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I think we should also gas up the losing team whenever possible so it doesn’t seem like we’re dog piling on their loss

Spectators don’t need balanced praise they need to know who’s beating who and why they should care. The key to not “dog piling” is focusing on the impact and not the player. You don’t call the player terrible, you call what the mistake cost them.

Honestly calling what’s happening leads to the most entertaining cast. If they are messing up, and then make some good plays, the swing is more exciting than if I pretend everything is good. Invest in the risk players take and pay them back in glory, win or lose.

rephrasing my other reply i think if you are trying to give flowers to a team that i just Watched get Demolished then i will think you are being disingenuous so i will click off

Fair point, I guess for me I slip into the mindset of “I tried my best and THIS is all I can do, why I’m a such a failure” in a bad loss; and hearing praise lifts my spirits a bit. So I try my best to lift others up whenever possible instead of tearing them down!

I will point out as a caveat that as a femme commentator, I feel a big pressure to be nice because otherwise I'm treated like a bitch. (Working through that, though! Cuz fuck 'em. Male commentators get praised for being curmudgeonly.)

That’s a good point. The scrutiny that femme folks face is definitely a concern. For me, even though I’m very masc, I am pretty anxious about hurting feelings. I’m less likely to get tomatoes, but I think treating the players’ fails with respect is still important.

I personally try to sympathize with the failure. It’s not “wow they are bad”, it’s “oh no! that’s not what they wanted to happen!” I’m not critiquing. I’m sad, too! I want them to win. If the concern is the “niceness”, I think that approach works pretty well.

You’re right, and I try, but when the TOs want us to keep things “a certain way”, trying to be critical on the fly while balancing that in a way that won’t come off as insulting (at least in a way where I won’t get in trouble) is easier said than done.

“oh that’s so unfortunate” its notttttt this player made a crucial mistake and it cost them everythingggg its an important part of the story someone loses in every set why we so shy to say as such

One of the calls i am most proud of in recent days was when a team missed a power clam twice, which cost them not just the lead, not just a KO, but the whole set. And the end of that game was so much more entertaining because my partner and I chose to point out how crucial it was and was lost.