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For those that don't know IskatuMesk aka Mancatcher is a legend in the SC modding community during SC1. The guy also has earned himself a title of being a "Crazed" replay caster and has a bit of a cult following for his crazed and randomly silly Replay casts.

Well some time ago, much to my chagrin, I found one of my replays with a friend of his ended up being cast.
I did not come off looking well in it needless to say, yet feel a perverse need to share the craziness.

Part Two
Part Three

Mostly because just recently he cast another Replay of mine where I improved my game immensely. I offer them to you know for what "lulz" you may take from them.

Part Two

Wanted to add two more, not me in the replays, but wildly considered to be two of the best Casts IskatuMesk has ever Done.
Five Minutes of "LOL"
Protoss Proxy Madness

To be honest, I did not find myself caring much for his casting style. HD, Husky are superior.

Also, the guy is a legend? For what mod?

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Wanted to add two more, not me in the replays, but wildly considered to be two of the best Casts IskatuMesk has ever Done.
Five Minutes of "LOL"
Protoss Proxy Madness

Where do you come up with this stuff? I can't even watch half a minute five seconds of those videos, the caster's style and voice are far too irritating.

Thanas wrote:To be honest, I did not find myself caring much for his casting style. HD, Husky are superior.

HD, Husky, and also Artosis. Artosis is probably the best when it comes to analysis, though I find Husky to be entertaining.

To be honest, HD is the most I can handle with analysis. I watch them for fun and to pick up the occasional tactic.

The best tactics I picked up though are from watching White-Ra, TLO and HuK play. Especially in pro-tournaments which are livestreamed, though I rarely have time watching them.

In terms of casters I think Husky has massively declined in quality, HD is still up there, but Day9 is by far my favourite.
He's very heavy on the analysis like Artosis is, examining games quite heavily, especially from pro players, while also casting live games at tournaments, like his brother Tasteless does the GSL.

Oh god Day9. Hi. I am going to cast 1 hour 20 minutes about a 25 minute game. While I repeat a lot of stuff that every player already should know. The highlight was a five-minute talk about gameplans. What, you mean central map control is good on Lost temple with plenty of air on your side? You don't say.

I can't get through his videos, especially as I will not invest that much time in hearing him talk about a game I'd rather much play myself.

The dude casts terrible bronze level replays where they barely macro and can't make good unit compositions. There is literally zero insight you can wring from these games.

Also, you're missing the point of Day9. He does both casts (very standard, a single run-through of the game, what's going on and what analysis he can point out off the top of his head), and analyses (where he runs through a game multiple times, plays around with the replay speed, to talk in alot more detail). Don't mistake one for the other.

HD is pretty good, he's a decent player himself, has some mid-level insights, and is very accessible. Husky is terrible and has a grating voice and an annoying habit of self-promotion.

Literally Hitler wrote:The dude casts terrible bronze level replays where they barely macro and can't make good unit compositions. There is literally zero insight you can wring from these games.

Also, you're missing the point of Day9. He does both casts (very standard, a single run-through of the game, what's going on and what analysis he can point out off the top of his head), and analyses (where he runs through a game multiple times, plays around with the replay speed, to talk in alot more detail). Don't mistake one for the other.

You are missing my point - I explained why I do not like him. Feel free to disagree in your opinion, but I already explained why I do not like him.

HD is pretty good, he's a decent player himself,

He is a masters league player. I'd say that is more than decent.

Husky is terrible and has a grating voice and an annoying habit of self-promotion.

I find him entertaining, which is really all I care for in youtube videos.

IskatuMesk was initially known for doing an in-depth conversion mod of SC called Armageddon Onslaught At the modding website Campaign Creation He was also known for creating what is largely considered an Unkillable SC AI When it reaches a critical mass.

As for his casting style. I guess a lot of it boils down to personal taste. For most of his casts it isn't about analysis, or finding the best of the best players and reviewing them. There are a dozen people who do that already after all. Usually for Mesk its about finding the retardily silly replays and such.

I guess it really comes down to personal taste, I'll admit I laugh my ass off watching his replays, so if it's not for you then to each there own. But I am sure I am not the only one who might get a chuckle form someone who is outside the norm when it comes to "bog standard" SC replays.

Thanas wrote:To be honest, HD is the most I can handle with analysis. I watch them for fun and to pick up the occasional tactic.

I quite agree.

The best tactics I picked up though are from watching White-Ra, TLO and HuK play. Especially in pro-tournaments which are livestreamed, though I rarely have time watching them.

Man you just named my favourite pro-gamers. I love seeing protoss in action, and TLO is good no matter what race he plays (he mostly plays terran now IIRC).

Also +1 on Day9. Another SC2 youtube commentator I can't stand.

I like TLO when he plays zerg, as well as Dimaga, because both players are so inventive with the race and I main zerg.
You watch a lot of zergs, even in the GSL Code S (where the best players are apparently) and they usually play pretty standardly, in a fairly boring predictable fashion. Even Idra and Fruitdealer play the very standard builds, that every zerg from bronze upwards use, while TLO and Dimaga just blow me away with how they play sometimes.
For example, Dimaga was one of the first players to go a very queen heavy build vs protoss, and TLO was the first to use roach/infestor to beat opponents in ZvZ.

And I can understand people not liking Day9, personally I didn't mind his analysis when I was first starting out in the game and was pretty new, the stuff he said helped me, but I mostly watch him now because I find him kinda funny, and I enjoy his casting style when he's just purely doing a game, or doing the funday monday.

Stofsk wrote: Man you just named my favourite pro-gamers. I love seeing protoss in action, and TLO is good no matter what race he plays (he mostly plays terran now IIRC).

I've been watching his livestream and he actually is back to playing random, like he first did before switching to Terran, Zerg and then back to random. I think his only problem is that his terran depends too much on harass (and sometimes he GGs too early, though what do I know - I am nowhere near his level), OTOH his Zerg is damned close to perfect. Though I enjoy his terran the most simply because for his awesome Hellion play.

Another player I like watching as Protoss is NaNiWa. He is another IdrA, but his blink stalker are awesome. Though, classic Idra, White-Ra burned him when he tried the same build order three times in a row.

I'm in a strange position where I don't play SC2 multiplayer but still find myself enjoying watching replay casts. In addition to Husky and HD, I quite like AskJoshy. Not as analytical as HD, not as OTT as Husky, just somewhere in middle.