JHow on becoming a caster: "It doesn't come without failure and a hell of a lot of work."

You may have noticed a new face on the Heroes North American casting desk at DreamHack Austin and the Burbank Regional. While Josh "JHow" Howard is new to the LAN Heroes experience, his gaming resume is quite lengthy. Hard work and resiliency have certainly paid off as he was just added to the list of commentators for the Summer Global Championship in Sweden. We chatted with JHow just days before his flight out about his progression and his thoughts on the current state of the Heroes esports scene.

You can listen to the full interview below as well.

I’m joined by JHow right now who actually just got announced today that you will be casting at the Summer Global Championship in Sweden so first of all congrats! How excited are you that you just got done doing the North American Regional and now it’s official that you’re going to Sweden?

Thank you! I mean it’s crazy I got back Monday, and I leave Friday. It took a while and then kind of last minute they’re like ‘do you wanna go?’ I’m like ‘heck yeah!’. It’s been a roller coaster emotionally. It’s a happiness that is rarely experienced. I mean the whole situation was surreal. It’s been an incredible week.

To casual Heroes esports fans, you’re a fairly new face to the global scene. What’s your experience with not only casting, but Heroes in general. And you used to make a lot of Diablo 3 content right?

Quite a bit of it. It was something that kind of happened by accident. I mean I’ve been playing Diablo (this is going to age me a bit) since Diablo was released.

The YouTube thing really prepared me to be creative and really carried forward a lot of confidence to speak publicly.

I’ve played Starcraft, I’ve played World of Warcraft, it just seems like I’ve always been around Blizzard titles, then Heroes of the Storm was just kind of lurking there. The YouTube thing really prepared me to be creative and really carried forward a lot of confidence to speak publicly. The first time I got into Heroes was when I first saw someone casting a tournament, I thought ‘this game looks like a lot of fun’. I’m a huge sports fan and I feel like when I watched it I feel in love with it. It was kind of a natural evolution from there.

Heroes Rising was the first Heroes LAN you went to. How did you get involved with that?

It was an interesting few months because I would reach out to people time and time again with limited response, if any. I wanted to cast, I was begging people, ‘please let me cast’. I really have to thank Royalite. She let me cast Nexxverse and they were like ‘hey you didn’t do too bad’. Then a couple things took off from there.

I wanted to cast, I was begging people, ‘please let me cast’.

Most importantly a former member of 2ARC that used to help manage iKohN, he got me in contact with a few people. Heroes Rising was doing their last qualifier, he messaged me he said ‘hey they’re doing this tournament and they have nobody casting it’. It’s like five in the afternoon, I just got home and I literally turned my computer on I was completely unprepared. I casted like two games and that's how i got in touch with Heroes Rising. So I owe a lot of early progress to those two individuals in particular.

That being your first LAN event, what was that like for you?

I’ll put it to you this way; the first night was an all-star showmatch and I’m sitting next to this guy named Zoia. I was super nervous in the sense that all I wanted to do was try to earn his respect because he has earned the respect of the entire community. My only thought was ‘don’t screw this up’. When you can get into a groove, for me it’s really quite enjoyable. For someone like me I had no idea I would love as much as I do. So when I was at the LAN experience it felt natural. It wasn’t something I had to consciously think about. It was an amazing first LAN experience.

Some people might not realize all the preparations casters have to go through to get ready for an event. You’re not just watching matches all day and cool deal. Go through the preps you have to do, not only with Regionals but now with Globals.

I’ve got to give a shout out to Dreadnaught and Gillyweed. Casters put in a lot more work studying the drafts and studying the teams. It's not just what they pick up, it’s when they pick it up and why they pick it up, we try to get into the minds of the players. Some casters have the opportunities to sit in on scrims just being able to understand more about the game. They obviously don't want to give up some of their secret stuff but they really let you in.

It's not just what they pick up, it’s when they pick it up and why they pick it up, we try to get into the minds of the players.

The community as a whole really contributes this natural and wonderful way it’s a give and take between the casters, the community, and the players. The amount of preparations I put in, which I thought I put a decent amount in, and then seeing what other people were putting in, really put things into perspective that I should really do more. The respect that I have with those individuals, they really set the bar high and I try to compete.

With a lot of teams disbanding and moving to other games or just quitting flat out, and community complaints about the game in general and production at LAN events, do you think this is the beginning of the end of Heroes esports? Especially with big asians teams disbanding? (EDG, TNL, MVP Black rumors)

It’s understandable that there is some concern. I don’t have any insider information, but what I can say from being around the climate at LANs, is that the best is yet to come. There’s a tremendous amount of people that are putting the time and effort in. Without showing up to the events it's hard to see that.

The amount of progress Blizzard has put into the game itself and the amount work put in, nobody ever says at a LAN ‘oh this is rough’.

I feel like towards the end of the year there’s going to be some amazing stuff happening to carry over to next year.

What region do you think has the potential to be able to knock out MVP Black at Summer Globals?

That’s a good question. In a certain sense I will talk team specific. Naventic struggled at Spring Worlds. The amount of progress I’ve seen just in their roster changes and the way that they’ve played, it’s quite amazing for a team that good to be able to improve as much as they should. So North America in that sense. Gale Force I wonder what will happen. This is a big big stage. They’re a good team but this is a big big stage. I think the fact that MVP Black dropped (4-0 v. Tempest) might give people a little more confidence to say ‘hey this could happen’. So Europe I wonder about. Maybe it’s me just being biased but I really like where Naventic is standing right now.

What advice do you have to people that want to break out into casting/analyzing/hosting?

From the public perspective it might have seemed like a quick jump. What people probably don’t know is I’ve been trying to cast since last summer.

It doesn't come without failure and a hell of a lot of work.

It involved a lot of very boring nights, sitting around casting replays by myself and listening to them time and time again. A lot of failure. The YouTube experience has helped me out confidence wise. There is a lot I have to improve upon and I fully recognize that. My advice is to stay with it, do not be afraid to seek out critiques from others. Even when things get hard continue to evaluate dont be afraid to try something different. There’s going to be people that have natural talent and those who don't, but that doesn't mean you can't develop to be better than what you are. It doesn't come without failure and a hell of a lot of work.

Final thoughts?

The amount feedback I get, whether good or bad has been amazing. I know from personal experience and watching other people doing it for a long time, I have a long way to go. In general I rely on a lot of people and they really just contributed a lot and it’s really been amazing.

You can see JHow casting the Summer Global Championship LIVE from DreamHack: Summer in Sweden beginnig June 13th on twitch.tv/blizzheroes.

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