. Overwatch is really fast when certain strategies is getting played out, that unless you have a deep understanding of the game and how it’s played, be able to watch it can be really difficult and easy to be confused by..

[@ParadoxQJ]

Thanks for giving us some love

[@EddieGooch]

TTours

[@f1r3hunt3rz5]

I'm an observer over the observations of the observers; or in other words, an ordinary spectator among the audience of viewers.

[@Rook.Kaiser]

nice wordplay

[@platinumorange1034]

Hahahahaha

[@darkmatter32x]

Smooth. Just smooth.

[@sno_au]

THANKS SO MUCH OBSERVERS. WE LOVE YOU

[@timothyswindell4924]

As a TTours spammer -- I apologize. Thank you observers.

[@UrbanOutlawsSk8Co]

To all the observers, thank you

[@icestick3]

Hats off to these Unsung Heroes of the Esports. without them we will not have such great moments like Coldzera's jumping AWP or Navi's the Play in DOTA even some of the great moments in OW league and the Worlds in LOL

[@FreindFrenZy]

Thanks for showing this cool underrated profession in esports and too all the observers out there thank you for your work🙏🏼

[@allemeineenche]

Perfect timing. Just yesterday I asked myself when I watched MSI: "Who is responsible for the ingame perspective?" And here I am, with a video about that xD

[@platinumorange1034]

So there were little people behind the screen moving the camera

[@valkyriun]

The majority of the Dota2 Observers are Software programmers. They create content, stats! We are blessed with all these smarts guys!

[@praeposter]

Marciu does great work observing Rainbow 6 matches. Thanks for showing how much work goes into this job!

[@ThatGuyCrasher]

I appreciate you showing the amount of work that goes into observing. Thank you for showing us some love!

[@T.B.Y.S.]

I remember the time (in League of Legends) when observers were just focusing on players who will kill a ward and crowd hypes up like its a teamfight because the early and mid game was so boring.

[@Indubitably_Pol]

Is it bad that I thought casters did this on top of casting? I guess it makes sense that this line of work requires absolute focus and the casters then focus on the casting.

[@SOFUBIS]

I believe it depends on the game. I think casters for games like Rocket League and Call of Duty, because they're less complicated, do both.

[@magnumbrahms5339]

it started that way.

[@noname768397]

So basically like cameraman, but unloke sports where everything happens in the same place, observer is like reality show camera crew to capture everything and editor mixing footage in real time and in one sitting

[@forformgamer]

Esports have been around for a little bit. It's building and getting there. This channel is what we will look at in the future to see how the beginnings were documented. Hell, hopefully we'll use this channel to look at its own past! This is great content guys!

[@downsjmmyjones101]

Lol back when you used to be able to get a hexakill with Karthus.

[@aesthet1c33]

3:13 is that vainglory? It's rare for this channel to include mobile game

[@m.by_jomaii]

The only mobile game worthy imo. Got spectacular observer support too.

[@m.by_jomaii]

Nice catch btw

[@hravandil9993]

And the only game worthy of this channel imo. Got good observer support too.

[@aitormoreton333]

And the only good worth mobile observer support imo. Got a spectacular game too.

[@maximillianhuang864]

It’s Cross-platform now btw.

[@TheXboxuniversity]

A point you guys should have mentioned in regards to spectating in owl is the twitch all access viewer, which not only allows for people to view individual player perspectives (both first and third person perspectives) but also allows people to view the map and player stats as well. The good thing about it is they can be viewed all at the same time as well. Blizzard and twitch have done an excellent job with it and it really makes a greater viewing experience.

[@pandas941]

Thank you for this video! I wondered how observers picked which player to specate, especially with CSGO

[@alexanderfortier5488]

Great video. You guys should one day do "The Story of Day[9]"

[@paleJiyuu]

We only ever talk about the bad ones, so salute to the good ones for nailing it.

[@MrXcird]

Not all hero wear capes

[@mischief009]

Finally a video made in honor for those who are rarely recognized, to all the great obs I salute.

[@arutemisu42]

Nice, I honestly forgot that the camera doesn't move itself. A thankless but important role!

[@bum9506]

I literally just realized how nuts csgo live stream cinematography is. Like the editing seems perfect, as if it was editing already recorded footage.

[@evangelinetiapson9217]

CSGO is pretty straight forward, even a newcomer like me understand it the first time I watched. Unlike MOBAs with characters with unique skillsets making chaotic mess during teamfights (I mean the effects/display of the skill, not the skill themselves.)

[@munch6814]

I THOUGHT there HAS to be someone who observes which player/ camera to switch, which is done so quickly during a match. FINALLY I understand these things

[@geekerandy8773]

Saurav Pal during the CS:GO majors they have a serious multi-man team that coordinates it. Pretty cool!

[@AGnar0k]

Shoutout to Marciu for being the best Siege observer! Also, we need to get rid of the huge ass operator card on the left side of the screen in spectator mode in Siege, instead it should be like CS:GO with all ten players represented as strips of HP and Weapons, Grenades, Gadgets, drones etc. as tiny number counts. It would greatly help the casters as well as the viewers, pls ubi ;_;

[@adrianlowery7175]

9:05 is actually a really good spectating point

[@thechknnuggetgod1709]

6:43 you guys might not have any idea what’s going on in this clip but it’s the legendary Zumba through the window grav, nobody even knew Zarya could get up to the window and nobody expected him to yeet it through the window

[@inuvativ943]

The Overwatch Observing is actually really fucking good right now.

[@martincontreras6594]

In TF2, the spy with the "cloak and dagger" is a observer itself xd

[@martenas5341]

Great thing about the FGC e-sports... you mostly gotta worry about one screen with both characters on the same one. Switch between players, and their characters, and commentary! Maybe a crowd shot here or there. Not saying its so easy, but its better to wrap your head around!

[@Dystxnn]

I didn't know such legends exist. I used to do the shoutcasting while doing the observing, too. It's pretty damn hard; might also be the reason why my shoutcasts were so terrible that I just wanna shutdown my account and forget I even fucking existed.

[@45his]

PimpmuckL is a certified god when it comes to observing DOTA

[@cindynyaa6514]

fun fact, in league you would have an invisible lee sin, running around the map to observe.

[@weebman9762]

Its good to be underrated sometimes

[@patrickcooke577]

when they switch to duke's pov just b4 getting hit with the arrow...

[@Ex0d1c]

The unknown stars of esports. Thanks for all the good moments in games. . . . ❤ Thanks, Observers ❤

[@andrewb378]

cs:go majors have some of the best observers out there. shots are almost always exactly where they need to be when they need to be there.

[@ryzorzen]

wow i totally forgot about floating terran base to observe, come a long way in 20+ years

[@CaitlinBaes]

I'm gonna be broadcasting a Dota tournament at the end of august :( This video gave me a bit of confidence, thanks! :D

[@CrippledMerc]

I remember WoW arena tourney’s were done by putting an observer with each 3v3 team, queueing for 5v5 with 4 players on each team, then killing the observers so they could be ghosts and commentate the match. It was ghetto as fuck, like most tournament observing was at the time. But hey, we made that shit work..

[@ahhjayyfernandez8430]

Thanks for this

[@MisaeShimamura]

I kinda miss josh. But still great content

[@jackawaka]

Observers, the roadies and the camerapeople of the esports world

[@xanderwyatt8234]

Why am I surprised that they put in the Olofboost at the end

[@MrTubeStuck]

Love the love letter sent to all the observers out there. They deserve it

[@somerandomguy___]

*drew durnil has joined the room*

[@iamshashankupadhyay]

This channel is a fuckin dictionary of eSports

[@GBFGO-PLAYER]

@ 5:04 it's funny seeing the shamwow guy used in this video for comedic purposes since his informercial on the slap chop suddenly had a spike on twitter recently haha

[@mastershooter64]

So we can all agree that csgo has the best observation

[@apelegs5253]

Much much much better than most... especially R6...

[@konolinkuda3586]

Faceit major ???

[@microlandsylvester2270]

LoL: the arrow. Dota: fountain hook.

[@antez096]

7:00 definitely me XD

[@arcr1790]

Is really curious to see no mention of fighting games observers. Maybe it’s just simple

[@mickaelht598]

The joke at 5:10 is gold man

[@ryanleone3007]

This is the crux of the esport problem for people like me. It's not that I don't understand the game, it's I can't visually discern what I'm seeing. If esports really wants to grow big its spectator problem needs to be solved. When you watch traditional sports you don't see what an individual player is seeing, which would be just as incomprehensible. If not it's never going to move past people who already play cs go or dota or whatever.

[@ignisx3791]

Holy crap. I would love to have this job.

[@SessesSniper]

finaly these people receving the spotlight they deserve. F for those who make us live the game.

[@SmartPunch]

Make a vid about the immortal Vancouver vs the underdog San Francisco

[@Viviantoga]

With what sorcery were you able to secure Fensler Film footage??

[@downsjmmyjones101]

Siege spectation is still shit. You have to choose between a tactical first person view, a strategic top down view, and the secret sneaky drone view that would explain where attackers are getting their information from that have never been streamed.

[@Jin-di9zv]

Unlike csgo, rainbow is clumped together so close so there's a lot of action happening at the same time. They don't give cues to when it's happening it just, happens.

[@dane17eduard]

2:13 holy crap that is quite a lot of name tag

[@JJLof]

YO I was just thinking about this the other day

[@love_heaven]

Casters are the ADCs, while Observers are the SUPPORTs

[@PrabhuRPR]

where are the million subs already?

[@tillharms6107]

Am I the only one that thinks that the back of Interros head looks extremly strange ?

[@overbored617]

can you make a video about us observers that observe observers?

[@fl1ckzz992]

I just won a LAN and they streamed it. I made a jumpshot no-scope on banana on inferno in the final but the observer spectated the guy i killed☹

[@DarthSmirnoff]

Observing is what I do when your dad is away. Happy Mothers Day

[@jonasrothmann1536]

Aight I feel like its a massive missed opportunity to not talk about dota. Especially layerth from JJ, but including a dota clip that uses edge panning? Dota is definitely the most sophisticated observing when including third party tools but also just 1st party.

[@marc789]

I think dota is one of the best. When i watch the international i can watch the player i want with his own mouse clicks and see how he move his camera with player perspective. This way you can learn stuff about the hero and pro on how they play.

[@mileshackett4781]

That's fair! Sometimes we have to dial back on the nitty gritty of some very dense subjects to make them a little more accessible/help the flow of the video. But I do appreciate your feedback!

[@Leo-ck5xq]

0:04 Theres the next Eminem xD

[@darius-alexandru2532]

When do you will talk about ENCE and Astralis?

[@Yashahiro_]

I honestly thought it was an automated process

[@thatoneneeko2131]

Next episode WHAT IS LIFE

[@chetanbangarvader]

In dota just go on free camera and see where fight is going to happen

[@dennisthomas269]

Please show this video to Starladder observers

[@icroosing]

Dota has the best spectator mode, you can even see the POV of the players

[@xerotoninz]

why have observers when i could just miss the whole thing. but for real, watching overwatch is like watching a kaleidoscope in a blender.

[@petchinv2870]

TTours The killfeed is all I need TTours

[@sureshot0064]

I was hoping they would mention how in early smash 4 we had to have a jigglypuff die so we could spectate

[@phifau890]

1:56 had me dying I cant stop laughing

[@JJ-pl5gj]

Residentsleeper

[@friddlefries1140]

Maybe R6 could use something like the Command Center for OWL 1 Main Stream and then each player's perspective this would really only help twitch viewers it could be step forwards fro fan viewing For Casters I am not sure

[@AGnar0k]

@@Rain-ro4qn Siege definitely needs a CS:GO like system where the whole match is recorded and can be seen ingame through all the player's perspectives, as the viewer wants. It will definitely increase interest in Siege esports for the average player... Hope we don't run into *_D A T A L I M I T S_* tho ;_;

[@cythereanmusic]

Seeing how hard it is to watch overwatch and fortnite (laughs in rocket league) one of the reasons I think rocket league is the best esport, it’s literally designed as a virtual sport, it’s perfect.

[@isanarditama]

AI will take observer role

[@chickencoopououwu2584]

The Faceless

[@SpectralHunky]

9:39 вспомнил, прослезился.. ОЙ БОЖЕ ОБХОДЯТ В СПИНУ КОМАНДУ НАВИ! ТАК, АЙДЖИ ОБХОДЯТ, ОБХОДЯТ, СОН. ЛОСТ БЕКАБЕШЕЧКА ЖЕ, ЛОСТ БЕКАБЕШЕЧКА, ЛОСТ БЕКАБЕШЕЧКА. БЛЕК ХООООООООООООООЛ, ДАААААААААА, ДАДАДА, МИНУС РАЗ, МИНУС ДВА, ТРИ, ЧЕТЫРЕЕее СОСАААААААААААТЬ! БЕКАБЕХА ОТ ЛОСТА!! МИНУС ПЯЯЯЯЯЯТЬ! ВОТ ЭТО ДРАКА, ТРИПЛ КИЛ ОТ ДЕНДИ! ВОТ ЭТО ДОМОЙ! ВОТ МОЛОДЦЫ НАВИ! ЛАМАЙ ТРОН! НАВИ МОЛОДЦЫ, ФАНТАСТИКА. В ЗАЛЕ ТВОРИТСЯ ЧТО!

[@srl9374]

Shoutout to Marciu :)

[@lukelundstrom7786]

I always thought it was automated lol

[@captainwalter9422]

What's the name of the anime at 1:55?

[@fiQmeister]

Rocket League has a cool spectator mode.

[@sopek1427]

Camera Tours

[@phyxplays7144]

i observe this video

[@AdvanceWarrior]

3:12 HELL YEAH! VAINGLORY!!!!

[@Goolesy]

hahah @2:38 his name is David Kuntz? XD