Esports is built on talent, and far more than just the players on stage. This is something each of the onscreen casters for the League of Legends 
European Championship (LEC) know full well, and at the recent Spring finals, The Esports Observer spoke to five members of the core cast team to get their reflections on the league’s recent rebrand, and overall thoughts on the industry they’ve built their names around.
Trevor “Quickshot” Henry
Having casted multiple games across a variety of continents, this South African wears two hats in the LEC; commentator and on-air talent manager. Asked about what changed with the start of the season, he noted that—as esports’ media rights assets are still growing—the industry as a whole continues to lean on partnerships, sponsorships, and branding.
“To be frank it’s brought us more work! And that’s a good thing,” said Henry. “The team in Berlin and our business development squad that has brought partners has done so in the most exciting way possible for me as a shoutcaster. Everybody is brought to the table as an equal part. We decide on direction for content on tone, branding, and imagery that fits both brands simultaneously.”
Whereas the career-length of an esports player is quite short, a caster can continue on through multiple generations of a game. As Henry explains, this offers unique leverage in how a caster can develop their role in the game, and how to drive awareness, visibility, and narrative towards the teams and players.
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“The biggest thing is we’re a sports product as well as an entertainment product. You need to do both if you want to succeed in this sphere. Go look at any of our social media, our broadcasts, the stuff that survives and resonates is more often than not, not the stats segments that are cut and dry, it is the personality-driven ones, the narrative and hype content.”
Andrew “Vedius” Day
Originally joining the Riot Games EU team in Summer 2016, Day said that the LEC relaunch gave him and his colleagues a chance to make bold decisions, and not mimic sports broadcasts quite to the same degree.
“I pride myself on having a very close relationship with what a fan perceives our league to be, because I am a big fan,” he said. “We approach the publishing and broadcasting team and are like ‘this sounds a little crazy, but the fans will really like it.’
One of the more ambitious productions has been the “Mediocre Rap Battles.” Day states the original shower thought was a diss track, before his lyrical opponent suggested building the concept around upcoming team clashes. “With the original, he wrote all the lyrics, because I had no understanding of rap,” said Vedius. “With the second one, I started listening to a lot more rap, and I was able to contribute a lot more.”
Asked about what he’s optimistic about in esports as a whole, the Welsh talent said he’s most excited to see the limit for the industry. “We’re returning to some of what many fans to be the glory days, specifically with League of Legends […] We’re approaching those peak glory days where a lot of new fans are coming in, and there’s a lot of enjoyment around the league.”
Daniel “Drakos” Drakos
“I think we were in a very good position coming into the rebrand as a broadcast team, that we had most of our workflow really ironed out,” began Drakos, a U.S. play-by-play caster who originally joined EU in 2017. “Casters have a lot more opportunities to create content for the broadcast, for marketing the league, or for a business partner like KIA or Footlocker. The core broadcast hasn’t actually changed that much, outside of the external aesthetics, but in terms of all of the additional responsibilities and opportunities that onscreen talent has, it’s grown immensely.”
As mentioned previously, Drakos was largely responsible for writing and overseeing the “Mediocre Rap Battle” segments, owing to a love of hip-hop and rap. “I always erred away from anything comedic when it comes to music and hip-hop,” he said. “That said, my good colleague and friend Andrew “Vedius” Day is a big fan of Epic Rap Battles of History, something you may have noticed we drew inspiration from…(laughs).”
“We’re much more willing to support that brand building and recognize the value of being, I mean I hate the word influencer, but to be an influencer yourself right?…You end up in this nice relationship where the broadcast is building you, and you in turn are building the broadcast.”
Drakos also carries the sentiment that esports content (outside of the major broadcasts) is still young and underdeveloped. “Still to this day, 90% of what is successful and what continues to be made is Skype talk shows. And it’s great, don’t get me wrong, but if that’s the baseline the ceiling has to be somewhere, and I don’t think we’ve found it yet.”
Indiana “Froskurinn” Black
Black has a unique perspective on the LEC launch, having only joined the broadcasting team this year after a tenure with the English cast in China’s League of Legends Pro League (LPL). “Frankly, the LPL broadcast, especially as a secondary language broadcast, you’re not a high priority and you don’t get a lot of resources,” she said. “I made all the graphics, we edited all the videos, we planned all of the content…I think EU is quite similar in that it’s the next step up. It’s all hands on deck, very collaborative workspace where you get a lot of personality-driven products.”
With the departure of Martin “Deficio” Lynge (who left shoutcasting to become GM of Origen), Black also got to establish a co-host spot with Drakos for the league’s podcast, EUphoria. “I was always really engaged in the podcast format, but because Drakos and I have known each for so long, it was easy to be like ‘OK, this is probably a great substitution because we can leverage Drakos and Frosk’s past and chemistry to make this podcast have a good flavor going forward.”
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On the subject of industry growth, she identifies League of Legends as being different to third-party run esports like Dota 2 or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , as it takes care of the mediocre. “The reality is that only 0.5% of our ecosystem get to go these big international events,” she said. “But you need to create an ecosystem that creates the 99%. That’s what you have with the league structures, content creators, journalists, management, and marketing.”
“The more LEC starts pumping in standardized sponsors, the more safety and the bigger the net gets for the medium or the 99% of everyone. Then it expands and creates more job opportunities.”
Christy “Ender” Frierson
A young, up-and-coming personality within League of Legends, Frierson has taken several roles within Riot, including referee and playtester. Though this is just his second year on the EU broadcast, he still feels there has been a marked change in tone with the show. “This year leaned a lot into making more humorous content, especially during Ready Check,” he said. “Even our wardrobe changed a bit, before it was suits and ties, all business the whole way through. Now we’re leaning a little more casual, more streetwear.”
When Frierson was waiting for his visa to clear, he developed his own show segment—an interview series named “Between 2 Iverns”—to get on the broadcast, and to subtly roast the League personality sitting opposite him. “I think content like that existed, but it was more you’d push it on YouTube as it’s own thing, rather then actually being on the broadcast.”
One of these installments featured a team owner getting in on the joke; with Frierson mocking G2 Esports’ Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez over his past defeats, “bought” titles, and scarf collection. According to Frierson, Rodriguez wanted to come into the interview blind. “It ended up being really fun, because the second he gets there he says ‘this is exactly the content I want to be making with G2 Esports. We want to be an edgier team, we want to go a little harder on the banter.’ It was a perfect fit.”
What Should the Esports Industry be Cautious of?
As some of the most well-known, non-player professionals in esports, we also asked each of the commentators to give their take on what the stakeholders, the decision makers in esports, should be wary of going forward. Here is each of their responses:
Christy “Ender” Frierson: “I know it’s only going to keep growing in terms of viewers and players, or the amount of games that come out, and what’s going to be the next big thing. For me, just seeing how far the limits can be pushed in terms of investors, and how they can make the system more self-sustainable and just better over all.”
Indiana “Froskurinn” Black: “Following the traditional sports models is a good blueprint to start, but ultimately we need to recognize our audience is smarter than that. They have their own culture, lingo, and vocabulary, and we need to respect that at some point, and when we need to make our divergence away from the traditional sports model and make it better and safer.”
Daniel “Drakos” Drakos: “The thing that ultimately scares me, honestly, is the demand for professionals in esports is huge, but there’s a really small amount of people that are qualified to do it. There’s a lot of people out there that have misrepresented their skills, and there’s a lot of people out there eagre to grow, and I worry about a future if there’s not enough opportunities.”
Andrew “Vedius” Day: “With more sponsorship and with more money being involved, sometimes I always have that concern in the back of my mind that things become a little too corporate, and it’s just about money rather than giving fans the best experience possible. I think Riot’s very good at taking the fans considerations, and I really do hope it stays that way.”
Trevor “Quickshot” Henry: “I’m 32 this year, I’ve been watching the better part of 16 years. I’ve seen more tournaments, games, and events live and die than most people watch in a lifetime. A lot of time there are differing reasons, but there have been leagues that have believed that they would be successful and brought in sponsors with promises they couldn’t deliver on […] I think some caution and trepidation is what I would advise absolutely everybody.”
