Deman, an Interview with Leigh Smith professional league of legends caster!

Deman: It feels great as you’d expect tipped with a little weight of expectation, but honestly it’s the accumulation of many years work and dedication to eSports on the back of holding a full time job.  I’ve worked very hard for this moment so I certainly plan to make sure I enjoy every minute of it.

Deman: Well it isn’t easy that’s for sure and requires a lot more work than most are willing to put in.  Sure it sounds great, making a living from eSports, but honestly you could make and would make more from a standard 9-5 job.  eSports isn’t a place to make money unless you are at the very pinnacle of it, it’s a something you do for the love of it.

Deman: Well I haven’t taken a holiday in nearly 3 years now, every spare day has been used for eSports be it the small 100 man events of EpicLan or the giant EU Regionals with hundreds of thousands of people watching.  So it can certainly wear you down but it’s always worth it when you get to cover such awesome matches.

Deman: Honestly I’d rather it did not go mainstream TV as them guys always want to change the way things are done to suit them not eSports.  The way the broadband and internet streaming has grown with the new generation of gamers understanding how it all works it is perfectly possible for it to grow much bigger worldwide the way it is.

Deman: In all the years I have covered eSports I have never met a company that’s been so dedicated to making something work.  They just get it, they understand how it works, they employed eSports people like Matt Marcou from the very early days to make it happen and it’s set the path for other companies to follow, which many have started to do.

 

This in turn helped grow the 1000+ team in the first Go4LoL into a very successful Season 1 finals at Dreamhack that opened everyone in eSports eyes to the gigantic streaming numbers never before seen in the western world.  Then with RIOT announcing Season 2 teams suddenly became full time professionals with the goal being LA in October.  I just hope everyone involved enjoys the moment despite the fact their will be only one winner.

Deman: In the very early days it was listening and watching Warwitch that got me interested in eSports and the love of the tournaments I was competing in.  I had no clue how it would develop but people seemed to enjoy listening to me so I took it from there.

 

I tend to look towards sports commentators like Murray Walker and Martin Brundle from Formula 1, Martin Tyler from football and Joe Rogan from UFC.  They are very good at what they do and if you’ve watched them you’ll probably notice a few too many lines I use in my commentary :)

 

I’ve also been really lucky in having had people like Joe Miller, Stuart Saw and Paul Challoner as friends in eSports as working alongside them has undoubtedly improved me as a commentator as well as doing interviews and hosting events.

Deman: Yes my casting partner will be Jatt, which is excellent as I feel we work very well as a combination with him.  We’ve been working with things the last week on areas we can improve based off Kings of Europe and our MLG work recently in Raleigh so I’m really looking forward to it.

Deman: Honestly it’s so hard to call as we won’t know the potential quarter finals, but at a guess I’d have to put Moscow5, CLG.eu and Azubu Frost.  However this could just as easily be anyone else with the groups being 1 game and some surprises will always happen.

 

Deman: After casting on both continents I felt the EU scene was slightly stronger right now in the form of CLG.EU and Moscow5.  However as SK Games proved, anything can happen on the day and the group stage could throw up some crazy games and disprove everyone.  However outside of TSM I feel some of the European teams just have better lane phases and team fights.  I guess we will soon see!

Deman: I’d like to thank everyone that has got behind me in anyway shape or form over the last year and supported my efforts in getting to events and casting at them.  Many events have put their faith in me this year and I’m delighted to have had the opportunities to cover so many major tournaments.