Drakos: “If you want someone to [be like Joe or Deman], you can help.”

Oh wow.
Right off the bat, the hard work questions.
So it's kind of changed over the years, right?
Cuz I started as a color caster and now I'm a play-by-play caster, and you--there's no
formula, I think.
A lot of people have very different strategies.
For me as a play-by-play, it's kind of learning how to streamline the prep, because it's just
not as valuable for me to understand the inner workings of any team's decision making to
the finest point, because I have people who do that on my team, and my goal now is to
set those people up in the best way possible.
So it's a lot of talking to your colleagues and figuring out what they're interested in,
what they're passionate about; studying the teams enough that you know kind of their players,
how they interact both in and outside of the game, like what they're proficient at, and
then who they are as people so you can really sell the story of, you know, maybe it's Wadid
on ROCCAT, who's a guy who's coming up, who turns out to be a giant memer.
And I think, it's part of maybe a failing on our part not to notice that sooner, not
to appreciate that really humorous aspect of his personality.
We're definitely seeing it now that the team is winning games, now that they took down
G2.
Yeah, so kind of building up on those narratives, setting your casters up for success, and guiding
the cast.
And I think for play-by-play casters too, it's also a lot about kind of improving on
the craft aspect of it, because you don't--as a play-by-play, you don't necessarily have
a ton of moments to shine, right?
Because you asking good questions is not nearly as good as someone providing a great answer,
is very often the case, or setting someone up to have a good answer.
Your moments are in team fights, are in win moments, are in telling the story of a team
so often, and there's not often that many moments for that, right?
There's maybe one or two team fights in a good game.
Well at least in EU.
In other regions, there are definitely a lot more team flights, maybe more opportunities
to shine.
And you get the one win moment, and if you bomb it, people remember it.
So it's really important to nail those.
So I think a lot of my preparation from color to play-by-play has shifted away from kind
of learning the stories of the team and more the inner workings of casting as a craft.
I think for me as a play-by-play, EU as a scene really makes sense.
I think that there's a lot of play-by-play casters who are very good at bringing the
hype, right?
And I don't think that was innately my strength when I started.
I think I'm getting much better at it.
I think my team fights are getting better, and my energy is getting better.
I'm learning that.
But as someone who was a color caster, EU made a lot of sense because a lot of what
we offer as a broadcast, I feel like, is analytical insight.
So when I came in as a play-by-play with marginal analytical insight, when I understood kind
of the aspects of color casting and what was a good point, I could really set other people
up to succeed.
And I think for Krepo and Deficio, these guys who are probably the hardest hitting analytical
casters out there, it was good for them to have someone who could set them up, and then
the rest of my talents could grow, right?
Because we would always have a good product because I could help Krepo and Deficio say
what they wanted to say, and then, in between casts, I have Quickshot behind the scenes,
who's a veteran, who's been where I've been, who was a color caster for a long period of
time and has switched to play-by-play, who's dealt with that kind of struggle swapping
between roles, really helped me grow and flesh out the rest of what I wanted to do.
And I think the beautiful thing about working for Riot is that when you join, if you're
willing to take the steps to reach out to other people, they're always willing to give
you the time.
So it wasn't just EU guys who were helping me out.
I reached out to PastryTime--who was at that time in Australia, now in NA--I've reached
out to Zirene, to Phreak, Azael, like, there's a lot of people who have helped me grow along
the way and who have offered me advice and kind of structure to my growth as a caster.
So EU was the place that made sense for me to start.
And now I feel like, through my growth, I feel pretty comfortable that I could fit in
anywhere.
But EU still, for me, definitely feels like home as far as casting goes.
Oh OK.
Well, one of the most common pieces of feedback I got from from co-casters, I think, when
I was growing into the scene, is just like, "So Tsepha, great.
Not phonetic at all, impossible to find or Google.
I don't know if you've considered another name..."
And half the people would be like, "Your last name's Drakos.
You're an idiot," or they would just point at my Twitter profile when they're talking
to me and like draw a little circle around my last name, like, "hey."
And it's literally your name.
You can take it, you can use it.
So for me, like, Tsepha was a name that I picked.
It came from a Warhammer 40,000 book that I really liked at the time, that I was reading
when I was a young teenager.
And I liked it because no one had it in any game.
And why would they?
It's a T and an S next to each other.
There's no way that anyone would naturally spell that.
Except for one guy who stole it from me in World of Warcraft when I told him about it.
Damn you, unnamed stranger.
I won't glass you in front of all these people.
But the issue with the name is that it's really hard to find.
And I think, as I go further in esports, I'd rather be closer to my real name and rather
be closer to that aspect because I feel like it's a brand I'm much more connected with,
one, and two, it's just easier to find and easier to market.
Daniel Drakos, as opposed to Tsepha, and to really iron out what that personality will
be and look like.
Because there's a lot of people who I think are really good at being like a character
on broadcast and on stream, and I'm really not.
I'm very much consistently the same person, I think, on and off broadcast, at least for
the most part.
And so for me, using my real name kind of helped iron out that decision and really finalized
the idea that I'm not going to try to pretend that I'm someone that I'm not.
I'm not going to play a different character.
I'm just gonna be me non-broadcast and be as genuine as possible.
Not to knock anyone who wants to play a different character, of course.
There's plenty of people who make compelling personalities on broadcasts that are completely
different off-air.
It's their choice and it's just a completely unique artistic thing to do, but it's not
for me.
I'm not that creative or that talented, to be a different person on-air.
I am just Daniel Drakos.
So Drakos was the name that made sense.
Oh my God.
I have never done any work on the LPL or anything with the Demacia Cup.
But it is now a meme among the people who know me well enough to know that I didn't.
And I think for the other, like, three or four people that still believe it, like, shout
out to you guys.
Never had anything to do with the Demacia Cup.
I appreciate that because I've had people message me about my LPL casting and how much
they like it, and I was like, "I appreciate the positive feedback, but that time period
was definitely Pira and not me," so I don't...
I think we're very different in how we cast.
I don't know.
So I'll take the praise if you want to give it to me.
It is definitely unearned though, because I have never done anything for the LPL.
Definitely done some stuff for the LMS though, so maybe you guys just mix it up a little
bit, and we'll pretend.
We'll pretend that it's all good.
Yeah, I think one thing that has been coming up a lot recently is giving feedback to casters,
in terms of social media.
Right?
And we have a really good feedback system internally, in terms of, like, we're pretty
aware of when we fuck up.
Whatever, you can leave it in.
I don't care.
We're pretty aware of when we screw up, we make mistakes, when we have a bad cast.
Right?
And we're good about telling each other that.
And the community sometimes can be good about that too.
Like, I've had a lot of people who have messaged me and been like, "Hey, that wasn't your best
cast."
That's actually what they say, though, which is super reasonable.
That's reasonable feedback.
"Hey, that wasn't your best cast," and then something else, like, "hey, really didn't
like the way you cast that team fight."
That's great feedback.
Like, to me, that's decent feedback, right, because it's a certain thing that I can look
at and say, "Hey, did I not do this that well."
But there's also plenty of feedback for me and for other casters that's just like, "I
hate that guy."
"I hate that guy."
Like, I can't do anything with it.
And the thing is, I want to be able to go out there and take feedback.
Right?
I want to be able to go out there and go into a Reddit thread that's like, "hey, I don't
like this caster," and people say, like, "Yeah, I really think that he talks too much" or
"I think that he shuts his color caster down.
Here's an example."
And I think that people--I can't tell if people have that level of feedback and they're just
like, "All right, well, I can explain it simpler by just going, 'He's shit,'" or if they're
just not willing to put in the time to give, you know, the higher effort feedback, which
is, you know, "This is bad and this is why I think it's bad," not really willing to have
that argument.
They just kind of want to talk trash.
And if you're going to talk trash, like, nothing's gonna happen, right?
Cause I can't go into a thread where you talk shit with no evidence and go, "OK, this is
how I'm gonna get better," right?
I can go, "I need to get better."
All right.
I always want to get better.
Like, I always need to get better.
Everybody does.
Everybody's shooting to be the best that they can.
And so when people just trash talk, there's like no value in it for me.
It's empty, right?
And the same is true with praise.
If you praise me, I also want context.
And I appreciate the praise, right?
Like, positivity is wonderful.
It gives me confidence.
It makes me feel more comfortable on the air, like, makes me feel more free to experiment
and to try new things, good or bad.
But I think that it is an interesting trend to see
the supreme desire to have great casters.
Like, people are always trying to go back to, like, Joe and Deman.
And Joe and Deman--wonderful casters, right?
I'm not going to tell you that I will ever be a Joe Miller.
Joe Miller at his peak was just probably the best play-by-play to ever have cast in esports,
ever.
Like, just fantastic caster.
And I'm not gonna tell you I'm going to get there.
But I will say that if you want someone to get there, you can help them, and it's by
taking the time to look at a cast and say, "This is why I didn't like it."
And it doesn't matter to me if you're educated on the craft or... it doesn't matter.
If you take the time, it's up to us--it's up to casters to evaluate what you're saying.
Right?
We can figure that out.
But if you take the time to say, "Hey, I didn't like this.
I think you were too excited," like, it's up to me to decide whether or not I was too
hype there or not hype enough.
Right?
But by bringing it up, you start a conversation and you take a step to helping people improve,
as opposed to just offering trash, you know.
It's just like, you can trash talk but it doesn't do anything.
It doesn't do anything if you don't provide context--other than get you fake internet
points, and I guess those are important too.
So if that's what you're after, go for it.
If you actually want to see casters improve, you know, maybe take a little extra time when
you write something on the Internet.

Drakos: “If you want someone to [be like Joe or Deman], you can help.”

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