What are VOD reviews and why you should do them?

Within the realm of esports, reviewing recorded gameplay is a common and widely supported practice. Coaches and players alike recognize its value for in-depth analysis and strategic planning, elevating gameplay to new heights. So, keep reading to gain a deeper understanding of what VOD reviews are and why you should do them.

What is a VOD review?

A VOD (video-on-demand) review is a part of the coaching process where a team watches their match footage to detect their mistakes and correct them for learning and growth. VOD reviews might take place daily or a couple of times a week, depending on the coach’s target. Some typical types of VOD reviews are:

• Synchronous. The team assembles for a meeting, with a VOD review displayed on a large screen. The coach gives a presentation on the content while players can ask and contribute to the conversation simultaneously.
• Asynchronous. The coach and players aren’t able to meet in presence, so VOD reviews might take the form of a gameplay analysis recorded by the coach. The video will be distributed to team members after that. This method relies on the coach’s opinion without any input from players.
• Micro. Micro VOD reviews take place when a coach wants to focus on a specific player’s actions. This might be a one-on-one session to develop a player’s mechanical proficiency by pointing out flaws and opportunities through their individual POV recordings.
• Macro. As opposed to micro, macro VOD reviews focus on the overall strategies and performance of the entire team. The coach talks about macro decisions that affect every member rather than a single individual.

VOD reviews: Why you should do them

VOD reviews are one of the most effective methods of Esports coaching. To conduct a good VOD review, you’ll first need to know how watching replays impacts your performance. As you may still wonder why you should do VOD reviews, let’s delve into the reasons why this activity benefits the development of your gameplay.

A fresh perspective on gameplay

Players can separate themselves from the first-person perspective by watching their game footage. Indeed, they only have a limited view of events happening during a match, and their POVs might have been influenced by a variety of factors. With VOD reviews, on the other hand, the coach and team members can engage in thorough analysis from multiple perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of their performance.

Moreover, rewatching a match with different perspectives further facilitates understanding between the coach and players. The coach can rationalize why each team member acts in a certain way during the match. Based on such information, more meaningful and relevant advice will be given to players in consideration of their in-game perspectives.

Detecting mistakes and their reasons

VOD reviews offer an incredible chance to learn from one’s mistakes. The coach’s responsibility is to help team members reflect on their mechanical mistakes and investigate the reasons. Identifying specific moments where players make mistakes and offering alternative options for future decisions is a valuable method for the team to enhance their performance.

As a player, you’ll recognize your mistakes more easily through VODs than while you’re still in the game. Some questions to ask are “How did I die,” “How was my position,” and “Could I do something differently to avoid losing.” You may seek the answers when watching your own gameplay during VOD reviews. Based on what you have found, you can come up with solutions to do better in the next match.

In addition, VOD reviews reveal training drawbacks. That said, failure might be the consequence of ineffective practice sessions. The coach will be able to reflect on their own coaching techniques and training programs for the future growth and success of a team.

Analyzing team play

Another reason why you should do VOD reviews is to gain insights into team emotions during a match. For instance, players might suffer from emotional pressures or mental difficulties, resulting in failure to cooperate with other members. The coach will have to come up with effective measures to help resolve these issues for better teamwork. Activities may involve conversations and team building, which help foster stronger connections and support among players.

Furthermore, issues regarding miscommunication might arise during a team match. Watch game recordings, especially “top view” VODs, to examine everyone’s movements and overall coordination. The coach can go over errors in the positioning of players and give constructive feedback during review sessions. Communication is key to excellent teamwork. Thus, conducting VOD reviews offers great opportunities to enhance team play.

Game strategy adjustments

Upon analyzing VOD reviews, the coach can make essential adjustments to the team’s strategy. For example, they may realize some shortcomings of the current game plan when engaging in a real match with the opponent team, and VODs will be resourceful materials for reviewing these mistakes. The coach might then reanalyze the team composition and assign proper placements for team members to gain the best results in the next match with that same opponent.

Players can adjust their individual strategies through VOD reviews as well. You might observe that some strategies didn’t work as expected in a particular in-game situation while watching your previous gameplay. Don’t hesitate to talk about the issue with others and discuss how to make appropriate changes for better results.

Useful tools for VOD reviews

The most useful method for VOD reviews would be a cloud-based platform to securely store and share gameplay analysis with others. And one of the best tools for gamers to analyze their game footage with collaborative and organizing features is Insights’ collaborative VOD review service. Here, you can upload your videos onto a channel or folder and invite others to contribute to your content.

Although the service takes the format of an asynchronous VOD review, it incorporates a lot of collaborative elements, for example, timestamped comments, feedback visualization, and real-time live sessions. For coaching purposes, it’s especially effective, thanks to exceptional visualization tools, including labels, annotations, drawings, map overlays, and hero icons.

With full administration controls, you’ll be able to manage the roles and permissions of members while protecting your content by password and security procedures. In other words, you can manage what team members can see and do to your game footage. Besides, your content will be protected from unwanted access by people outside of your team. Data protection here is not merely a technicality but a fundamental aspect of maintaining a competitive edge, ensuring privacy, and preserving the secrecy of winning strategies from other players.