ITB Interviews - FocusFire Series
In this week's ITB Interviews, we are privileged to chat with the wonderful Mr. NomadCasts. We've been excited to see his casting gaining prominence, covering EPIC League, OMEGA League, ESL One Birmingham and WePlay! Pushka League just this year alone. We find out more about his esports journey as we continue our mission to highlight the person behind the personality.
-> Focus 1: The man, the myth
Into The Breach:
Hey Nomad! A pleasure to sit down and chat with you today. It's been awesome seeing you become such a frequent presence across multiple tournaments, countries and tiers. Seems you've been finding a lot of success and engagement lately! How's 2020 treating you so far?
Nomad:
Thanks! Yeah it’s been great having a chance to cover some top tier games over the past few months. Things are quieting down now a bit but I have a ton of side projects with some awesome people going on so keep an eye out!
Into The Breach:
What brought you to Dota 2 and casting, and what were your first experiences of playing Dota then evolving into a caster?
Nomad:
I got interested in competitive Dota after watching TI3 and witnessing that godly finals. It was about 4am in my bedroom trying to stifle my shouts so I didn’t wake up my parents. Technically I started casting afterwards in about 2014-ish, under my old, shameful pseudonym of ‘Peanut Almighty’... Yeah my casting was about as good as my name was, but hey gotta start somewhere!
Into The Breach:
Certainly an interesting choice of name, we much prefer your current! So how'd you make your start?
Nomad:
In the initial years I casually casted some small amateur UK stuff and some £5 a game tier 8 and a half league stuff, then stopped in my final year of uni and when I travelled, but after coming back it wasn’t long before I wanted to start casting again.
I didn’t think it was going to ever be full-time, my goal was to have it as a lucrative hobby I could use to buy RGB ram sticks and fidget spinners, but I just kept growing more confident, more ambitious, and also becoming a better caster.
I think I really developed the skill of critical thinking around this time, which is vital to being freelance at anything. Looking at your own performances critically and filtering the feedback you get to figure out how to improve is everything. Arguing with a guy in Twitch chat over whether you’re better than ODpixel is not so helpful.
Into The Breach:
Speaking of OD, have you ever met him and what was that like?
Nomad:
I have, and it was was very interesting when I met him at Megafon in Russia. He actually told me he wanted to be challenged, that he wanted to feel some pressure from the other casters, and honestly I’m trying as hard as I can to be that competition.
I know I’m not there yet, but I’m taking every step to make sure I will be. That said, it is a hard bubble to penetrate, TOs have been very reluctant to break away from the Dota play-by-play mainstays when it comes to LANs.
--> Focus 2: UK Dota and the UK community
Into The Breach:
As we do with everyone - let's talk a little on UK Dota. The success of ESL Birmingham and UK fan enthusiasm has been stellar to see, but how're you feeling about the UK Dota community now?
Nomad:
Yeah ESL Birmingham was wild and really showed that the UK has the passion to be a great HUB of dota in the coming years. It’s so sad that we couldn’t have a LAN finals for seasons 1 or 2 of the Premiership, I’m tearing up just thinking about it. My keyboard is wet, but I shall pull through this answer. In all seriousness, we need fans and players to step up.
Into The Breach:
Any stand-out players in your coverage of ESL UK Premiership?
Nomad:
There’s talent here now, we’ve seen it. Symmetrical, Adzantic, Tanner, Ares, DommyBee, Mushroom, it’s really on the players to bind together, form a consistent team and start learning competitive 5-man Dota with the help of some outside EU players.
Whilst I like to exaggerate for the audience, it does frustrate me a little that TeaGuv is allowed to waltz into both of these Prems, pull together five high-skill players and take first place.
Yes, it’s going to be very hard to take down the best UK players with the best UK captain paired with two very good EU players, but that’s the challenge! If anyone commits to these high-payout events, there’s a real possibility of taking home first. There’s a lot of work to put in to get to that point, but I’d love to see some of the top boys pull together and bring a real challenge to the ESL Prem. I think that is starting to happen.
---> Focus 3: The ins and outs of casting
Into The Breach:
Its commonly stated that player’s strategies deviate dependent on the meta, and that some meta naturally favour certain players/playstyles. In this way, players at the top of their game in one update can rapidly lose their podium in the next, say if they play illusion-based heroes incredibly well and these are then nerfed.
Do you think it is the same for casters? Do you change any elements of your casting when a radically new meta comes out? Or is it just a basis of making sure you research changes and know what’s what.
Nomad:
It’s not something I’ve really thought about too much honestly. It’s always exciting to cast at the start of a new patch because you never know what’s coming, you have to play a lot to fully understand the patch and give you that extra layer of insight so you can potentially understand the new things that are being done. Honestly in general playing a lot before an event is really important, it just helps keep your memory fresh and give you the game sense to stop yourself making silly mistakes.
For me the best kind of casts are the ones with a level amount of action and downtime, and obviously it’s best when the games are close - although sometimes that’s not entirely obvious. I get frustrated when I hear casters talking like the game is over when there’s still reasonable comeback potential for the losing team.
Into The Breach:
Do you have any mantras that you follow or key things to abide by as a caster?
Nomad:
Don’t give up on a cast! I go by something I call the ‘Final Fight’ theory, by which in between action I’m always looking towards this theoretical game-ending teamfight, and considering what each team needs to do to win that fight at any given point. It’s a fairly basic concept but if you apply it fully it does really help you shape the narrative of a cast to be exciting and engaging, and as a bonus it keeps you engaged as well.
But I also do love a good ol’ throwaway cast - you know the ones, where a favoured team is just wiping the floor with the underdogs and their draft gives them no escape clause, you know it’s over so I think the focus of game shifts from the game on to you as casters - well at least you can make that shift if you see fit, you are in control. Inserting yourself into the cast is a bad move most of the time but in games where you really are just watching a child get beaten to death, it’s okay to riff with your co-caster a bit, talk some nonsense, find some laughs. I enjoy the opportunity to do that a lot, but I’m not the best at it.
I think Sunsfan and Synd or Slacks are the best examples of people who can do that to the most entertaining degree.
Into The Breach: How about your routine prior to a tournament or LAN?
Nomad:
I actually have a pretty devout routine when I’m about to go on the mic at a LAN. Firstly, the pressure does get to me sometimes, which caught me off guard the first few times but now I have a regime to follow, it easily circumvents that fear. Firstly there’s general things like waking up in plenty of time so you’re not rushing to the event half-shaved and eating a croissant. I think stretching really helps just to feel more physically prepared too.
After that, I load up a highlight reel on my phone and just try to pbp through about 5 minutes of it. After that the only thing left is something kind weird but honestly it helps me a TON.
So when I’m sitting in the casting or hosting seat, I shut my eyes and try to listen to everything I can hear, and process every background sound one by one, just identifying everything around me. I also feel my weight in the seat and on the floor. It’s a strange sort of meditation I guess but it really helps me center myself and get in the zone and relieve a lot of that pressure. There’s more I do - I’m very preparation focused - but I don’t want to give away all my secrets
Into The Breach: Any specific events you'd love to work at again?
Nomad:
Personally I’d love to work on another WePlay event, the themes and the effort they put in is awesome, and I’d love to match that. The charity event I did with them was awesome of course and I think my casts there were extremely well received but with the hosting side I think I held back a bit, plus considering how quick it was all put together, I would love another shot at it.
The Summit could be really fun as well, I think the creative control there would be dope and I do a bit of improv on the side so that could fit in really well, I think it’s a side of me that a lot of people haven’t seen yet, so it would be great to work with them!
----> Focus 4: Mental health & Dota
Into The Breach:
It’d be great to talk more on a key issue in Dota right now – mental health. I would love to know more about your own experiences with mental health while being an avid gamer, both generally and in relation to Dota 2 specifically. Has Dota 2 been an ally or enemy here, or both?
Nomad:
For me currently, I’m in a really good place when it comes to mental wellbeing. I have an incredibly supportive family and partner, and a much less supportive but still very nice cat. That’s led me to be able to go full time esports, a dream which I never thought would be a reality. There were two low points in my life, and Dota was certainly the escapism I probably abused too much at those times.
One was just after I’d come back from living in Canada with my partner, and we returned to our separate family homes about 3.5 hours away, and generally going from living abroad and doing loads of fun stuff together to moving back in with my parents and sitting there facing the reality of having to find a 9-5 job… yeah didn’t feel great.
My physical health also took a nose dive. I was a ski instructor in Canada, and when I wasn’t doing that I was skiing recreationally or hiking up a trail or mountain.
Into The Breach:
That sounds rough - but we're really happy to hear you're in a good place currently! How about being back in England?
Nomad:
In England, I bought a bike that was used as much as a Frenchmans microwave. I think the two are pretty well connected- and that’s something that I’d like to get across to the dota community. I think there are sports which are really well suited to gamers that a lot of people don’t know about.
For me, cycling is fun but it doesn’t scratch that itch. Climbing is something I’ve gotten into over the past year, and it really does, I’ve recommended it to most of my gaming friends that have an aversion to exercise. It gives you that fuck yeah feeling you get from destroying an ancient as well as engaging that logical problem solving part of your brain that we crave as gamers. I really think it’s the second best sport for us.
The best is skiing but obviously I’m incredibly biased there and it’s not exactly practical for anyone unless you happen to live in a hut in the alps.
-----> Focus 5: Our Dota society
Into The Breach:
In our last interview, we spoke with Mr. Big Jams and discussed Dota as an ‘entity’ ~ being the profession, livelihood, hobby, passion and friendship base for so many. As someone so engaged with this ‘entity’ and community, what’re your feelings on your relationship with Dota and it’s community?
Nomad:
The Dota community is its biggest strength. Twitch chat and Reddit are a blessing and a curse. I think all feedback is useful, it’s about having a thick enough skin to not get offended but having thin enough skin to soak in the comments and digest what’s being said. As I said, all feedback is useful, but people have a very reflexive way of providing and analysing information in Twitch chat and reddit, that’s the curse of anonymity, and you need to think through the poorly thought through comments for them.
Into The Breach:
Does this impact the way you might cast a game, or your perception on how said cast is going?
Nomad:
Well, for example, if BigDGamer69 says “man this casting duo is ResidentSleeper” my immediate thought process is “okay, this is probably a boring game, is it time to stop focusing on a game that isn’t really exciting and look towards having some lighter, less dota-focused but more engaging conversion?
Are we engaged with this game or do we need to make a better effort there? Do we go the other way and actually start getting deeper into the analysis? Do I push my cocaster to talk about things I know they can cover to a fantastic depth?”. A lot of these answers will depend on circumstance. I think an easy trap to fall into is to view this comment and just say “oh the games boring it’s not my fault”. You could be right but why waste an opportunity to improve?
Louis, GrandmaRuby, Charlie Tizard, Scant and Reinessa are just a few people who help improve everything. There’s loads more but I’m too stupid to remember them all!
------> Focus 6: Wrap ups
Into The Breach:
What is your favourite hero to play right now and how are your ranked games going?
Nomad:
I’ve been playing a lot of Spectre this year, I started playing her around the start and then she happened to get massively popular and strong in the meta so it was pretty great. The hero is super fun, is more complex than most people realise and there’s a few fun ways you can build her, my personal favorite is BM > Manta > Aghs, which is criminally underrated in certain games.
I’ve always enjoyed Legion Commander as well, but loving that hero is a curse because you have to endure watching your teammates play her, building blade mail blink and then sitting in the jungle attempting to get crits or some garbage. Earth Shaker is also a big favorite, ultimate stress relief hero to slam your life problems away in teamfights. Seriously should be considered as an alternative therapy.
Into The Breach:
What is next for Nomad, and where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Nomad:
5 years time is a long way away, I hope I’ll be travelling a lot and still doing esports casting, hosting or presenting but who knows what the history holds. Maybe the virus we’ll win and we’ll all be dead anyway… I’m not much of a forward thinker to be honest, I just chase as many opportunities as I can and see where I end up.
Into The Breach:
Cats or dogs?!
Nomad:
Well I have a cat but I’ve grown up with dogs, so I’d probably say 60% Dog 40% Cat.
Into The Breach:
That's certainly a solid answer! Much appreciated Nomad, this has been a fantastic experience for us and we're thrilled to hear more on who you are and what motivatesd you. Best of luck into the future and I'm sure we'll be listening in on another one of your casts very soon!
[INTERVIEW END]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Hello again Dota People,
This is the fourth in our FocusFire series, and kicks-off the focus on UK casters. We'll be running these in a more regimented way from now on - moving to the first Wednesday of every month.
Next month we have Darren 'KillerPigeon' Elmy.
Comments