From YT to IEM

Disclaimer - If there's any in-consistencies in sentence structure / spelling blah blah then meh.. it's a blog not a super-serious article!

WARNING! - Wall of Text crits you for...

Looking back on my journey through casting, it's often extremely amusing to go back and realise just how terrible I was.That's right! I don't give a dayum! Yet, despite being utterly atrocious, I still thought for a long time that i'd kicked things off with a bang and had always been ok/good at casting - How wrong I was. It's always quite entertaining when talking to some people who consider the life, practice regiment and requirements of being a proper caster as something lack lustre or easy. In reality there are many a hardship to persevere against, especially in the SC2 community who are so hyper-sensitive about who and what they will listen to thanks to holding everyone against an almost impossible example to replicate (See Tastosis, friends forever, huge amounts of practice/repetour). Because of this, for the most part you have to condition yourself to an ideal, but obviously not too much as to totally demolish your own sense of style and flare - as long as they're perceived by the community as "acceptable". As a side note this is not my complaining, this is me telling my experiences and observations while trying to climb the ladder, some more obvious than others.

Chapter One - Birth (and being RUBBISH).

I decided to delve into the world of casting right after the beta had finished, which is round about the time everyone else opted to after seeing how much success the likes of HD and Husky had with limited amounts of game knowledge at that point. Although initially my goal was not to entertain, but to teach. My aim was to be the Protoss version of "PsyStarcraft", but without the vulgar jokes - purely an analytical channel where Protoss players from the corners of the web could come and learn. I actually remember my first VOD extremely well, a PvP 2-3 gate proxy defense on Xel'Naga Caverns which, to my discredit was by no means the best defense and certainly by no means the best commentary. At the time we lived with my partners mum in an extremely small house so I couldn't be very loud or be myself due to nerves, shyness, whatever. My commentary from that point until 6-7 months after was pretty boring in terms of entertainment value, but my VODs did end up getting the message across to my fellow Protoss players and I even got my thread stickied on the official Blizzard Protoss strategy forums which I believe is still there.

As time went by and I was actually able to accrue what I considered to be quite a lot of subscribers (probably about 1,000 at the time despite my commentary being completely monotonous but informative), We ended up moving to our own apartment which gave me a huge amount of room to breathe as a caster. However, because i'd been casting for such a long time in the same, relatively boring style, the mold i'd set myself was very difficult to break.

Wanting to do more with my casting, I approached several organisations that I hoped would give me a shot or would like to use me for casting tournaments or any other kind of content they could throw my way. By this time i'd incorporated a small bit of my own personality into my casts as well as got over the hump of single-toned monologs. So after hearing literally nothing back from everyone i'd emailed, I was browsing Team Liquid and came across a delightful tournament. "CSN's Clash of the Houses", an sponsored event in which the world all-stars who were in Korea at the time, would take on the IM team, which I thought was rather amazing. No-one else other than GSL was bringing content out of Korea so I thought it would be a great idea to send them an email too (The phrase that comes to mind here is "Never give up, never surrender!" - persistence is key, but not to the point where you're being plain irritating). A week or so later, much to my surprise, I actually recieved an email from the boss of CSN, who to this day is an extremely pleasant chap, basically saying that they liked my stuff and they'd be interested in giving me a shot. Looking back I think that CSN as an organisation actually saved me from quitting. Living in a foreign country is tough enough nevermind not bringing in any money, so it was extremely uplifting to know that all the time i'd already spent on casting had not been wasted and there was still progress to be made/had.

Chapter Two - Maturing (being less RUBBISH).

I'd found myself a place to call home, and from then on I classed myself as CSN_Kaelaris which I loved as I believed it gave me a sense of credibility and worth within the community. Of course in retrospect (and even now to be honest) no one knew me, so maybe I jumped the gun a little on my assumptions. But regardless I was happy, and I knew that all I had to do was keep going and I would get anywhere I wanted to.

After the all-stars had come back from Korea, the "Clash of the Houses" series was expanded to cover all the houses of Korea battling it out among themselves for the ultimate prize of an all expenses paid trip to MLG. I'd already done quite a bit of writing for CSN and they knew how I cast. So, we were given huge amounts of replays by the Korean teams to sort out and then Broadcast. I have fond memories of working in to the night alongside Rachel and Trevor (TorcH) who were extremely welcoming themselves, nevermind the rest of CSN. If anyone reading actually watched those, one thing that people didn't see was the work i'd done in the background apart from the casting. I took the time to write up every replay given, line by line, play by play commentary all written down, including a score for each game in terms of entertainment value - The SlayerS write-up alone was around 100`plus pages. Regardless though, this made it extremely easy for the organisers to decide which replays to include in the broadcast for the best possible outcome - There were a LOT of replays. In the end I was able to cast a good portion of the "Clash of the Houses", including the finals alongside DoA who is a fantastically lovely fellow. For the longest time this was my crowning glory in terms of casting, and despite it not really boosting my popularity or fame at all, it took a long time for me to surpass that kind of exposure.

Things from there on became a little quieter. I contacted more organisations to do some casting but was never really able to land anything thanks to no one actually knowing who I was. However, during the time between "CotH" and my next move, there came a revelation. During a conversation in CSN chat I basically woke up to the idea that my casting wasn't "exciting" enough. Sure I knew how to get the strategy across but engaging properly with the audience on a higher level of entertainment was something i'd never achieved thanks to nerves. Frustrated with others opinions and annoyed that people didn't consider me "entertaining" (jeez what a douche I was), I vowed to make my next cast as action packed and engaging as possible. Since then I really feel that my casting came on leaps and bounds, and this is my biggest piece of advice to anyone that would want to get into casting - "Don't hold back! give it your all and make sure to make it your own". Example in point, Wolf in Korea is a fantastic caster, some would consider one of the best - My only problem though is he doesn't have his own personality, he tries too much like a mini-Artosis, which isn't exactly a bad thing but there will always be a glass-ceiling. Of course GSL Code A is a pretty high ceiling but, as a spectator and fan, that's all i'll ever see Wolf as, mini-Artosis. Looking back this is actually a pretty dire example because Wolf is actually good! But there are so many starting casters out there that just want to imitate their heroes which is NOT the way to go about it.

Eventually I got in contact with two fellows by the name of Sympatico and Tumba who worked for their organisation called STIM.tv. I just wanted to delve more into the world of streaming and this was a great way to go about it in my mind. Streaming almost 5 days a week from there on for tournaments of varying skill level. Thinking about it, this was also around the time I decided it would be of great benefit to start playing Random, which has helped my infinitely and EVERY caster should do so. Anyway, during my brief stint at STIM.tv I ended up meeting an admin for Playhem, which had not actually began streaming Dailies at the time. I would always tell him that, if they were to get the Dailies off the ground then I would love to come be a part of it and in turn, he was more than willing to let me do so. Sadly though, quickly I was put in a position that, to me, was extremely contradictory of my methods when it comes to casting, so we parted ways but while at Playhem, I gained something much more valuable. During a cast, I actually received a PM on Teamliquid from paisy who was, and still is, the SC2 manager of Mousesports. The email asked if i'd be interested in joining the mouz team as their official caster as long as I was able to pass the interview process of course. We spoke, my impression had been left and it was finally decided that I would become part of mouz and it was one of the happiest times of my short casting career. When I read the email initially I was mid-cast, and if you were to ask Tumba himself, he'd be able to tell you just how emotional I got about it - I'd wanted something like this for so long as I thought it would help me get my name out there.

From then on I streamed and acted under the name mouzKaelaris. I'm extremely proud to be part of the mouz family as only a year or two ago, i'd followed them in many a game as well as SC2 with their fantastic roster. I got to work straight away on mousesports.tv with weekly cups and even our attempts at our own show entitled "Mouz Trap!" - where we take pros, their replays and analyse them together for an educational style of show. Up to this point i've put in countless hours at mousesports.tv, all of which have been so enjoyable, not just because I was able to pursue my dream, but also because I got to meet some extremely nice people along the way. Regular stream viewers (you know who you are) would come back again and again to converse with one-another while I interacted along. I still hope to do as much as possible depending on time restrictions!

Chapter 3 - "I do not believe this darkness will endure."

In comparison to most, I guess I had a quick rise to a premier event - But i'll get to this later. There were obviously a lot of bumps along the way however allowing them to bother you is literally the worst idea in the world. While sending message after message to tournament organisers and being rejected or even not replied to at all, I eventually sent an email the way of SETT.fi and their management - The gentlemen who organise ASUS ROG and their events. Since they're a finnish organisation and I was willing to wager that I was the only native English caster in the country, I thought i'd be able to help them out with some events. They replied but weren't too interested in having English commentators but kept me in mind for the future. Time went on and the ASUS ROG Stars invite came around, thankfully only an hour away from where I lived. I decided that I'd attempt to do some coverage of the event, so spoke to the organiser of the event, Procyon, who was more than willing to provide me with Press passes to do so. I visited the event but I was in over my head. While I wanted to get interviews with the players, I never really anticipated the best moment to approach them as they were all busy practicing if not playing on the main stage. So despite the fact that I had a press pass, i'd failed, However! I was able to meet the organisers of the event and socialize with them, shake their hands, network network network. From there I stayed in contact with Procyon, and eventually came a national lan called LANTREK '12 which they wanted some English coverage for. It only being around 2 or so hours away I lept at the chance for some offline experience - took it and the hauled my PC all the way there and back to be able to get the chance. It was relatively small-scale however there were players such as Satiini, Elfi and Fuzer participating in what actually turned out to be an extremely fun tournament to cast. Despite it being a full Solo-cast, I was able to prove my worth to SETT. Ultimately a full events worth of solo-cast is extremely draining which I hoped translated well, considering I never gave up the same level of excitement all weekend long. Apparently I snored all the way home in the car with the Finnish Esports federation guys, which I can only imagine was a "real treat" for them!

Next came ASUS ROG Winter Assembly. I was always told that if I were able to make a good show at LANTREK, i'd be able to showcase my talents at Assembly Winter to the whole world, within reason of course since there were proper hired casters at the event. The initial plan was for me to have my own mini side-stage where i'd be able to cast as much as I wanted, however we deviated slightly from that path. Eventually we decided it'd be better if I didn't take up my own casts, but integrated myself with the likes of Khaldor, MrBitter, TotalBiscuit and Apollo. From there things were set, and all i'd have to do was turn up at the event. Khaldor himself was extremely pro-active about things, messaging me prior to the event to express his interest in working with me (which by the way, was totally awesome!). Eventually the time came of the event, I turned up as early as I could and the first day ended with Khaldor, MrBitter, Polt, Taeja, Cloud, Helena and myself eating a meal around a tractor in a Restaurant. A very weird experience yes but it was one of the most memorable meals of my life. Being able to sit down with a few of my favourite players and casters in the World was a huge honor, as well as being able to shake the hands of these people and off that.. NETWORK! From there I was able to meet every player, every caster and every organiser at the event in the following days to come, but most importantly I got to show off (very briefly) what I could do in terms of casting. I feel it's an easy thing in SC2 right now to dedicate yourself fully, become as good a caster as you can be, but it's extremely difficult to get anyone to actually notice. You HAVE to network, you HAVE to make people aware of your existence in one way or another, otherwise you're just 1 in a million out there who is doing it for a hobby. The huge thing that came from ASUS ROG for me was being able to cast with some of the big names. Casting with Khaldor and MrBitter allowed me to show my talents to two extremely influential people, who (I assume) liked what they saw! Sadly I was only able to cast 3 series during ASUS ROG, but I was able to leave a little bit of an impression on viewers, and perhaps more importantly, my co-casters.

After ASUS ROG I got home and had this post-LAN feeling which I couldn't really shake. I don't really know if anyone else gets it but it was a combination of going back to solo-casting, along with not seeing the people i'd just met for potentially a long time. Very shortly after this though, I was contacted by the CEO of ESL who was very interested in taking me on for the IEM WC, after recommendations from certain people. Needless to say I jumped at the chance and we were arranging flights/travel the very next day.

My thoughts and happenings of IEM though are for another blog coming soon!

I'm also really wanting to write a blog on what I believe are the best ways to become a caster. I spoke with people extensively about this at IEM so maybe I can shed some light for people wanting to get into it. Obviously i'm not the authority on it, but for me it's been very condensed, and fresh - so it's all still up there in the old noggin!