Interview with Babael, The man behind the caster.

Hi! I'm Jayf Soh, otherwise known by my handle "Babael", I just turned 25 in August and I'm from Singapore, a small garden city-state in Southeast Asia. Born and raised here, i've always loved the sunshine and the seas.

My very first casting gig was back in 2012 for Heroes of Newerth. I was first exposed to it when I turned up at an event to support a friend competing in the tournament. I knew that I had to give it a try because it felt like a combination of my passion for games and speech. I've always loved speech and was involved in Debates, Public Speaking and even hosted events back in high school. When I saw that the local community was looking for shoutcasters to cover the Dreamhack Winter 2012 event, I went ahead for it and never looked back since. It was a tremendously fun experience and I thought that it's something I would like to continue pursuing. After a little more than a year of HoN, I switched to casting Hearthstone and did production for the local tournament series. The thing about Hearthstone is that it has a very different pace compared to MOBAs and I know that I've always been a play-by-play MOBA kinda guy. That's when Blizzard gave me an invite to the alpha of Heroes of the Storm and I absolutely love this game. I went on to do local showmatches at convention halls during GameStart Asia 2014 and from there I've been given the opportunity to cover various Heroes of the Storm tournaments ranging from Community Cups to the official Road to BlizzCon SEA Championship. I've always wanted to advocate and increase awareness for eSports in Singapore and SEA. It's generally a tough country to push eSports because of a lack of government support and the country is so small coupled with the high cost of living, most gamers and parents have always felt that there's a need to pursue a "viable" career path and gaming is not recognized as one of those yet.

Oh my family and friends absolutely support my casting career now. Although my parents were not very excited of my endeavours in production or casting at first, I've took the time to introduce the concept of eSports and where I fit in this whole picture to them. It was rough but ultimately they relented and thought it's great that I'm pursuing my dreams and I'm happy doing it. I was told that they shared the URL of the NA August Open to my relatives and they stayed up watching the broadcast. It is simply awesome and that means so much to me.

Personally, as a play-by-play caster, I rely a lot on wit and improv (a format in which the performers make up the scene on the spot). These makes up the majority of the jokes and references that I pull during the casts and I guess that sets me apart from the other casters. I rely more on jokes and quirky lines and I love throwing them in the mix of a good engagement or post team fight analysis. I have this weird pre-cast ritual of meditating and keeping myself relaxed where I flip both palms facing upwards and take deep breaths. As for the generic preparation of casting for a tournament, I study the meta that's popular with the region as well as specific traits and play styles of teams. These allow me to better analyse the team's respective strengths as they go into a draft and game.

Preparation for the NA August Open was intense as I did not have prior knowledge to the majority of the teams. I was clear with Tempo Storm and Cloud 9 because they established a rather resounding trait in their play style. All the other casters were exceptionally helpful in allowing me to catch up with the meta (of NA teams) as well as the specifics of each team. We were able to identify the strengths of each team going into the games and theorized potential drafts for some of them.

I feel that the Heroes eSports scene is taking a steady growth. It definitely is headed in the right direction and there's good support from both Blizzard and other tournament organisers. Southeast Asia has lesser community driven tournaments and it can be hard to gauge the growth of eSports based on tournaments because of the lack of an officiated league and community tournaments. However, I know that there's an increase in competitive teams in SEA since the game launched in June and given that its a very new game, i'd say that the eSports scene is definitely thriving very well.

Jump right into it. It's going to be a hard uphill and drawn out battle but consistency and passion will definitely lead you far. I'd say that it's important to figure out a particular style and keep at it. Most people create a timeline and say "I'd give myself 6 months and if it doesn't work out, i'll give up" but I feel that's not the right way to look at this. I feel that casting is first and foremost passion. It's something that you do because you simply love calling a game and getting excited about it. Some people are very fortunate and they get noticed 3 months into it, others, like myself, take more than 2 years of practise before people start noticing. For me, it's just unrealistic to place a limit on something you love. It's better to tell yourself that you can cast based on your schedule and keep doing it. Constructive feedback is also very important and keep an open mind to it.

I'd really love to see more viable Heroes in the competitive scene. I think that the different emphasis between Mercenary Camps, objectives, split-pushing and team fights will provide an even more strategic game. Having more Heroes also provides the teams with a better chance at establishing a story for themselves because they can be known for different Heroes and focus on building that. Right now, almost everyone plays the same few tier 1 Heroes and it's rare that anyone is investing time to build up a signature hero because of the constant balancing. Despite that, I do think that we have a respectable pool of viable Heroes given the number of Heroes in the game, so huge props to Blizzard for that. Also, I think that the game definitely needs better support for multiple language streams. It's something that'll really help producers and casters get exposure for the competitive scene.

Favourite battleground is definitely Sky Temple. It gives me a feeling of sunny Singapore coupled with laser beams. I mean, who doesnt like laser beams? Strictly speaking it's also a highly competitive map because of the need for teams to constantly react to objectives early in the game. There's so many different strategies around it and there's a "fixed timer" because of the objectives in this battleground. Teams need to get the advantage, maintain the lead and formulate an ever evolving plan throughout the game. Plus, it's actually stressful because you know you cannot afford to be down in terms of forts because those beams will heavily favour the other team.

Favourite hero is Tyrael. I love warriors in general and Tyrael has a little extra burst as compared to any other warriors. He has great zoning abilities and threatens a dive at any point. It's also because out of the 3 Blizzard universe, I love Diablo the most.

Definitely during the SEA tournaments since I live in the region. There's going to be a few tournaments coming up within the region over the next few months. Outside of SEA, I hope to cast for NA, EU and the other regions as well, so if there's a chance, I'll definitely go for it. I really wish to be able to cast for the Americas Championship in Las Vegas, my home team "Relics" will be competing for their shot at BlizzCon and it's great to physically be there for those guys.

First and foremost, shoutouts to Blizzard for an awesome game. I'm eternally grateful to the Reddit community, Twitch chat, Blizzard and ESL for the insane support and making my dreams come true. I am stunned beyond words and humbled that the opportunity to cast the NA August Open happened, I'd definitely continue to keep improving my casts. I'd also like to thank Ania, Cyasteve, SolidJake as well as the rest of the Open crew, Cooby, Gilly, FCJ, Zoia, miwa for their hospitality and support. Special shoutouts to Zenden, Yangz, Sn0wbell as well as the SEA community for supporting my casts and a huge thank you to everyone who has believed in me and supported me since the beginning, I'd never have done it without you. You can follow me on Facebook at fb.com/babaelcast as well as my brand new twitter account @Babaelcast.