Combining casting and playing.

Foto: Jonathan Reider Lundkvist

This weekend I was playing in top 8 of University Star League. I managed to beat Xylla 2-0 but in the semi I fell 1-3 to Mekar, from Team Property, who later won the tournament. We had some really close games so I’m not super disappointed even if I obviously wanted to win.



The day before I was casting e-sport-SM (Swedish championship qualifier) from the DreamHack studio in Stockholm. Casting is of course something that takes up time and sometimes, depending on the timing, even focus from a tournament. But casting also has a positive effect on me as a player. When I’m practicing I’m often watching replays and streams to get inspiration for my own play. While casting I’m watching the game super carefully and not only from a zergs perspective. That makes me realize details I’m usually not seeing while watching replays at home. It can be the way players are scouting, or to see small indications of what builds players are going for or ideas for new builds. It can actually be really helpful.

The past months I’ve been casting almost every weekend (in Swedish). A week ago I was casting on Swedish TV during DreamHack and will continue to do so most likely. This is a big opportunity to spread the word of esports to people who doesn’t follow it or doesn’t play at all. I love it and I hope more countries takes after :).

I love casting zerg players. That is the easy part since I play a lot and have a good understanding. When it comes to the other races it’s a bit more tricky. Since I got so many casting jobs I decided it’s not enough to just watch other match-ups and study strategies. It was time to put some time and effort into playing another race. I gave both Terran and Protoss some games and realized that it was easier for me to learn Protoss (Power of Protoss). And so I started to play. My PvZ was super gosu but I was terrible at PvP. I also realized that this was also helping my ZvP as I got a better understanding of Protoss. I reached Diamond but didn’t get to master as Protoss yet XD. Sometimes when I lose as zerg I get a bit frustrated and then it’s pretty nice to switch to Protoss and play a bit more casual and abuse the race. So playing another race ended up being a great idea!

Ayway, after UniSL I felt very motivated to play. I have plenty of ideas and I already have a few tournaments planned for the coming months. Hopefully I will also play in the iesf female world championship later this year :). I’ll keep you updated on facebook and twitter!

~Keep smiling~
MaddeLisk