Luke Van Valin sucks at announcing

Have to agree with soup and dominator - you gotta to be realistic about this. Sure it's easy to sit on the couch and process tricks in your head - it takes your brain a millisecond. I bet LVV likely can still do it better than you. Now quickly translate that into vocalizing what you just witnessed in a way that generally makes sense to a broad viewership base, with a voice that sounds somewhat entertaining, and considering all the other booth distractions of being on air, commercial timing, etc. Regarding someone's earlier comment, to the broader viewership base (probably argue 75%+ non-newschoolers who have no idea what's an octograb or care to double check math on rotations), calling out a trick marginally incorrect over "I don't know what it was but it was technical" loses far less credibility holistically - most viewers don't know any better but when you simply admit you're unsure what the fuck's going on, you're dead.

It's like public speaking. It's all fine and easy to tell a story or explain a concept in our heads. But get up in front of an audience (or commentating) and there's a legit 80% chance you look and sound like a dildo.

I think it'd be interesting to see someone try to match LVV from the comfort of their own couch. Not only call the tricks, but entertainingly fill in the blank spaces with athlete backgrounds and other shit, all while not sounding like a twat.

**This post was edited on Dec 20th 2017 at 12:28:37pm

**This post was edited on Dec 20th 2017 at 12:29:45pm

SofaKingSickyeah well im a ski nerd and have followed skiing since around 1999 so ive had the benefit of getting to keep with it as things progressed from 3s, 5s, occasional 9s and 10s etc to wild shit like trip 18s and 990s out haha

re: your second paragraph, oh yeah man agreed totally. and that's why the 2 commentator roles are important to fill adequately. with a good pairing, everyone from die hard fans to casual viewers can be engaged and entertained while watching the same broadcast


i wanna reiterate that i got mad respect for LVV and i think he's a good color commentator. it's just that blowing the trick calling is a kind of glaring and easy-to-fix problem. i know it's a tough job to stay on top of

^Respect

SofaKingSickyes, i could very easily (correctly) call every trick in each person's run. and in any case where i wasn't sure i would know to not label it or id at least express my uncertainty on it rather than just calling it something wrong. even a "wow that trick was so technical i'm unsure what it was" is more constructive than that



no man this isn't some new concept, it's been done a trillion times. generally sports like football have two commentators, one who is the analytical expert and another who brings levity and "color" commentary. it's not a lot to ask for one of the people to be able to identify tricks correctly. LVV is great at the entertaining part of course

you have a personal bias that you don't particularly care "exactly how many spins etc" but that's really not material here... that's like some random football fan saying he doesn't really care about one of the commentators knowing the more detailed rules or something. it's 100% relevant and it's completely reasonable for the viewer to expect that level of expertise from a commentator

id love to see your commentary I really would. Its one thing to say it but sit there for every run and call them all perfect.

I do agree though about the two commentator premise. One being more trick orriented the other colour. LVV is colour, someone else should be tech. Who was the other commentator anyways from all I remember he barely says a word.

VinnieFI could be wrong but wouldn't the commentators get a screen from each cameraman so they don't get shots cutting out midway? Yea, whoever is doing the mixing or whatever you call it for switching shots kinda sucks and you rarely see a complete trick on the jumps.

I would think so. I mean it's all getting filmed and fed into the box. I would think even if they're not with the people editing it they would have access to that feed.

Anybody work there? Also for replays etc it would seem as though they're working together. Idk.

Def gets hectic when shits going down and you just see the one shot on TV

Wally called them all accurate with plenty of stoke.

Jen Hudak could have almost called that women's contest this year.

"5, ok there's another 5. Yup, there's a 5. OK, yeah another 5."

Just when women's slopestyle was starting to get momentum it totally shit the bed again.

Breaking_RadWally called them all accurate with plenty of stoke.

Jen Hudak could have almost called that women's contest this year.

"5, ok there's another 5. Yup, there's a 5. OK, yeah another 5."

Just when women's slopestyle was starting to get momentum it totally shit the bed again.

That's because Kelly Sildaru is injured...

skiermanThat's because Kelly Sildaru is injured...

As sad as this is its true. Without one 14 year old girl the entire progression of women's comp skiing is fucked haha.

Jesse_As sad as this is its true. Without one 14 year old girl the entire progression of women's comp skiing is fucked haha.

Whack ass prediction -

She comes back early from the injury and wins the Olympics with a watered-down run (for her). Girl works about 5 times are hard as everybody else on the hill and certainly putting the time into her recovery. Brace that shit up and go. She's the only one that really has rail and jumps both ways. Clean at least. The Dew Tour had a lot of arm flapping.

If you think LVV is bad you must not remember Uncle E.
LVV is a godsend.

InspiredMediaor maybe not enough spliffs?

I love you guys

Van Valin is fucking amazing at his job. Commentating is seriously not simple. You are stuck with color commentators that don't really know what's going on, have to constantly listen to instructions coming through his headset from the showrunner or director, and keep everyone from the bored football fan to the weekend warrior to the hardcore fanboy happy, while watching the livestream which doesn't always have the best angles. Plus the network is always pushing their own creative script - the theme this year is RA RA GO OLYMPICS!

Luke and Wally/Jen made an almost perfect team at last X, but Luke isn't going to be there this year. Tell me in a month whether Van Valin should come back or not. Spoiler alert: he should come back. The guy is the best the sport has ever seen.

HolteVan Valin is fucking amazing at his job. Commentating is seriously not simple. You are stuck with color commentators that don't really know what's going on, have to constantly listen to instructions coming through his headset from the showrunner or director, and keep everyone from the bored football fan to the weekend warrior to the hardcore fanboy happy, while watching the livestream which doesn't always have the best angles. Plus the network is always pushing their own creative script - the theme this year is RA RA GO OLYMPICS!

Luke and Wally/Jen made an almost perfect team at last X, but Luke isn't going to be there this year. Tell me in a month whether Van Valin should come back or not. Spoiler alert: he should come back. The guy is the best the sport has ever seen.

Totally agree!!! Bummed LVV won't be at XGames this year 😥