I think the word I’ve been using to describe it is surreal. I still very much see myself as the caster that started in Chair League, just a guy who likes the video game and likes to talk about it and wants to try to make jokes and crack himself up. I’ve just kind of stuck to that principle in casting, and it’s kind of crazy that it’s gotten me here.

Well, I can say that it’s definitely not easy. I’ve always considered myself...oddly enough, I feel I’m a better writer than a speaker. A large part of why I started my blog is I have a hard time opening up to people—I have a very hard time socializing in general—and I started my blog before I got into casting, and I just made a commitment to myself that anytime there was a big, emotional moment or something profound happened in my life, I would just write a blog post, post it on Facebook, post it on Twitter, and not really advertise it or anything. I would just post it, and that would be my way of expressing myself. I don’t expect anyone to read it ever, so anytime someone does, it’s like, “Oh, wow.”





So it’s more just therapy for me, in a way, to just get my thoughts out somehow. It’s been cool that people have read it and have related to it, but it’s kind of a side effect of what the blog is supposed to be about.

I mean, it’s kind of become entwined in the casting because casting is so personal to me. The blog is about profound, big moments in my life, and the past two years, casting’s been there step for step, so they overlap often.

That was the entire opposite end of the spectrum from what I had anticipated. I was actively looking to avoid Twitch chat and Reddit and stuff like that because I know I’m not everybody’s cup of tea because I have an oddball sense of humor. Anytime I ever make a joke, I only ever expect to be the only person laughing (laughs), so whenever other people laugh, I’m like, “Ah, that’s pretty cool.” So for the community at large to accept me for who I am. I always feel like I’m a person first and a caster second, which is kind of weird to say in a professional capacity, but I mean, that’s my strength as a caster, in my opinion: just being myself.

So the same mindset that I had when I started casting in Chair League is the same one I applied to the tournament here, so to see people say, “Hey, Halorin’s fantastic”...to me, that feel like they think I’m fantastic as a caster and a person because those two sides of myself are so intertwined. They’re pretty much the same thing.

I had the read the email a few times to make sure I understood it. Are they just asking me to be there in the audience. Am I actually going to get to cast? Am I going to be on the desk? I just kinda sat back and thought about how much time and effort I’ve put into casting. Anytime I get a new milestone like doing Heroes of the Dorm, doing Heroic Four, things like that, I just think of this email I sent to SuperJova, who started Chair League, asking him if he needed another caster, saying I had no experience, [just thinking] it would be fun. It was kind of validating on a personal level, to get into casting, to become a better person, and to be honored—to be lucky enough—to get an opportunity to do something like this, says that I’m doing something right, not only as a caster but as a person, so it just makes me wanna keep going.

We talked about it quite a bit once the roster was announced. I don’t know the politics at all about talking to other people, like, “Hey, I got asked to do this...did you?”...so I honestly didn’t even know [who was casting] until the full lineup was announced, and I was like, “This is awesome!” I love Kala. We casted a ton together last year. Not at all surprised to see the success he’s having. He’s earned this spot like anyone else, and he’s been kicking ass.

I didn’t really prepare with Kala. Every now and then, if we’re hanging out here during the event or in talks leading up to the event, we’d be like, “Man, we’re doing the Western Clash! Can you believe that?” And he’s like, “No, can you?” And I’m like, “No!”

As far as preparation for the tournament goes, I’m fortunate in that I already spent a lot of time watching the HGC anyway, so the intangibles that I look for in teams—the decisions they make and how they rotate around and how different moments seem to affect how they play—I already had a pretty good sense of the A-teams in a tournament from the perspective of a viewer.



As far as preparation goes, the biggest help has been JHow. JHow is the numbers guy, he’s one of my best friends in the scene, and he’s been there from the beginning. And he helped me out. He’s got all these friggin stats and stuff that he shared with me, and it just added a lot more context and information to what I knew. He definitely helped me be prepared for the tournament.

It’s gotta be Game 2 of HHE vs Method. The way HeroesHearth saved their core and then were just like, “All right, we gotta win or lose this game right now.” That march across the map...I thought I was going to lose my voice in that series! (Laughs) Me yelling...that was me as a viewer and a fan of the game, and then a caster. I actively had to reel myself back and be like, “You’re not just watching this game on your couch, man. You’re casting! You need to make sure you keep your eye on the ball.”

HeroesHearth has always been an exciting team to watch, and when they go against someone like Method, who just play their own style of the game, it was bound to be a very fun match, and they didn’t disappoint.

I was more surprised about Team Liquid. Going into the tournament, I was concerned about their consistency. Over league play, they’d look like a super dominant team one game and then just get snowballed hard the next game. So I guess they’re a momentum-based team, so whenever that falters for them, they just become this whole different team—but not in a good way.

Tempo Storm, I feel like them going to the lower bracket, was something of an asterisk because that was such a close series in round 1. It’s not like they just got hard stomped by Method and dropped down. I feel like Method just came out on top on that series. Tempo Storm played extremely well. I know they feel disappointed in their performance—they obviously wanted to go further—but I don’t think they should be disappointed with how they played against Team Method. That was a great series. To have someone new come out of the open division like VIN and then perform that well and see him make plays like he did on Towers of Doom. I think they have a lot to be happy about. So I hope they bounce back from this and just think about what’s next.

(Laughter)

I think it’s the concept of jazz hands[?]. Anytime there’s a long teamfight, heroes like Sgt Hammer, heroes like Fenix, they’re gonna absolutely shred. Fenix is one of the most versatile heroes because that hero can be the main damage dealer but also be the supplement to something like Maiev or Tracer that’s going to draw all the attention. Whenever you have long teamfights and there’s consistent auto attack damage—even Raynor fits into that mold also. If both teams are positioning properly, and it’s going to be a long 20-30s teamfight with someone able to chunk down 8-11% of someone’s health every other second, and if the enemy team has no dive to deal with that...I’m surprised Hammer didn’t show up sooner.

The Zarya pick...I wouldn’t say she’s back in the meta just yet. I think in part that’s just Team Method being Team Method, but also, in an offline event when everyone has a 0 ping, so often you can see those teamfights coming down to everyone on a team has like 10% health, and then someone finally dies and everything suddenly snowballs. So abilities in heroes that can have that last ditch effort to keep someone alive is gonna be much more impactful when there’s 0 ping compared to 80. If someone’s about to die, and Zarya gets that shield on them at the right moment and then that gives them enough time to auto attack, we’ve seen time and time again, those split seconds are the difference between a team winning a teamfight or not.

So I think Zarya has a place here in this tournament for Method, largely because it’s at 0 ping and it speaks to that reaching-out-to-save-each-other play that we see in the pro league. But I don’t think we’ll see her going forward.

(Silence)...(Laughter).

That’s my answer.