Pokémon Holding Open Auditions for Commentators
The Pokémon Company International is looking for more commentators who can support Evan (plaid), Scott, Josue (Crimz) and Josh (TheJWittz) as commentators at large events like the Pokémon National and World Championships! They’re holding open auditions for US residents allowing players above the age of 18 to send in an audition video via YouTube for either Pokémon X & Y or the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
You can submit your video as either solo or with a partner. You should title it on YouTube as Play! Pokémon Commentary Audition: [YOUR NAME]. Once you do, send an email to auditions[at]pokemon.com with the following info:
Subject: Commentary Audition for [YOUR NAME]
Name:
TCG or Video Game:
Audition YouTube link:
Pokémon event experience:
Additional comments:
Send your video no later than April 21st, 2014 and remember that this is an audition, not a contest. TPCi reserves the right not to select anyone from the pool of entrants. Commentators will be judged based on variety of factors, including (but not limited to) appearance, announcing eloquence, composure, brand knowledge, and play knowledge. You will need to be available the weekends of both the US National Championships and World Championships to be eligible, though if selected your travel costs will be covered.
Good luck players to everyone who auditions and share your audition tapes with us as well in the comments below!
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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I’m honestly really disappointed by the 18+ limit. This is something I would definitely apply for and even give up my Worlds invite this season to do. Does anyone know the exact legalities behind the age limit? I’ve spent a lot more time this season honing my commentating to grow my YouTube channel and to see an opportunity like this come up and not be able to try out for it kind of stinks.
Good luck to anyone who does apply, though it’ll be hard to top off the excellent duo of Evan/Scott last season.
Child labor laws? I know you just got back from China and all, but this is AMERICA.
Man I’m working with JP Morgan this summer who cares about child labor
No no, they just don’t want commentators to have their voices constantly crack while on air
I highly doubt it has anything to do with child labor laws and more to do with liability concerns (I don’t think a minor can sign the types of legal documents that would be necessary for this type of role)
If you are selected would you be unable to participate in nats/worlds?
To be honest, I would love Cybertron to be a commentator. I think his videos are excellent, and he clearly knows what he’s talking about. It may be an intresting perspective to have somebody who had such excellent placings in competitions and such. While I think Scott and Evan’s commentary is amazing, I feel more casual players have been more acquainted with the Zheng’s due to them appearing heavily in Pokemon media (i.e articles on Pokemon.com as well as Brendan’s inclusion in the Black 2 and White 2 versions).
This is just my opinion though, and I’m fine with anybody who can match the amazing quality Scott and Evan provided last year’s Worlds.
aaron you can commentate with me when you’re all grown up, win the girl first
Anyway, this is predictably something I’m a little leery about because I’m deathly afraid Pokemon is gonna hire someone like Verlisify. If you’re someone who is interested in this and knows me well enough that you know I think you’re actually competent at least in the realm of Pokemon knowledge, feel free and PM me if you want help with this stuff or someone to practice with.
I vote for Verlisify. He’s knowledgable and highly entertaining.
I’d rather not have a singles-only player who knows crap about VGC commentating.
Some generic advice from someone who spends a reasonable amount of time working with film: not only should you be physically presentable, but you need to be audibly presentable as well. Having a voice that sounds good on camera is just as important as your knowledge and experience. There are certain channels on youtube I play while I do work for no other reason than I like the sound of their voice.
Anyway, I may submit something just for fun, depending on how I feel at the event this weekend.
As long as its someone who can actually pronounce Darkrai’s attack correctly as Night Spear rather than Dark Spear…
I’ll be auditioning since I’m not going to getting through the grinder anyway!
To be serious about the Dark Spear thing — no matter who you get up there, people are gonna misspeak a little. I know I said something’s type wrong when we were doing the thing at Nationals last year and YouTube sassed me for it some, for instance. Obviously, I knew the right information and just said the wrong thing, and while the TCG guys seemed to get a little more heat than Evan or I did from the community for our casts, they’re all very knowledgeable about what they do. Mistakes are gonna happen, perfection is what we should all be aspiring to but nobody is gonna hit it every time. Especially since the TCG hadn’t worked together before much and Evan and I had. It’s higher pressure than it looks.
also i someday hope to be physically presentable if someone could draw me a map to where the camera is i would appreciate it tia
I would love to see Cybertron as one of the commentators, I love his channel and is really fun to listen to.
Let’s not make these kind of jokes, someone with decision power might take it seriously.
I’d like to wish whoever is going to try out good luck!
Well given Verlisify’s initial controversies with the VGC Community, I wouldn’t think he’d be one to make it to that position. But I do have to wonder, what does the public here think of Justin Flynn as a potential commentator? He’s hilarious often times and has played in VGC events before (and from what I’ve seen, appears to be somewhat knowledgeable of the metagame).
Get Obama to do this. HE’LL SING A SONG FOR US, I SWEAR TO GOD!!! XD
Hopefully we can get the commentators from 2012 world’s to resubmit. Their commentating skills hit like a truck
Scott and Evan’s professionalism in their commentaries were always one of the cooler parts of this community in my opinion, and I hope the new commentators will be just as good. Good luck to everyone trying out!
If we could get someone to do play-by-play commentary using nothing but Pokemon Stadium/Stadium 2/Battle Rev announcer lines, that would be great.
For commentary inspiration I suggest looking to the marquee text in Battle Road Gloria’s Japanese Finals Video.
He used Facade Kanga so that’s an automatic no.
If regionals go horribly perhaps I’ll look into this. Really hope this doesn’t lessen any Scott/Evan time since they’re our best commentators at the moment.
This is something I would be more interested in if I was old enough, practiced commentary more often (I feel like if I start a VGC Youtube channel everyone will just say I’m copying Cybertron, since he does such a good job), and wasn’t busy trying to do well this year. It’s very important that the people who present our game are viable and effective in their craft so we can draw new players into the game and help them to understand it at the deepest level. It’s also really fun to watch a match when it’s commentated well. I was really impressed with the job that Scott and Evan were able to do last year and I’m really hoping that if someone auditions and is able to get in we can get that kind of quality. I guess Scott is particularly well qualified to do color as well in that he does tons of analysis on this type of thing and also looks into player tendencies along with the game itself. I think that a commentator bringing something new and interesting to the desk will be a great addition and this format is really good for giving those people who might not write as much a chance to show their skills. Here’s hoping that we get some excellent commentators from these auditions.
This guy’s enthusiasm was the absolute best.
I’m not sure how much he knows about VGC’s, but my bro ShadyPenguinn would be great at commentating this. He’d be engaging, entertaining, and informative. Granted, I don’t know how much he knows about VGC format. But if you wanna see for yourself check out his channel youtube.com/user/shadypenguinn
Anyways, I would also like to see Aaron commentate this, if only he was a little older :X
Spansih comentator is allowed?
Does this mean you have to give up your spot in playing the tournament? or can you do both? How did you do it last year Scott?