Who are the best StarCraft 2 streamers? It's a fiddly and personal question and really depends on what you want to get out of the experience (and I certainly haven't seen every stream that exists). The most basic and popular viewing standard is watching the best players play. This audience is easily satisfied--it's a simple matter of which player/race you like and waiting for the best to stream. This generally isn't my cup of tea--I prefer watching the best players in a tournament setting rather than just streaming on the ladder.
The second criteria is education, where a streamer is primarily interested in teaching viewers how to become better players. This is Day[9]'s MO and a few other streamers (like Winter) follow in his footsteps. I'm a big fan of Sean Plott, whose shows are always entertaining, but Day[9] is doing a show not just streaming, so he doesn't fall under the bracket of this discussion. I like the educational style overall, but it's still not my favourite kind of stream (I think builds and skills are more easily obtained via a specific tutorials or build-order article).
The third and final category is my favourite: streamers who play on the ladder and are also entertaining. These are personalities who comment on their games as they play (unlike the majority of pros who fit into the first category--HeroMarine and DeMusliM come closest to slotting into both groups). The commentary provides insight and is often entertaining. These streamers are either former pros or those who can't quite reach the pro level. The entertainment value is relative, but here are my current favourites with a few thoughts on them (I've arranged them by race...just because):
iNcontroL - the EG protoss is all but retired, but still plays at the grand master level; Geoff is a funny guy with good insight who doesn't have the personality hang-ups of other guys in his situation (like his former teammate and fellow streamer Idra)
desRow - the Canadian protoss grand master isn't someone I watch regularly, but he's got a very positive attitude and has gradually improved as a player; I watch him the least among the players on this list because he's not quite as entertaining as the rest
MsSpyte - another Canuck, this zerg player is a rarity (a female player who streams regularly and plays at the master's level); she's entertaining except when she's on tilt (which makes her very quiet); her stream is more about providing insight than laughs.
avilo - this guy isn't for everyone; the grandmaster terran has a poor reputation in the sc2 community which carried over from elsewhere before he became a StarCraft player; however, when he isn't raging about balance (his current hang-up about protoss is manic), he's an entertaining mech player--I like mech and virtually no other streamer plays it [Just a brief update: weeks of complaining about balance (including blink stalker all-ins!) and failing in WCS seem to have hurt his viewer numbers--I'm not sure if he's self-aware enough to know he's better off just playing the game]
I also like TotalBiscuit, but he rarely streams so I didn't include him. If anyone has recommendations of streamers I should check out, please let me know. I'm not a fan of people who just cheese all the time (like Gaulzi or Ruff), so they have to engage in standard play. I'm less keen on zerg than the other races, but entertaining is entertaining (Catz might have made this list if he didn't have long periods on his stream where he's completely silent).
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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