​ Keith “Seaside” LaFortune is a rising talent in the expanding pool of CS:GO casters. He won the latest Community Casting Challenge for the Esports Championship Series Season 3 and casted at Northern Arena Toronto and the Subaru Invitational. Seaside does events ranging from big LANs to online events and has a popular stream [ https://www.twitch.tv/seasideswing ] where he casts live matches. In this, his first-ever media interview, he talks about solo-casting and how he improves his skills.





DBLTAP: What is the best part of your stream and how has it grown?





Seaside: "I’ll play CS:GO once in a blue moon, but since I’m terrible no one wants to watch me play. I would rather cast or stream matches. I started casting because I wanted to show the talent in NA from Intermediate to Main. There is a lot of underdeveloped raw talent in those divisions. They don’t get as much credit or as many views as Premier, which now has the Mountain Dew League, so I wanted to show it off. I partnered with Rival, got my subscriber button, and from there it has snowballed into this casting hub where I’ve casted the ECS and DreamHack qualifiers. Basically, I do any open IP match, so whenever I’m live, nine times out of ten, I’m casting, whether it be solo or with my buddies Conner “Scrawny” Girvan, Ryan “Flakes” Oliver, or even Cory “MegaMan” Gilbert, who will occasionally jump on. It has become me just trying to show as much Counter-Strike as possible."

Thanks for everyone who tuned in, hit a record-breaking 6.5 viewers on my channel, huge thanks to @MegamanTV For casting with me! :) — Keith L (@SeasideCS) April 29, 2017

DBLTAP: You frequently cast the lower levels of professional Counter-Strike. What’s your opinion of those divisions?





Seaside: "I feel like that level [IM to Main] doesn’t get a lot of light shined on it. When I first started casting, I wanted to show off the Intermediate and Main divisions. I believed that if they had a spotlight, they might be able to grow a little quicker and give some exposure to players who otherwise wouldn’t have it."





DBLTAP: How do you improve your casting?





Seaside: I like to self-reflect on my VODs, I try to reach out as much as I can to my peers who might have more experience than me. I’ve talked to Gohan “Launders” Govindasamy a few times after meeting him in Toronto, about different ways I can improve my casting. I have done work with Alexandre “Vansilli” Nguyen who has been around since the radio cast days. When you are casting, you are telling a story and during the story, you might notice that you are saying a word repeatedly, or too many times in a short period. People pick up on that. Your harshest critic is going to be yourself so I try to self-reflect as much as I can but it’s always nice to reach out to outside sources, such as my viewers, who give you more honest feedback. Casting constantly has also helped a lot.





DBLTAP: What was the ECS Community Casting Challenge like?





Seaside: It was awesome. It was a month straight of really good NA teams that are prominent staples in the scene or upcoming talent. I knew it would be difficult, and that every time I would go live, odds are someone from FACEIT would be watching. I did as many NA games as I could, and on weekends, I did EU matches as well. I just casted nonstop and got lucky enough to do some duos. The producer for FACEIT was the one doing all the scouting, watching the casters, taking notes for James [Bardolph] as well as Dan [“ddk” Kapadia]. The one day FACEIT hosted me, it happened to be Scrawny and I doing a duo. They really enjoyed the two of us, our individual skill along with the experience we had together so we ended up winning the whole thing. I remember waking up to a Twitter message from him saying “Dude, we did it, we won, I can’t believe it.”

Also huge thank you to @ecsleague for this opportunity, can't wait to meet the team. :) — Keith L (@SeasideCS) April 12, 2017

DBLTAP: Have you been working with other ECS casters?





Seaside: Right now it’s just been Scrawny. I haven’t had the luck to work with anyone else such as James and Dan. I did get a chance to work with Flakes, another guy who competed from the EU. I did a duo with him during the Community Casting Challenge and I enjoyed working with him. Right now, we are working at Efrag casting the Adria Masters.





DBLTAP: How do you feel about solo casting?





Seaside: Solo casting is an art that requires the ability to not get flat, while still able to stay flamboyant. Although it is not prevalent when it comes to LAN events, it works perfectly for online environments. What makes a good solo caster is the same thing that makes a good streamer. You need to be flexible and have good pacing.





DBLTAP: How can a new talent like yourself land casting gigs?





Seaside: All the qualifiers and other stuff I do are open IPs. Most of the time with online Counter-Strike you don’t get to pick your partner, but I’ve been fortunate enough to be matched up with some extremely talented people.





DBLTAP: What is your most memorable cast?





Seaside: My favorite was at Northern Arena Toronto with Vansili. We got to work together on a match between Echo Fox and compLexity, the underdogs who had just brought in Cory “APE” Bates to be their new in-game leader. We predicted it to be a clean sweep because Echo Fox would have the firepower necessary to knock compLexity out, but instead, it went to a third game in an exciting series. It was super memorable, not only because the CS was sound, but I just remember the players getting excited. There was a crowd forming and the fans were yelling at each other. That was a big moment for me, not only to work with someone as great as Vansilli but to have such a good Bo3 in front of us. That’s what makes a good cast. The cast can only be as good as the match itself.