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Don't be alarmed, "Russians never smile" - Ivan "pingeee" Nikiforov Don't be alarmed, "Russians never smile" - Ivan "pingeee" Nikiforov

"I used to consider myself a sort of freelance caster. I casted D2L, the CIS Carnage which I organised as well as a few others. However, a few months back I started thinking that I should probably keep on developing my casting skills and challenging myself a lot more, and thoughts about joining an organization crossed my mind quite often. This is why I'm really thankful to joinDOTA for providing me with this kind of opportunity to prove myself as an established commentator and hopefully it will be a wonderful new beginning that will benifit everyone, including of course you guys, the viewers. I'll try and do my best to not disappoint. "I used to consider myself a sort of freelance caster. I casted D2L, the CIS Carnage which I organised as well as a few others. However, a few months back I started thinking that I should probably keep on developing my casting skills and challenging myself a lot more, and thoughts about joining an organization crossed my mind quite often. This is why I'm really thankful to joinDOTA for providing me with this kind of opportunity to prove myself as an established commentator and hopefully it will be a wonderful new beginning that will benifit everyone, including of course you guys, the viewers. I'll try and do my best to not disappoint.

Ivan "pingeee" Nikiforov Ivan "pingeee" Nikiforov

Pingeee's first broadcast will be tonight for the joinDOTA Masters Pingeee's first broadcast will be tonight for the joinDOTA Masters

Pingeee will broadcast joinDOTA MLG Pro League in Russian Pingeee will broadcast joinDOTA MLG Pro League in Russian

joinDOTA Masters

Ivan "pingeee" Nikiforov the mastermind and organiser behind the CIS Carnage last year, has decided to make the next step into professional casting, leaving the comfort of freelancing to commit to one organisation, joinDOTA. However, the Russian commentator is adamant that the Russian-speaking viewers are no different to their English-speaking counterparts."I'd say good dota comes first most of the time, as viewers wouldn't mind criticizing CIS teams if they did something obviously silly and would totally root for some top level plays instead no matter where those came from," said pingeee. "Frankly, one shouldn't really try to personify the audience with all these generalizations, but I wouldn't say we have something too much different going on compared to the English streams, besides twitch chat having a different flavour of pasta."Pingeee will be casting from home in Sarov, a very curious place indeed. "It's a closed town that used to be a secret object where USSR researched nuclear warheads, and is still a centre of russian nuclear development. It's a nice small town in the woods. "Closed" means the whole city is surrounded by the perimeter and there's a few guarded block-post entry points to the town, and you have to bring your electronic ID card to get in!"So you'll be leading a double life, in the day time you'll be an IT consultant, and at night you'll be behind the mic? That's quite a unique lifestyle. "Exactly! I was working in Serbia a few years back when I started casting. So it was a day in the office and then get back home and stream some dotka.""Casting started as a hobby, so when it began to unfold there was all kind of excitement, as I was finding out how things were and how to organize stuff properly and figuring out points to improve. Since then I moved back to my nuclear hideout in the Russian forest and got myself some kind of a mini-studio going on, while working remotely on the IT stuff."Pingeee makes his big move in a dominant time for CIS teams, with many teams coming through the ranks, so what caused the huge shift at the end of 2014? "I'd say the post-TI reshuffle this year was very awkward for the scene, as some teams are still changing their rosters quite actively and things are just starting to calm down a little as people get to practice together with new rosters. CIS scene on the other hand had its rosters more or less stable around autumn and some of those teams trained pretty hard, grinding those scrims and officials. I'm looking forward for the days to come and can only hope joinDOTA and myself can produce some nice stuff everyone will be excited about."Pingeee's casting style which he brings to the table is unique, even from his own point of view. "My casting style is a bit weird for the russian viewer, as I'm objectively a lot less emotional compared to the rest of the russian scene. However, I try and focus on the single match that is happening, to tell its story and do my best to elaborate on map movement and decisions taken by teams. Although I'm far from being a professional player and obviously don't know all the quirks, I do my best to understand the underlying ideas behind drafts and tactics. Sometimes it even works."For our Russian speaking readers, you can catch pingeee's first Russian broadcast for joinDOTA later today as theofficially gets underway at 17:00 CET.If you want to keep up with our newest addition you can follow Pingeee on twitter @pingeeecast or via VK (Russian Facebook)