Hinduman (L) and dmbrandon (R) © Helena Kristiansson

SWC is just a few months away now, and the world’s top Smite players are training hard for a shot at a stake in the seven figure prize pot. But it’s not just the eSports athletes looking to break through at the biggest event in Hi-Rez Studios’ calendar: it could be one lucky viewer’s big break too.

Smite’s So You Think You Can Cast web series is ongoing right now, and sees top presenters and shot callers Graham ‘Hinduman’ Hadfield and Brandon ‘dmbrandon’ Nance whittling down a pool of would-be casters from the fanbase to one lucky winner, who’ll make an appearance at the annual finals in front of the entire Smite community.

We’re four episodes in, with a few frontrunners starting to emerge, so to find out how the competition is going, we caught up with Hinduman and dmbrandon to ask them what it’s like being a caster and what they’re looking for in any potential new member of the Hi-Rez team.

How did the idea for So You Think You Can Cast come about? dmbrandon: I ran the format of having people come on my stream and do some live casts back in 2013. The community loved meeting the talent, so when it was time for us to start searching for new blood for the scene, this was the obvious go to.

Hinduman: The idea came about from dmbrandon and myself being asked to attempt to find more possible talent within the community. The original plan we had was to ask for people interested who think they had the ability and cast a few times with them to see if they had what we were looking for. As we were ironing out the details the idea of having viewers involved came up, which we both believed is an integral part of the job in general. As more people found out about our plans for this within Hi-Rez, departments were wanting to help out and make it into a bigger thing than the original plan of filming it from dmbrandon’s apartment.

What will the winner actually get? Sure, they’ll be a caster, but working for Hi-Rez it’ll presumably be much more, or have the potential to be. Hinduman: The winner will get a trip to the Smite World Championship where they will have an appearance in some form. Casting on the biggest stage of Smite as your first real chance may be a little daunting to try and expect someone to undertake. For now an appearance is guaranteed, but you never know between now and the world finals how far along they will come. We will be working with them closely once they win to prepare them for a bright future.

Tell us what it’s really like being an official Smite caster. Are there any misconceptions? dmbrandon: The number one misconception is that we have this huge budget and the inner-workings of Riot or Blizzard. Our budget is small compared to most other companies, and with that, we have much less to work with. When we hear things about how our quality is surpassing others in any form, it's a sick bit of validation. We have a skeleton crew of dedicated commentators, crew and producers to put on a season that few companies are able to beat, and even when they do, their budgets are insane. Hi-Rez takes absurd chances in giving all of us, crew and players alike.

Behind the scenes, it's rough. Most of us would agree it's somewhat really easy to be a commentator. For about three weeks. After three weeks, all your cool knowledge and unique viewpoints and catchy phrases are all spent, and the new car smell of your casts gets washed away when people stop listening to how you're saying things, and replace it with actually listening to your words. That is when things get rough. That's when preparation and tonnes of practice comes into play. But, no matter what game you're watching, the best casters will always be the ones who truly love the game. That's why our squad works, because we honestly love Smite. That's also why we choose to scour the community for talent instead of hiring someone who has already made a name for themselves. Passion drives the ability to learn!

You guys had over 150 entries for SYTYCC – who sifted through them all? What were you looking for in applicants? Hinduman: When the application process closed dmbrandon and I had been wading through them individually. We both had made shortlists of individuals we liked the applications of, or wanted more information from. We also went back through every post together to make sure we didn't miss anyone by mistake and the last minute applicants.

dmbrandon: Both Hindu and I sat down and went through them all twice. It sounds like a lot, but honestly, I had a great time doing it. Learning about others, seeing the passions, DQ'ing people for being awful humans. It was great!

Were the obvious candidates to shortlist those with Twitch followings already, or have some come completely out of nowhere? Hinduman: I would say over 70 percent were unknown to the community.

dmbrandon: We felt it massively important to include some community favourites, to ensure some level of viewership. Popularity is an unfortunate requirement for most commentators in eSports. We ensure that talent will win over voting in the end, but votes will get you far. This, I think, is where the Twitch following came into play for one of our front runners, Fats. He's a fairly prominent streamer, and his popularity skyrocketed him to the top of phase zero pretty quickly.

But we also wanted a diverse group of commentators for the show. Right now, we have a rather shocking amount of pasty men on our casts. I wanted to ensure a wealth of different styles, looks, genders, etcetera. I wanted the 12 contestants to be as different from one another as possible. The people at home should be able to remember a caster, even if they can't quite think of their name off the top of their head. "You know, the Australian guy." That was important.

We were lax for the application phase if you didn't have a lot of experience. Personality can shine through brilliantly on the page. Before the final 12 were picked, we had about 20 people send in final clips for judging. But, if you were a person we know has access to a decent set-up that includes a microphone and recording ability, and you didn't give us a cast, that was the quickest GG ever.

dmbrandon © Helena Kristiansson

What are the different types of casters you feel work for games like Smite, and what is the role of each? What makes someone ideally suited to a role? Hinduman: Casting roles in a game like Smite is generally defaulted to two. One being the action/play-by-play/ hype caster, the second being the analytical mind that can break down deeper knowledge of the game in terms of what just happened in the last 20 seconds, all the way through to "this item build will work on x, y and z".

Most casters though should be super strong in one role but have the ability to do both. A casting team that works best are the ones that bounce almost evenly and fluidly between both, so it sounds almost like two friends having a conversation about the action over a nice drink.

It’s too late for people to enter this time, but can people who missed the deadline get another opportunity down the line? How do you see the next Smite caster being recruited? dmbrandon: Well, this is technically the second time we're doing this, and so far the reception seems great from the viewers, so if things continue on to be as exciting as it has been, I would hope to see us do this every 12 to 18 months!

Hinduman: With how successful this has been so far and how much interest has been shown, I'm pretty certain we may look at doing something similar in the future. The guys in production were thinking about trying to make one work with them too!

Which contestants have impressed you most so far? How has their game knowledge been compared to your own? Hinduman: The two that have stood out for me the most are Goremiser and Zambash. Both have come out of thin air and are taking on some of the most known in the competition. The thing I like the most about them is the natural talent they both possess, and it shows by them both getting so far in the competition. Anyone who made the final 12 have all impressed me, even if their performance on the show was not up to the standard we were looking for.

Are you worried you’ll hire someone so good they’ll replace you? Hinduman: I'm never worried about being replaced. If someone more talented turns up they deserve my spot. It’s all about what’s best for the broadcast and the team as a whole. Finding my own replacement would be, I'm sure, an interesting experience! Maybe I already have!

dmbrandon: Luckily for me, I'm a second chair, and we generally have a group of first chairs, so it's Hinduman who needs to worry!