In the downtime before the new season of contenders and the aftermath of the blizzcon qualifiers I caught up with casting duo Jaws and LEGDAY to interview them in depth about their experiences over the last 8 months or so. Thanks to both Jaws and LEGDAY for providing insights and answers to this interview
Be sure to check them both out on their socials. Quick mention in particular for their individual twitch streams where they both do analysis of tier 2 and below games, offering a really good insight into the mind of a professional caster. If you spend long enough in either of their streams you will probably find me in there.
Twitters: @JawsCasts + @LegdayGaming
Twitch: @JawsCasts + @LegdayGaming
Insta: @JawsCasts + @LegdayCasts
Question 1: For introductions could you both provide a little insight into what drew you to overwatch and to casting the game in particular?
Jaws: I have always been an FPS player at heart, starting very early on with Halo 1 and 2.
Moving on to things such as CoD4 Halo 3 and Battlefield 2142. Once I got my own PC I downloaded stream and fell in love with TF2 and WoW. So as you could tell Overwatch was quite an easy transition for me.
I competed a little in TF2 as a Scout player which lead me to loving Tracer early on in Overwatch! However I didn't start casting FPS originally.
When I was in University slowly getting more and more bored of programming games I ran a couple of small Hearthstone tournaments when the game first came out, I decided I would sit with a friend to talk over it. Thus leading me to find it very fun and moving onto casting other games such as LoL. When Overwatch came out I tried very quickly to cast the game as the fast paced nature really appealed to my FPS background and now I am here haha.
LEGDAY: Overwatch drew me in with it's less rigid adherence to the playstyle of FPS games, allowing me to start playing when my aim was literal hot garbage and instead focus on a tanking role which I well understood from my time sunk into MMOs in the preceding years. I'd always been interested in broadcasting when it came to gaming, I was a reasonably popular streamer on my former MMO and loved sharing both my thought process and less structured stream of consciousness with people for entertainment and education. Also, but it's a big secret, I was too trash to be pro and still wanted to be a part of Overwatch esports because I loved watching it as well as discussing it.
Question 2: What have been some of your guys favourite memories from your time casting in EU contenders and at world cup qualifiers?
Jaws: One of my favourite moments casting was the Incheon stop of the OWWC. I have always been in love with Korea and getting the chance to cast alongside friends and people I have looked up to since I started casting (Achilios and Wolf) was just incredible.
Casting Korea vs Russia has been the highlight of my casting in Overwatch so far, not only have I wanted to cast a Korean team since APEX but I got to cast some players on the Russian team that I know well from EU Contenders. Also watching Harry ATTEMPT to use chopsticks was hilarious, I am still not sure he knows how to operate a knife and fork to be honest.
LEGDAY: Favourite moments both involve Bastion, so I don't know if you will notice a motif here, the first was British Hurricane in Season 1 vs. Gigantti on Dorado. British Hurricane's attack rollout had them boost a Bastion out of the upper spawn window on a Mei wall to rain down sweet hellfire upon an unsuspecting LHCloudy, content he was safe upon his rooftop. The subversion of expectation here and the clean results really clinched it.
Second was once a British Hurricane match, but with the tables turned against them in a Season 2 match against Orgless and Hungry. The series had be drawn up to a 2-2 scoreline and the tiebreaker - Ilios - was going the distance. Orgless and Hungry moving into Well brought out a Bastion protection composition, which not only flummoxed British Hurricane, but added additional confusion when Caspere used his Tank Config. ultimate to rocket jump and scale the side of the windmill overlooking the point, creating a near-unassailable sky-turret to shoot down the errant aircraft that was Spitfire's academy team.
Question 3: Having tried casting myself I understand a lot of preparation goes unnoticed behind the scenes, how do you both like to prepare for a cast?
Jaws: Everyone carries out preparation in different ways. Mostly I talk to players prior to a week of matches to gain as much insight as possible into how they think the match will go, their feelings on the other team/players that might scare them. This can build up a strong narrative through the season that is easy to maintain.
Other than talking to players, coaches can normally give a good overview on how their team has prep and what they think their overall teams strengths are for the current meta etc. I personally find talking to players is the best way of gaining quite specific thoughts on the match ups with other players. You can normally grasp how well a team is going to be by how they talk about their opposition.
Talking to a some players a day after their games as well I find very useful, especially if it was a lose, as you can have a conversation on why they think they didn't do well (if they are okay with ofc). Outside that, I play the game a ton on and off season, I recently got my second account to GM which I am thrilled about. You learn a ton about the game sometimes matching into Contenders players and other high rated T2 players. While soloq isn't always the best for learning about the small things, I try and fill in for scrims with 4k+ teams to the play the game that's slightly closer to what you might see normally, especially when it comes to how comps player out when you are filling X role.
LEGDAY: Casting, as you said, requires studious preparation if you don't want to be leaving yourself out to dry, and looking like an uninformed fool on air. Usually the main port of call for myself as a primary source of information would be talking to players, or as I prefer, coaches. Getting a sense of team mentality and maybe a few playstyle tidbits helps you remain informed and able to discuss on-air as to how X team is playing with or against the grain of their usual methodology.
Secondary source comes in before a show when myself and other casters are in a studio/green room setting. We'll have an informal round table to collate our findings into a more complete picture of a matchup so that we know when discussing these issues/points on a broadcast that there won't be a colleague caught off guard in a manner that would scupper conversation.
Question 4: Overwatch is quite a hectic game. Are there any tips you would give to a caster/viewer for trying to keep up with the action?
Jaws: To any casters out there, I would say: Remember that is pretty much impossible to catch every small thing that happens in a team fight. So don't worry about missing a thing here or there. Making sure you hit on the bigger fight defining plays is important and if you find you are missing those go VOD review and write those things down so you can look or listen out for it next time. Speaking of listening, sound cues are a lifesaver while playing and casting, so just get used to hearing them.
LEGDAY: Overwatch can be hard to watch, but usually you're well covered by the observers we have. Just pay attention to what the observers are centring on the screen, the casters will be talking about that as well. If you have a wide free-cam shot with a lot of things going on, I'd generally advise to watch the main tanks (Rein, Winston, Wrecking Ball, Orisa) as they often dictate team fight engagements.
Question 5: So everyone should know by now you casted 2 seasons of EU contenders alongside Tridd and Dezachu. If you were to advertise the tier 2 scene which matches would you point too as “peak EU overwatch”
Jaws: Peak EU Overwatch has to have been finals of Season 1 (Gigantti vs Hurricane), semi finals (Angry Titans vs Winstrike, Gigantti vs Eagle) and finals of Season 2 (Eagle vs Angry Titans). Those matches might seem obvious but they were honestly some of the best Overwatch we have seen in EU Contenders.
LEGDAY: The Season 1 LAN finals show off a huge amount of excitement, in my opinion the matches to watch are both from that event in Poland: British Hurricane vs. CIS Hope Semifinals and the Grand Final British Hurricane vs. Gigantti.
Article written by (GCB) Siarnaq, twitter is @GCB_Siarnaq.
For any emails about articles or podcasts check, josh.anthonysharp@outlook.com
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