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Guild Wars 2 Authorised Shoutcaster Programme promotes popular PvP commentators

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With the launch of custom arenas and spectator mode, PvP in Guild Wars 2 is becoming progressively more eSports-y. Sprouting up around the newly enabled arena bouts are a group of shoutcasters, acting as commentators for this virtual violence.

Arenanet are now reaching out to that burgeoning community, “authorising” some of the more vocal members, and granting them privileged access to broadcast bouts between highly rated teams.

The way it works is that whenever highly rated teams are matched-up for a spot of the old ultraviolence, these authorised shoutcasters will be notified and invited to spectate on the battle live. They’ll then be able to broadcast a stream of the match with their own commentary, allowing many more folk on the internet to see the battle.

Because Arenanet don’t want to spoil the games they’ll have the shoutcasters broadcast a delayed stream, meaning the commentators won’t be revealing a player’s tactics before they’ve implemented them in the battle.

According to a blog post from Allie Murdock, Arenanet’s PvP community coordinator, “In addition to being given the special privilege of entering into rated play, authorized shoutcasters will be given a Custom Arena to assist them in hosting matches and or creating their own shows.”

The first batch of authorised casters have been picked out by the folk at Arenanet, basing the decision on the casters activity on the forums and how much footage they’re producing. As the programme grows so will the number of authorised casters.