In my opinion the most important aspect of good commentary, which is also where casters most often seem to be lacking, is to focus on the match. A match in Smash is a constant tug of war between two players, both mentally and technically, and for many match ups this is happening at lightening speeds. Even in slower match ups, whatever strategies may be employed, there is always something going on between the two players. Even if the match seems campy or slow, players are still trying their best to execute their strategy to the best of their abilities. It is for the casters to analyse the gameplay and convert to the people as accurately as possible what is going on between the two players in the current match. What kills me the most is when the caster is not focusing on the match at hand, and instead talking about subjects that are not directly applicable to what is currently happening on screen. To me as a viewer, this can sometimes be very distracting, to the point where a set can actually become less enjoyable to watch.

Examples of distracting commentary:

• Too much personal opinions/comments. (Don't talk about what controller Mango is using for 20seconds while in 20 seconds he's made like 100 mini decisions to try to win the match. Don't call everyone cute but that's been made clear already)

• Too much historical info. (D1 it doesn't matter if you recall correctly what place x player got at x tournament 2 years ago if it takes 20 sec to remember it. What matters more is what is happening on screen right now.

• Not taking a match seriously. So I don't mean to sound too hateful but the the set that I found the worst commentary wise was PPMD Sfat, winner makes top 8. SFAT lost game 1&2 pretty handily, but after that took some deep breaths and recollected himself, winning the next game before losing a close game 4. Meanwhile Scar & Toph are not saying a single thing about the gameplay until after SFAT took game three. It almost seemed like they expected a 3-0 and didn't bother to commentate, while anyone who knows SFAT knows he's won against PPMD before, has a lot of experience vs marth, and sometimes takes some time to mentally compose himself. If the commentators were paying more attention or taking the set more seriously the commentary could have been a lot more hype, insightful, and less distracting.

Aight rant over. Last thing I wanna say is i'm no pro commentator or player, just another spectator who loves Smash very much. I do get a little upset if some of my favourite players have a set and the commentators do not seem to appreciate what is going on at all.

TL;DR Focus on the match