The prize money for the championship exceeded 150 million yen! An “e-sports commentator” who is busier than the players talked about “the craze and the other side of it.

The popularity of fighting games exploded with the release of “Street Fighter II” in 1991 and became a social phenomenon. After several booms and busts, the game is now enjoying a worldwide boom. Street Fighter VI” (hereafter referred to as “STO 6”), which was released in 2011, has sold more than 4 million units worldwide. With this, the world of e-sports is heating up.

Qualifying rounds were held in real tournaments around the world and online tournaments in 2012, and the winner of “CAPCOM CUP 11,” a final tournament to be held in Ryogoku, Tokyo in March 2013, will receive a prize of 1 million dollars (about 150 million yen). The prize money for the championship tournament, “CAPCOM CUP 11,” to be held in Ryogoku, Tokyo in March 2013, is a whopping $1 million.) Players from all over the world will be competing for glory, honor, and pride.

The people behind the frenzy are the e-sports commentators or “e-sports casters. Successful e-sports commentators are in great demand, appearing in various media more than famous athletes. Among these e-sports commentators, “Hameko,” one of the leaders of the competitive scene and currently one of the top e-sports commentators, gives us his background on how he became an e-sports commentator. We asked him about how he became an e-sports commentator, the specifics of his job, the skills required, and his philosophy.

Languages in the “Behind-the-Scenes Strategy Book

–What kind of person is Hameko? What kind of person are you?

I am a commentator involved in the competitive gaming scene. I am not only a commentator, but also a play-by-play commentator and an event organizer, but I am often used as a commentator. I do most of my work on fighting games, but I also work on a variety of other games.

–How did you become a game commentator in the first place?

I used to be a game writer who wrote game strategy books, and I also did commentary for national tournaments called “Fighting Games,” which were very popular in the 2000s. However, the demand for game strategies in both print media and on the web started to decline around the end of the 2000s, and the number of jobs was decreasing rapidly.

Around the same time, with the release of “Street Fighter IV,” the overseas competitive scene began to flourish, centering on a major tournament called “EVO. I was focusing on the game “Tekken” in particular, and there is a strong horizontal connection between fighting gamers. I had a relationship with Umehara (Daigo Umehara, 43) and Tokido (39), who are still active as top professional players in Reiwa, so I was accepted by them.

While I was covering the international competitive scene in this way, “Street Fighter V” was released in 2004, and I felt that if I got serious about commentary and play-by-play work, it would be a good idea and make my life easier. I made the decision to become a TV personality.

–And now you are a top-class commentator. What kind of skills are required?

I have the language of games and strategy, which I acquired when I was a writer. As for my knowledge of games, I’m very much creating my own strategies. I have created my own “behind-the-scenes strategy book” of sorts, and I pull material from that to talk about. I have already verbalized my research on games long before I speak on the spot.

–I think you are required to have a high level of communication skills, too.

I don’t have much of a communicative ability. …… I consider myself a solitary person. Of course, I have a lot of friends in the industry, but I don’t have much to ask them in terms of communication. This is because the most important thing when speaking in the competitive scene is to “speak in your own words.

When you are exchanging strategy information with a professional player, you start talking like “that’s what the professional player said,” and your words are no longer your own. It is not your own words. I think this is quite subtle. It is a temporary assignment of the analysis to someone else. It’s cold to hold someone else responsible for your words, even if they are your own words (laughs).

No matter how great a person may be, he or she may be wrong. (laughs). No matter how great a person is, there is always something wrong. Then it is better to be wrong in your own words. Do your own research and speak. And if you are wrong, it is your fault. It doesn’t matter who said it or what they said. I originally like to research things that interest me, because that is the source of my motivation.

–What about your ability to talk?　Do you manage your body to keep your voice?

I think the art of speaking and communicating requires training. I used to be a writer, so I’ve had an awareness of language, or rather, a natural discipline, for more than 20 years, so I’m pretty good at it. I am very happy to have been a game writer.

As for physical management, I have most of the weight equipment at home, and I train hard for an hour every day. I also watch video games during the intervals of muscle training. I don’t do anything special with my voice. I’ve always been a vocalist and guitarist in a band as a hobby, so maybe that’s working out well for me.