As the poll asks, whose go videos do you enjoy the most on YouTube?

I intend this poll both to see what kind of YouTubers/content people here on the forums like and also as a way to promote some channels that make videos. Now, I didn't know about many of these when I did my search so I can't say anything about the quality of most of these YouTubers, but I did at least skim through these channels (and dozens of others) to see if they met the criteria I laid out.

I did my best to actually get every active Go YouTuber in this poll, but I did have some criteria so the list wasn't endless. If someone didn't make it on here, and are either notable or they were close, I mentioned them below under the criteria they failed so that you know your favorite YouTuber was considered. If someone should have qualified under my criteria but did not please let me know and I can add them.

Criteria Details:

For me, this is a hard poll. I am torn between the guys from Study Group Kyu (Joshua Lee, Shawn Ray, and tokinonagare27), dwyrin, and Nick Sibicky. They all make fantastic videos. I also enjoy watching thedudda2. I am always excited whenever any of these guys puts out a new video. I find Joshua Lee's lectures to be the most challenging, Shawn Ray and Nick Sibicky seem like the most entertaining even if they are focused more on lower kyu players, tokinonagare27 and dwryin probably have the most interesting lectures content-wise, and I like thedudda2's more laid back and diverse content even if I might be a stronger player than him. But if I can only pick one...

I pick Shawn Ray. Clossius was the first YouTuber I found and I think I enjoy his videos the most out of these guys.

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"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I hadn't heard of a bunch of these guys, maybe I'll check some of them out over the Christmas break. But although you mention dwyrin/Battousai in your post, it seems you forgot to put him in the poll.

My favorite would have to be GoCommentary, as I've seen most of his stuff and it's all very good. I've definitely recommended his work to others before. HW9x9 is another good channel from the list, featuring a bunch of professional lectures and game reviews.

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We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Whoops! Don't know how I missed that.

I added him to the poll, but it looks like that removed the couple of votes that people got in.

Hopefully that's the only one I missed.

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"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

Wow, I didn't know that Andrej Dudenhefner had created a series of go videos, even though he is from my town (currently the only active tournament player of my town). It seems I will have to watch his videos first, and the videos of the other guys that I haven't watched yet (so far I have only watched a part of Bat's lectures and most of Nick Sibicky's videos).

I had no idea there was such a thing as a YouTube go video. What are they: lessons, game replays, historical?

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

you should also consider this one

http://www.youtube.com/user/littlelambgo

regards

Does any of them have subtitles? English or German or French or Dutch or Italian or Spanish.
The automatic caption subtitling does not work well, and I miss too much with only sound.

All of the above plus recording of live streams of the players playing whilst thinking along. The latter are pretty good entertainment.

One guy who's not on the list but I want to advertise for is Kuroneko/Meepsie. He has both a Twitch and YouTube account, which he streams/uploads to regularly. One thing about him is that he tends to get overly distracted by his Twitch chat at times. I think he could improve his channel by better compartmentalizing the social times and the lesson times. Still, he's quite fun to listen to or join in the Twitch chat with and he deserves a mention in this thread.

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

I've heard of him. However, he wouldn't quite qualify under the criteria as he only has 14 videos.


I suppose that would fall under the "I had to be able to find them" category. He didn't come up in the first 3 pages on any of those searches.

He would qualify, but I can't add him to the poll without erasing the results...

I'll mention both of these guys under my original post.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

My favourite attention horse?

A wild baby Day9. Memories.

To be fair, blanket attacks like this are unfair. Which of these players do fall into that category, if I may ask?

I haven't seen all of these videos, I haven't even seen more than one video by most of the people listed here, but I can't really see how those videos I have seen would qualify as attention whoring. Many of them are simply posting lectures they give on the KGS or games they have played on stream. Those I've seen also don't hide the fact that they are fallible. I've seen dwyrin, Clossius, and Nick Sibicky show themselves losing games. Sometimes showing a live loss and sometimes doing analysis of their loss (and often both, if it was on a stream). I've never seen any of these guys intentionally sandbag just to make them somehow seem "greater." Even those who don't show their own games will let you know when they are wrong. In rjm's Shusaku lectures he will say straight up when a position is too complicated for him to comment on and theduddha2 sticks to things he knows - like teaching basic joseki - while being humble about the fact that he has a lot to learn and not trying to teach stuff he doesn't grasp.

Frankly, if someone is making go videos on YouTube strictly for the sake of getting attention then they suck at getting attention. Videos games like League of Legends and Starcraft would be better options if you just want to get people to notice you. If you aren't any good at those games Minecraft videos are very popular, or you could just join the dozens of people who make My Little Pony analysis videos and you can get over 1000 views easily - maybe even 10,000+ if you get featured on Equestria Daily.

If the issue is monetization and copyright then, frankly, chess videos get a lot more views. TheChessWebsite has over 80,000 subscribers and KingsCrusher - a high level amateur - has 35,000. Of all of these YouTubers dwyrin has the most subs at around 9,000, but his channel is 75% video games. The next up is GoCommentary and Nick Sibicky with closer to 3,000. It falls off sharply after that with most of these guys having 200 or less.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

Eh, dwyrin has whole series where he deliberates underdeclares his rank on a server broadcasts the games of him crushing lower dans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g62rTNo ... ja&index=1

They can be good educational material but whether he's sandbagging or not is in the eye of the beholder (he's underdeclaring his rank but making no effort to keep it low, so eh?). I enjoyed these series for what it's worth.

What happened to shyghost ?

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I think I am so I think I am.

3 videos isn't much.

One of my criteria was that the YouTuber had to have posted a video in the last 2 years. I mentioned LGDArchives in my post, but there hasn't been a new video since October of 2011.

As for what happened to him personally, I have no idea. He isn't active on the KGS anymore either and his page on Sensei's hasn't been touched in a year.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

I don't mind people trying to get attention. And if they can do so by doing something they love (like teaching/playing go), then more power to them!

However, I have little respect for people who sandbag on camera.

And it's interesting you should bring up KingsCrusher, who plays even games while commenting.
I believe dwyrin's winrate on youtube is pretty close to 100%. Please correct me if I'm mistaken about that.



I fully agree. Torturing cute animals to death and posting videos of it on youtube has a very good track-record of getting attention.
Also school shootings and arson.

However I don't see the relevance to Go players who post Go-related youtube videos. (Nor do I see how "my little pony" videos come into the picture.)

Go Commentary, because he's the only one in that list who really knows what he's talking about.

I voted for Go Commentary, but apparently accidentally voted for the one above? Is it possible to have my vote changed?

Maybe I should just pretend to support the underdog. None of you understand EscueladeGodeBilbao's brilliance! Even I can see it, despite not speaking a lick of Spanish!