Talking

HOW ON EARTH DID WE GET HERE?We’ve come an awful long way since those early days of bedroomradio broadcasting, but many of the skills and talents required tosucceed remain the same. That said, with the advent of modernstreaming services and cameras everywhere, you’re going to needmore than just a touch of natural talent to succeed.I first started shoutcasting in 2002, and purely by accident, but I wasextremely lucky as I could make a ton of mistakes and get away withit. Back when I started, we were thrilled to get a couple of hundredpeople tuning in, and don’t forget - it was on internet radio, with nocameras pointed at me.Over the next couple of years, I poured all of my spare time (whennot competing in esports) in to delivering coverage of various onlinecups, mostly for ClanBase and ESL.In early 2005, I joined Inside the Game (iTG) thanks to Marcus“djWHEAT” Graham recruiting me as part of their drive to increasetheir European casting talent.I continued with audio casting when Ijoined iTG, but quickly got into videocasting at the ESWC Finals andQuakeCon, which was a totally differentexperience from providingaudio commentary for online matches.Firstly, there were cameras, and I had no idea how to react on cameraor even where to look. I realised I needed help and enrolled in alocal college course for a couple of evenings a week in order to helpme understand the importance of voice projection, where to look6