VCT 2024: Masters Shanghai will feature none of the Madrid commentators on the desk; how will this affect event broadcasts?

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The 2024 Valorant Champions Tour season is off to an explosive start. The first international LAN of the year, VCT 2024: Masters Madrid, became the most popular Valorant event ever, with over 1.68M Peak Viewers, excluding Chinese live-streaming platforms. Expectations are high for the next Masters event in Shanghai, but the official English-language broadcast is looking much different this time.

Community casting is critical for Valorant viewership, but so is the official English-language broadcast. At Masters Madrid, the official English broadcast generated roughly 25% of the event’s total peak viewership, spread across Twitch and YouTube. The broadcast talents are the faces and voices of these streams, and their hard work is integral to viewer enjoyment and engagement. However, none of the community’s beloved casters from Masters Madrid are making an appearance in Shanghai.

On the 13th of May, former Team Fortress 2 casting duo Bren and Sideshow announced they would not be attending Masters Shanghai, due to personal reasons. A day later, Pansy tweeted she would also not attend, as her casting duo hypoc is unable to attend, and she could not find a suitable replacement partner. Lastly, Tombizz clarified on Twitter that he and MitchMan were not invited to cast at the event. All together, this means none of the 6 casters who made up the Masters Madrid broadcast team will be working at VCT 2024: Masters Shanghai. 

The talent and observer team is locked in for #VALORANTMasters Shanghai! pic.twitter.com/QdxQpZiwC0

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) May 15, 2024

Official announcement of the broadcasting talent for the English broadcast at Masters Shanghai

Not all of the broadcasting team for the Spanish event have been replaced, the hosts and analysts of the event have been kept on for Masters Shanghai. Nonetheless, the loss of some of the community’s favourite casters will likely impact the event’s official broadcast viewership. In place of the Madrid casters, Valorant has brought on Achilios & Paperthin, and babybay & Doug. Fans of the game have already begun to speculate that only 4 casters may prove insufficient for the event, as they will have to be firing on all cylinders the entire tournament. 

To examine how these changes may potentially impact broadcasts, both official and community, of Masters Shanghai, we combed the Twitch Chats of all broadcasts for the VCT 2024: Masters Madrid event, and collated a list of the most popular broadcasting talent for the event. This list reflects the raw number of mentions each talent member received in Twitch Chats throughout the event, highlighting commendations and awareness of the talent from average fans. 

Most Popular Broadcasting Talent of VCT 2024: Masters Madrid

Excluding the commentators from Masters Madrid, all of the other broadcasting talent and more will be on broadcast for Masters Shanghai. By far the most popular broadcasting talent, aEvilcat/Mimi was mentioned over 5.7K times by Twitch Chats around the world. She has established herself as one of Valorant’s most recognisable analysts at only 21 years old, often a mainstay at any major Valorant event. She also gained popularity through her appearances on Plat Chat, a gaming podcast originally focusing on Overwatch esports but has since expanded into Valorant.

Following Mimi, Pansy was the most popular caster of the Masters Madrid event. Pansy has been a name in esports casting and broadcasting for a decade, originally starting her career in Call of Duty, but she reached her highest popularity with Counter-Strike. She worked at various Major CS events, and often was the sole female member of the broadcasting team. Since stepping away from Counter-Strike, she has found success in Valorant, often working alongside her partner hypoc. Pansy was mentioned 1.1K times by Twitch Chats, considerably more than hypoc, who was mentioned only 439 times. 

Next, the combo of Sideshow and Bren was the most popular casting duo of the event: with a combined 1 990 mentions. The two originally began their careers in Team Fortress 2, quickly emerging as the game’s favourite casting pair. Eventually, they moved onto bigger things and began working full-time as commentators for the Overwatch league. The two have reached the hearts of many competitive Valorant fans through their Plat Chat episodes, but fans need not worry about missing their antics at Shanghai.

Plat Chat’s Twitter account has been repeatedly teasing a watch party for the Masters Shanghai event, featuring Bren, Sideshow, Wyatt, and a currently unrevealed fourth attendant. Although Bren and Sideshow’s disappearance from the main event may negatively impact the event’s viewership, their Plat Chat watch parties will likely bring these viewers back to the event through community casting. Not all of the missing casters are as ready to host a watch party as these two; Pansy explained in a Reddit comment that feels it would be unprofessional to host a watch party after walking away from the event. Tombizz also explained he will be taking a break from casting, and likely will not host a watch party.

Tombizz and MitchMan are two of the less popular casters from Masters Madrid, but they still generated a respectable amount of mentions each. Tombizz was mentioned 711 times in Twitch Chat, and MitchMan was slightly less popular with 388 mentions.  Alongside Pansy and hypoc, these two are the representatives of the EMEA circuit at international LAN events, and they will be missed by the English-speaking EMEA audience. 

All in all, the fact that the Masters Madrid casters will not be working at Masters Shanghai is unlikely good news for Valorant esports viewership. The previous Spanish event was the most popular event ever, and not recreating these conditions is a bold move by the broadcast team. Side and Bren will hopefully bring some viewership back to the event through their Plat Chat watch party, but the disappearance of the other four casters is a shame for Masters Shanghai.