Can Watching Be Better Than Playing? Part2: Top Level Play

Now like the majority of my readers, barring possibly 1, I am not a world championship level player and thanks to my cronic procrastination and attention span of a gnat when it comes to anything but games design I'm unlikely to ever be.

However there is a way I can enjoy all the fun of that amazing play without having to shed a single friend in the process. This is watching casts and recordings of top level tournament play.

While many of you may either be thinking I'm dense for bringing this up, or just bored by the process, hear me out. While for the most part high level play can just be pokes and least risky actions there is the odd thing that comes up which can be an enjoyable watch.

Now by far the most entertaining videos come from Korea, the Starcraft scene has been covered by far better people than me but it has created the idea of casting live games with commentary. Now for the most part the games are only really of interest to the hardcore but there is no doubting the energy these commentators bring to the action.

Now Boxer is a common star of the earlier Starcraft videos and was the first real superstar to emerge, I'll only briefly touch upon his videos by showing a good old rush video with possibly the most entertaining cry of gg at the end, which many a friend has had as their text message tone. It can be found here, just watch the short video for an idea on the commentary and then watch to the end for the gg.

In other news: PLAYGU and PSI STORM.

For the most part I'm none too fussed by the regular "normal" games that go on, unless it's a series of a player whos' style I enjoy, but some stellar replays can appear. Particularly from fighting games. Watching somone execute a combo which requires 120th of a second reactions perfectly in a match situation consistantly amazes me. There's a perfect example, from the same tournament, which shows how dull a regular match can be followed by how apeshit crazy the crowd can go from a spectacular play. Both are from Daigo and the first is him beasting someone with Boxer and the second used to be a bannable offence on the SA fighting games thread.

One small note I will make Kuroda has been described to me as "A troll clad in human flesh." And I'm inclined to agree. He plays Hugo in crossplay at the semi-finals of a major tournament and still manages to nearly win against some incredible players. He also dealt the amazing smackdown to Justin Wong, taking the piss out of his wait and see style of play and timing him out for the win while he plays his strongest character and Kuroda plays Q; one of the weakest characters in the game. All just for not shaking someones hand before a game. Apparently after this Justin Wong wanted to "Beat his ass good."

While this is just the tip of the iceburg for what's out there to enjoy it's a start on the way to seeing the best gaming has to offer doing what they do extremely well. I know I'll come back to this topic in time with even more amazing stuff for you to see.