In Tuesday's update the Authorized Shoutcaster Program will go live!

A new content patch is coming to Guild Wars 2 tomorrow. The big focus of the patch is the Dragon Bash festival which you can read more about in ZAM's preview, but the festival is not the only thing being added with this patch. In addition to festival the Authorized Shoutcaster Program will go live with its first wave of shoutcasters.

What is the Authorized Shoutcaster Program? Back in April, Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode was added to sPvP. Anyone could jump into the custom arenas and spectate matches, but because spectating showed the match live restrictions were placed on ranked play to prevent any cheating. The Authorized Shoutcaster Program are selected shoutcasters who have the ability to watch and shoutcast special ranked matches.

Allie Murdock, PvP Community Coordinator for ArenaNet, explained a bit more of what the program entails in a new blog post.

"When highly rated teams are matched-up in rated play, authorized shoutcasters will receive a notification and be allowed to enter that match as a live spectator to bring you all the action. Since the shoutcasters will be watching the matches live, their video streams will be delayed so that it doesn’t impact the results of the match."

It sounds like the authorized shoutcasters have to follow the honor system to delay their streams and keep the sanctity of rated play alive, something that works when ArenaNet hand picks who is (or isn't) an authorized shoutcaster. This first set of shoutcasters were selected due to their contributions to the PvP community via shoutcasting since the update that brought spectating. A full list of these Shoutcaster Firstborns can be found over on the official GW2 forums.

Want to be an authorized shoutcaster? Start shoutcasting on a live stream, post a link to your stream on the official forums and if ArenaNet like what they see they'll contact you.

Matt "Mattsta" Adams