It’s funny, I watched Voyager first, and it had characters I loved and hated, but I never had any characters in DS9 that I loved or hated as much as Voyager. They were all really solid, but none that I loved as much as the Doctor, Seven, or Janeway. Quark, Bashir, and Major Kira were some of my favorites in DS9.

As a spectator, my favorite is still the first Heroes of the Dorm. That was such a special event. As a caster, my favorites have been both BlizzCons I’ve been a part of (it’s BlizzCon!), the Spring Global Championship because I got to commentate in Korea, and the recent Mid-Season Brawl, because the meta was enjoyable, the crowd was incredible, and the stories were a dream come true.

If you’re interested in becoming a personality, streaming is a great way to get started building a following, helping you with camera presence, and building up the type of personality you want to be. Creating YouTube content is along the same lines but doesn’t allow you to be as immediate in responses with followers. For commentary specifically, I actually started by commentating some of my own games until I felt comfortable to commentate live for Heroes Hype. There are many replays available now through means such as MasterLeague.net, so you don’t even have to cringe at your own gameplay!

All commentators struggle with crutch words—"indeed", anyone?). Learning to identify them mid-cast and quickly call up synonyms helps a lot. That’s a constant battle. Pacing is another one that I’m always trying to remember to work on.

Korea came into the event with a pretty stale meta (L5 was one of the only teams still running Ragnaros), and there was a lot of talk about them not practicing possibly as much as they had for other events. I feel like the result shouldn’t be extremely surprising. Fnatic beat MVP Black at BlizzCon, and matches between L5 and MVP Black in HGC 2017 haven’t felt like the same caliber of play. Our Korean region definitely seems to be going through some transition period, but I don’t think that should at all take away from the growth of Fnatic, Dignitas, or the European region in general. After getting two more strong teams into HGC through the Crucible and having Team Liquid show up at the start of Phase 2, the region is the most competitive, and that should result in the highest level of play.

I would agree that the eStar we saw at the live event didn’t seem to be the same eStar as the group stage, whether it was an off-day in play or a change-up in drafting. But I also think the break between the two stages allowed teams to figure out where the strengths of eStar were and either take away some of the necessities of their comps (think Fnatic vs eStar, when eStar were allowed to have Valla but not Illidan, or vice versa) or not let them play the game they wanted.

Tempo is clearly implementing a lot of changes that are making them struggle at the beginning of Phase 2 between the warrior changes and a more aggressive style. However, as much as Tempo fans might look at these matches in a bubble and be scared for the fate of Tempo, I still have faith that these changes are going to be best for them in the long run. It may be wishful thinking on my part, but this team has been consistent for far too long in the region to believe otherwise after just a couple of weeks.

Tempo Storm, because they didn’t roster swap (Kappa). Actually, I was really happy with most of the changes teams made in the swap period. Obviously the changes that No Tomorrow made were huge—the difference between the start of Phase 1 and 2 is massive. And although I was sad to see Khroen off GFE, bringing on a duo with amazing synergy together as well as with one of the players already on the squad seems now like a no-brainer.

For a long time, Korea had consistency in rosters (specifically, MVP Black, and TNL until they broke up) and practice methods that enabled them to be the dominant region. The European region has had both of those elements for a while now, and look where they stand. Europe also has a big player base, which helps—their HGC is the most competitive. I don’t want to immediately say roster swaps are a negative, because in Korea new teams formed and were able to become instant global champions. And Dignitas has made several calculated swaps while maintaining their consistency in the past. But they also have had high quality practice partners that force them to improve quickly as a team. We’re getting there! We already have the consistency of competition that the HGC format brings. I think once we get more closely skilled teams that have been together for a while (enough to be less focused on creating initial synergy), who are forced to fight for their spots at the top of the region and punish the mistakes of their practice partners, we’ll get there.

I think it’s too early to say, but is probably "E: All of the above (and more)". We don’t know what’s happening with teams and personalities behind the scenes. But we can assume that everything the teams do, from roster swaps to role changes, is done with the intention of being the best and going to the LAN events. I’m excited to see how the rest of the phase plays out.

Prepping for HGC each week and prepping for events are two different processes. Both require good note-taking and keeping up with game and patch knowledge. For HGC, it’s about using the notes I take to keep my team sheets up to date. These include things like hero pools with win rates, drafts/draft analysis, gameplay observations, story points, etc. Also, Dread and I talk about what things we want to talk about at the start of each series based on previous series. Preparing for events involves a lot more intensive study because you’re now incorporating anywhere from four to eight different regional metas—so, hours of VoD review and draft analysis. For the Mid-Season Brawl, I did this for more than a week straight, 8+hours a day. All of this is separate from casting practice, VoD review, personal development, etc.

I finished the last book I was reading (Dark Matter—not the same as the TV show, really good science fiction book) about a month ago and didn’t start another because of the Mid-Season Brawl. I’ve been more into listening to podcasts and reading comics lately...I’ve been keeping up with the Walking Dead, Saga, Revival, and Outcast as of late.

I honestly don’t know! When I started in esports, my goal was to become a caster. I’ve now commentated live events, events in other countries, and BlizzCon (twice!). I since haven’t set any goals, except that I want to keep doing what I love as long as I love it, and as long as I have the desire to actively improve at it each time I do it.