How has your 2013 been? — Vinkelslip1





2013 has been one of the best years of my life. It has gone so fast and I have learned more than I have yet to process, but compared to the last many years I finally find myself feeling at home. I quit a job in database construction and also a bachelor degree in English, and I dont regret it for a second. 2013 has been one of the best years of my life. It has gone so fast and I have learned more than I have yet to process, but compared to the last many years I finally find myself feeling at home. I quit a job in database construction and also a bachelor degree in English, and I dont regret it for a second.

When did you find your interest in Counter-Strike, and why? — Pro Patria





My interest in Counter-Strike goes back a long way to when I used to visit a LAN center in the center of Copenhagen called XPC. Its hard to explain but compared to the other multiplayer games there were at the time, Counter-Strike felt like a revolution, and that feeling has never really left. My interest in Counter-Strike goes back a long way to when I used to visit a LAN center in the center of Copenhagen called XPC. Its hard to explain but compared to the other multiplayer games there were at the time, Counter-Strike felt like a revolution, and that feeling has never really left.

How did you get into casting and in what game did you commentate your first match? When did you realize you had talent for it? — ZiMMeN, Mytmakarn, tungarn





I casted my first game on the 17th of January 2013 in Counter-Strike. Before then I had been watching a lot of games and kept on talking to my friends on mumble about the game, and they kept encouraging me to start casting myself instead of talking to them about it. I have already had an easy way with English but I never imagined using it for casting. I told myself I’d give it maybe 6 months before I gave up on it, and thought it would take at least 12 months before anything potentially came of it. After about 3 weeks NiP-gaming contacted me, and I think I knew by then that this is what I wanted to do. I casted my first game on the 17th of January 2013 in Counter-Strike. Before then I had been watching a lot of games and kept on talking to my friends on mumble about the game, and they kept encouraging me to start casting myself instead of talking to them about it. I have already had an easy way with English but I never imagined using it for casting. I told myself I’d give it maybe 6 months before I gave up on it, and thought it would take at least 12 months before anything potentially came of it. After about 3 weeks NiP-gaming contacted me, and I think I knew by then that this is what I wanted to do.

What motivates you to keep casting and how do you handle struggles like criticism or general hate towards you (if there is any)? — nyff





This is a really good question. For anyone who wants to get into E-sports its important to realise, there is always going to be people who hate. It is relatively easy to dismiss hatred on the internet, you tell yourself that those people are all stupid, they have no education or they are jealous or whatever. And this actually works just fine, but it opens up an even bigger problem that I think some people in casting overlook. Which is that not all critics are stupid or jealous, some have valid points that may be hard to swallow because it hurts your sense of pride or makes you sad in a different way, and finding a balance between listening to those people, while not letting the rest get you down, then that is a good start.



What I try to do is replace the word “you” in all feedback with “Your product”, because it creates some distance between me and the criticism. So instead of “you suck worse than my pet pigeon at casting” becomes “Your product sucks worse…” its just a tiny mental trick really, and it doesn’t always work. The motivation comes from all the other people who write me on facebook/twitter/hltv/reddit/twitch to tell me how they love what we do, how it got them into a game they never played before watching the channel, and from the new friends I’ve made in the past year like Semmler and many others. This is a really good question. For anyone who wants to get into E-sports its important to realise, there is always going to be people who hate. It is relatively easy to dismiss hatred on the internet, you tell yourself that those people are all stupid, they have no education or they are jealous or whatever. And this actually works just fine, but it opens up an even bigger problem that I think some people in casting overlook. Which is that not all critics are stupid or jealous, some have valid points that may be hard to swallow because it hurts your sense of pride or makes you sad in a different way, and finding a balance between listening to those people, while not letting the rest get you down, then that is a good start.What I try to do is replace the word “you” in all feedback with “Your product”, because it creates some distance between me and the criticism. So instead of “you suck worse than my pet pigeon at casting” becomes “Your product sucks worse…” its just a tiny mental trick really, and it doesn’t always work. The motivation comes from all the other people who write me on facebook/twitter/hltv/reddit/twitch to tell me how they love what we do, how it got them into a game they never played before watching the channel, and from the new friends I’ve made in the past year like Semmler and many others.

How does your family see your profession? — Pro Patria





My family is oddly cool with almost anything I do, they’ve already seen me go from Physics to Biology to English at university. I guess it did probably feel a little strange, but once I started getting invited to go around the world to do casting I think they realised this wasn’t just a hobby. My family is oddly cool with almost anything I do, they’ve already seen me go from Physics to Biology to English at university. I guess it did probably feel a little strange, but once I started getting invited to go around the world to do casting I think they realised this wasn’t just a hobby.

Who is your role model within casting, and who is the best analytical commentator, according to you? — ZiMMeN, FYR





I still think that when it comes to Play-By-Play casting Joe Miller has some very impressive pacing and controls the flow of the cast very well. I look for inspiration for casting in a lot of different places outside of E-sports though. Analysis in Counter-Strike is very difficult because there is so little time for it, so an analyst has to be concise but also clear on exactly what detail made the big difference. I think I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of the best already, Lurppis and cArn and Threat are very good. But ‘the best’ is a hard thing to define, Thorin’s style of colour casting is completely different from the 3 above mentioned, but casting with him is always great fun. Recently I’ve begun to appreciate more and more Vendetta, norwegian CS player, who actually has more knowledge of the whole history of our game, than pretty much anyone I’ve run into.. I still think that when it comes to Play-By-Play casting Joe Miller has some very impressive pacing and controls the flow of the cast very well. I look for inspiration for casting in a lot of different places outside of E-sports though. Analysis in Counter-Strike is very difficult because there is so little time for it, so an analyst has to be concise but also clear on exactly what detail made the big difference. I think I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of the best already, Lurppis and cArn and Threat are very good. But ‘the best’ is a hard thing to define, Thorin’s style of colour casting is completely different from the 3 above mentioned, but casting with him is always great fun. Recently I’ve begun to appreciate more and more Vendetta, norwegian CS player, who actually has more knowledge of the whole history of our game, than pretty much anyone I’ve run into..

What would your dream about the e-sports evolvement look like? — Pro Patria





This is a question that comes up almost every time I end up in a room with people from the E-sports world. It used to be that everyone was dreaming about the day when E-sports would end up on television, but what has become evident now, or at least what I think is happening, is that television companies are starting to understand that the current generation is less interested in television than they are in twitch.tv type streaming. When I chance to watch television nowadays, it really jumps out at me how scripted and dull it feels, I feel in no way involved and I have no power to contact or change anything, unlike in E-sports. In my dreams I see E-sports growing into a size so big that what we currently have will seem so unimaginably small and tiny, that it will be hard to really understand how it were in the early days. And these are still the early days. This is a question that comes up almost every time I end up in a room with people from the E-sports world. It used to be that everyone was dreaming about the day when E-sports would end up on television, but what has become evident now, or at least what I think is happening, is that television companies are starting to understand that the current generation is less interested in television than they are in twitch.tv type streaming. When I chance to watch television nowadays, it really jumps out at me how scripted and dull it feels, I feel in no way involved and I have no power to contact or change anything, unlike in E-sports. In my dreams I see E-sports growing into a size so big that what we currently have will seem so unimaginably small and tiny, that it will be hard to really understand how it were in the early days. And these are still the early days.

How do you prepare as a caster for a big event such as DreamHack Winter 2013? — afkihuvudet2





For a big event like Dreamhack or EMS, preparation is very different amongst casters I have noticed. Some write down page upon page of facts about teams and histories and suchlike, and I tried doing this for Dreamhack Summer 2013, but what I realised was that I never got to use any of it. Even a cool fact like say “f0rest will win 60% of all 1on2 situations” is really hard to fit into a cast with it sounding completely out of place. It probably can be done, but it requires a lot of skill. I have the advantage however of having cast almost all the games that happen throughout the year, which means I don’t in the same way need to read up on the matches or the progress of a team. What I do instead is pretty hard to explain I am realising... I look for sentences that would fit a certain situation, words that sound good, I look in movies, songs, books, poetry ect. I also watch demos and look for new stuff to bring up on different maps, a smoke I need to remember to talk about, a flashbang or a great pistol round tactic. It can be very time consuming and the payoff is not always immediately present. And worst of all? Listening to your own previous casts. For a big event like Dreamhack or EMS, preparation is very different amongst casters I have noticed. Some write down page upon page of facts about teams and histories and suchlike, and I tried doing this for Dreamhack Summer 2013, but what I realised was that I never got to use any of it. Even a cool fact like say “f0rest will win 60% of all 1on2 situations” is really hard to fit into a cast with it sounding completely out of place. It probably can be done, but it requires a lot of skill. I have the advantage however of having cast almost all the games that happen throughout the year, which means I don’t in the same way need to read up on the matches or the progress of a team. What I do instead is pretty hard to explain I am realising... I look for sentences that would fit a certain situation, words that sound good, I look in movies, songs, books, poetry ect. I also watch demos and look for new stuff to bring up on different maps, a smoke I need to remember to talk about, a flashbang or a great pistol round tactic. It can be very time consuming and the payoff is not always immediately present. And worst of all? Listening to your own previous casts.

What do you think about CS:GO as a game? Do you think it’s “finished” or do you think there are things Valve have to fix to make the game a true esports success? — Xtend+++++





I don’t think a competitive game can ever really be finished. I think games evolve as the players and the metagame does. People figure out new tactics and if they twist the game too much, maybe an update will come out. I have plenty of things that I personally would like to see changed, I think wallbanging should be a little more effective and more consistent. I’d like to see aimpunching for un-vested targets changed to only affect headshots. But these changes are big and its hard to calculate the ultimate effect. I think VALVe have a very good grasp on how to forge a strong E-sports title out of CS:GO, and as long as they keep an ear the community, this game will go very far. I don’t think a competitive game can ever really be finished. I think games evolve as the players and the metagame does. People figure out new tactics and if they twist the game too much, maybe an update will come out. I have plenty of things that I personally would like to see changed, I think wallbanging should be a little more effective and more consistent. I’d like to see aimpunching for un-vested targets changed to only affect headshots. But these changes are big and its hard to calculate the ultimate effect. I think VALVe have a very good grasp on how to forge a strong E-sports title out of CS:GO, and as long as they keep an ear the community, this game will go very far.

How much do you have to play yourself to feel like you’re up to date when it comes to the meta game and such? — FYR





I dont have nearly as much time as I would like to play games with friends or viewers, but hopefully that is something that will change eventually. Keeping up with the metagame is very difficult unless you are actively part of a professional team, the changes are subtle and hard for the normal player to spot. By watching as many matches as we end up doing on NiPTV we do get a really good idea of the overall trends though, Pistol+Armor buy for 2nd rounds for example, and we try to talk about that and explain it. In the future I definitely hope that we can bring a lot more insight into actual metagame changes on a deeper level. I dont have nearly as much time as I would like to play games with friends or viewers, but hopefully that is something that will change eventually. Keeping up with the metagame is very difficult unless you are actively part of a professional team, the changes are subtle and hard for the normal player to spot. By watching as many matches as we end up doing on NiPTV we do get a really good idea of the overall trends though, Pistol+Armor buy for 2nd rounds for example, and we try to talk about that and explain it. In the future I definitely hope that we can bring a lot more insight into actual metagame changes on a deeper level.

What would be your dream team? — afkihuvudet2





ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ raise your overdrive ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ! Seriously though. Making a Dreamteam is really difficult because the factors that go into what make a good team is nearly infinite right? Personality, skill, chemistry, role, playstyle, language and the list goes on and on. So let me put it like this, assuming communication was no issue I´d go for: Guardian JW KennyS Markeloff and KQLY - 5 AWPs are 5x as good. ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ raise your overdrive ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ! Seriously though. Making a Dreamteam is really difficult because the factors that go into what make a good team is nearly infinite right? Personality, skill, chemistry, role, playstyle, language and the list goes on and on. So let me put it like this, assuming communication was no issue I´d go for: Guardian JW KennyS Markeloff and KQLY - 5 AWPs are 5x as good.

How do you think Titan will develop seeing as they’re now moving in together in a gaming house? Will they become “the new NiP” and dominate everything? — dahlztar^:P





Titan are without a doubt going to be a huge factor in 2014 for any tournament that they show up for. Actually to answer one question directly for once, I dont think they will become a new NiP in the sense that NiP had a 87-0 LAN map streak, and I dont see that happening to any CS:GO team again, at least I hope not. But they could claim the throne for a good while, that is, if they avoid failure due to the pressure of all the expectations that people have for them now. If they dont pull an Astana. Titan are without a doubt going to be a huge factor in 2014 for any tournament that they show up for. Actually to answer one question directly for once, I dont think they will become a new NiP in the sense that NiP had a 87-0 LAN map streak, and I dont see that happening to any CS:GO team again, at least I hope not. But they could claim the throne for a good while, that is, if they avoid failure due to the pressure of all the expectations that people have for them now. If they dont pull an Astana.

What team do you think will be the best one in 2014? — afkihuvudet2





With these kind of questions there is always a temptation to give the most obvious answer and stay safe. But on the other hand, if I go for some crazy, maybe in retrospect I will look really clever and almost clairvoyant right? So to hell with it, Na´Vi will rise from the ashes and wreak more havoc than a Ukrainian riot. With these kind of questions there is always a temptation to give the most obvious answer and stay safe. But on the other hand, if I go for some crazy, maybe in retrospect I will look really clever and almost clairvoyant right? So to hell with it, Na´Vi will rise from the ashes and wreak more havoc than a Ukrainian riot.