First of all how did you guys each get in contact with GOMTV about casting?

ToD: I had already commentated a tournament for them earlier (iESF) so they had my contact information they just asked me if I would be interested in doing this again at this, so I asked for more details.

As it turned out, it seemed like fun so I thought why not give it a try again. Later on I had the idea of asking them to send Kevin to Korea to do it with me, we discussed the details for a while and they finally agreed and here we are. I used my connections to get him this job.

Haha just kidding, GOMTV always thought it would be nice to have 2 casters, but they have a tight budget. At first it was supposed to be Tasteless casting with me, but due to schedule issues he could not make it, that is when I thought of Kevin to replace him.

RotterdaM: As Yoan just said that's pretty much how it went. He informed me about the tournament and that he suggested doing it together with me to the organisers. I said that it sounds good since it was a while since I'd been to Asia and always had a great time being there, so I thought this would be a nice opportunity to go once more and of course get more casting experience.

If you guys had to rate your individual performances so far, your strengths and weaknesses, what would you say?

RotterdaM: Weaknesses would be that the first 2 shows I had the urge to sometimes talk to much and to fast, realised had to slow down a bit, that would probably be the main thing.

Besides that I’m still struggling with this giant microphone, I prefer the headsets they use at ESL so much more but its okay, I should get used to it soon. Strengths feels kind of weird to talk about, nothing specific. .Perhaps the overall level of quality considering the positive comments we get from most people. Thanks for that!

ToD: I guess my strengths would be first: my knowledge of the game. There is not much I do not know about this game, so in most situations I know exactly what is happening in the game, it makes it very simple to talk about. Also my experience with broadcasting since it is not my first time doing this, so I know how it goes and have an idea on what to expect every time.

Weaknesses would be the language; I’m not a native English speaker and have a strong French accent so it's not easy for everyone to understand me. I also learnt how to play Warcraft using the French version, so there are a lot of the names I’m not sure of in English because I never really paid any attention to them for example earlier I forgot the name for "cloak of shadow" in English.

Some people commented that they were surprised you did not know more about others races ToD. Do you think it is fair to say you are perhaps not that knowledgable about non-Human matchups, or are they simply mistaken?

ToD: when I was pro-gamer and played very actively, I mainly only focused on my own game and own match-ups. The only replays I would watch were those involving a Human, and only sometimes would I watch “humanless” matches. So I think it is partly true but at the same time I understand very well the mechanics of the game because I played at a high level before.

I’m usually shy to describe what happens in other match-ups because I would rather not say anything than say something that's wrong just to sound good. A lot of people watch these games for entertainment but some also for educational purposes as they hope watching these games will help them improve their own game play and I would feel very guilty to mislead them with poorly thought commentaries. That’s why most of the time I say "they might" or "he probably will". I know the standard strategies in each match-up but that's about it!

How have you reacted to the response you got so far from Warcraft3 fans? "Best casting duo ever" is just one comment thrown your way, while others say it would be better to have one native speaker?

RotterdaM: It is nice to hear that people enjoy it , that is one of the of the main reasons why I started commentating in the first place. If people would hate it I'd see no reason to sit there again at a next tournament whatsoever, and even though this would be the first time Yoan and me would be casting together I was quite sure it would work out for most people.

I was pretty sure that we would make it not only interesting because we both know a lot about the game but also fun, since we both like to joke around in Warcraft3 a lot, and I guess that is quite a solid base for a successful caster duo. Regarding the second part of the question, I do not think it is necessary to have a native-speaker, the only thing we can try to do is try to speak more clearly and slowly, hopefully everyone can understand us then.

ToD: Our English is not that bad, and we do make a lot of efforts for this cast, we are very open to advice or suggestions in order to improve it, once again if anyone wants to suggest something you can leave a comment on gomtv.net and we will read it.

As for our accents there is not much we can do about it, I hope most viewers look see past this, I think most of them are satisfied with our performance but if some of them are nott, I can promise you we will try harder so that you can understand us !

So what is your schedule, I mean there are only 2 days a week there are matches? What kind of other stuff do you do, you mentioned a shooting range?

ToD: Well we have the craziest life ... we wake up in afternoon usually, and try to figure out what to eat, play a few games here and then of DotA and Warcraft3 (mostly DotA for me and Warcraft3 for RotterdaM ), then we will maybe head out to eat sometimes.

We went to work out together a bit earlier but these days I kind of dropped it because I have a hard time sleeping and eating well so I’m always quite tired but Kevin goes everyday. I tried to take him to a lot of good food places that I know, and we also went to a theme park that's in the middle of the city earlier and had a blast, shot with real guns for the first time at a shooting range. We also paid a visit to the Casino shortly after Kevin reached Korea but that did not turn out too well.

We have to broadcast on Saturday evening so its not too convenient to go clubbing right after, but last Saturday a producer of Gomtv kindly drove us to the club of our choice after our broadcast ended at around 1:30am?

RotterdaM: Highlights , haha not to sound like a psycho but the shooting range was a real highlight for me. In the Netherlands its not that easy do that, even though I never did any research for it or so but as far as I know there are no places to walk in and be shooting a real magnum 5 minutes later. It was really awesome to feel the power and hear the sound in real life, quite different then in the movies or when you play Goldeneye on your N64!

Other than that, no special highlights but as Yoan said, we do quite a lot stuff. It is fun to eat some different food than I do at home, after falling in love with TGI a few years ago when I ate it at Coex mall, I think I got a new passion, Cold Stone. Not very Asian but we did eat quite some Korean food as well and lots of stuff which I rarely/never eat at home.

So a daily day for me mostly is; wake up, eat something, check the PC a bit, watch a few replays or play a few games on Kalimdor. Then I will see if people wrote me, email/message that I have to reply, if not I'll go to gym basically every day unless its closed. Then relax a bit, find a good place to eat and check what the plans are for the night, but most days have at least something new in it, so far so good, besides the visits to Casino that Yoan mentioned. Lost at the first day, so what do you do? Come back the 2nd day to lose even more, good job to myself At least for that week I was living on rice and instant noodles, money does not grow on trees over here!!

So work hard, play hard? ToD you've lived in Korea for a while, are you babysitting Rotti, or are you both being well taken care of by GomTV?

ToD: We work at Gomtv, they do not need to babysit us. As for RotterdaM it is sad to say but I think he's a big boy, he can take care of himself usually I do not have to help with anything except the very difficult stuff.

RotterdaM: I’m quite okay, as Yoan said I don't need any help with easy stuff or whatsoever, of course I don't take to many risk either. Love living on the safe side!! Difficulties well, when I’m alone and I try to explain a taxi driver where I have to go, I'd have to say those were the moments Yoan was with me. But that does not happen too often anyway, besides the nights I spent at the casino drinking rum cola and lost my money! And I definitely wouldn’t try taking metro alone here, sick amount of stations and nearly everything in Korean, even though there is some English but I do not know, prefer to not be alone in that case! Other than that I’m quite fine.

Last question, going back to the casting; Can you explain a little why you guys seem sometimes to suddenly get cut off or have to finish really quickly?

RotterdaM: Haha, yes we can. Since there is a Korean duo commentating as well on the same stream as us we're not the only one who the people behind the screens communicate with. So if we get a sign of 10 seconds and we end it but the Koreans are still talking for 15 seconds, they can't cut us off and we're just staring in the camera like 2 lost souls trying to find their way home.

However, it happened the other way around as well with the Koreans being done before us and we got cut off before we were totally finished, as for that, I do think they've found a good solution for it by now, so it should be less awkward from now on. Also the signs were a bit unclear before, 5 seconds could be 15, and 10 could be 3, but we're getting there, should improve from cast to cast.

Any final words?

ToD: Thanks to everyone who follows the tournament hope you’re enjoying it, remember we are open to advice or suggestions. Once again I’d like to thank GOmTV for making this possible and Norton antivirus the sponsor of the tournament. Stay tuned for more great games!

RotterdaM: < 3