Overview
Contracted to broadcast/commentate a Rocket League LAN finals (working remotely). Work included:
- Broadcast setup
- Stream graphics – waiting, upcoming game, gameplay
- Game commentary
- Game and tournament explainer
- Excited gameplay commentary
- Team storylines and tactics
- Sponsor shoutouts
- New twitch account setup
- Saved recordings for download/later viewing
I got contacted by Grow Waitech looking for a commentator for their Primary Schools Rocket League finals. Proving once again it’s not always what you know but who knows you. In this case the recommendation came from the head of NZ Esports who I had previously worked with doing commentary on the NZ Rocket League Commonwealth Qualifiers.
Grow Waitech are a group of local business people who set up a charitable trust to try and improve digital fluency in Wairarapa and enable more equitable access to digital technologies. One of their “pillars” is to expose primary students to esports tournaments and one of those tournaments in 2023 has been Rocket League.
Fair to say I was very excited about the opportunity. And completely terrified. Feeling like I’m just a fake. I got into and keep doing commentary because it’s fun to pretend to be professional. I don’t actually consider myself a professional. But here was a professional gig set to be up on the big screen at Wings over Wairarapa. Not only that I was “the expert” in charge of making the whole broadcast happen. This wasn’t like LetsPlay.Live where I had a team behind me making it all look good. After some internal back and forth I decided to just embrace being uncomfortable and dive it.
I built some graphics for the broadcast. The initial versions were… not good. But after a few iterations I came up with a package I was proud of. Here’s two initial versions alongside the final design.
I used BARL for the in game overlay and was really impressed how easy it was to have it looking good. Using the overlay I suddenly felt like a proper professional. Excited cosplayer smile engaged. The final version of my other graphics were built to match the style so it all tied nicely together.
I worked from home streaming to a new Waitech Twitch account I setup. At Wings over Wairarapa they had a computer watching the stream and outputting it onto the big screen. They also had a screen in the room with the parents and competitors to watch along. A bunch of the kids even joined the chat to hype their friends and classmates. Those broadcasts are now saved and available to rewatch on that Waitech Twitch channel.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1985719342
The games were really close making it a lot of fun to commentate on. I got very excited about the games and you can hear that coming through particularly in the grand final. Afterwards I got good feedback about my work and while I of course see plenty of room for improvement it’s so nice to know my commentary was appreciated by Grow Waitech and the teachers and students involved.
Thank you Waitech for bringing me on board. Thanks to the kids for the great rocket league. Thanks to the teachers who worked to make it happen. What a cool event.
