On to the Razer NeXT Season 2 Finals: 5 Minutes with KaeLiu

Due to typhoon Ruby (international name: Hagupit) barreling through the eastern seaboard of the country last weekend, the finals match of the Razer NeXT Season 2 between Bacolod’s Insight.PH and Cebu’s Arcanys Gaming has been moved to this weekend. Today on eSports Inquirer, we sit down with international shoutcaster and this weekend’s commentator for the finals match, Charles “KaeLiu” Liu, to talk about Dota 2, broadcasting, the Filipino lifestyle and Sunday’s epic match.

Charles Liu is no stranger to sports and broadcasting.

Even as a young child, Liu has been a big fan of another, multimillion dollar spectator sport: Baseball. Growing up in Taiwan, Liu balanced his love for America’s greatest pastime with his other great love: Gaming. Since 2012, Liu has found a happy medium between the two. As a shoutcaster — a commentator for professional eSports matches, with Dota 2 in particular — Liu’s broadcasting alter-ego, KaeLiu, has been covering amateur, semi-pro and professional matches in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region for exactly two years now.

eSports Inquirer (EI): Hey there KaeLiu! I think a good way to start off our interview is to get to know you better: Who is KaeLiu and how did you get started in Dota 2 and shoutcasting?

KaeLiu: That’s a good question and I’m happy to be here! I actually started casting exactly two years ago now, in December of 2012. Back in the day, I was partnered up with another caster, a Vietnamese commentator named Madcat. Back then, there weren’t a lot of English casts for the SEA region scene. There were only a handful, like GoDz (David Parker) from Beyond the Summit but even then, there wasn’t a lot of focus on the amateur and semi-pro scene.

More than that, I felt like the region didn’t have an English caster who really lived in SEA. That’s not to discriminate or anything as I’m a big fan of GoDz. I just genuinely felt like the SEA region needed to have English casters who lived in SEA in order for the SEA scene to grow.

As for Dota 2, I got into the game earlier than that but I had to stop for about a year because of National Service in Taiwan. At only 6 months, it’s not as long as that of Singapore, but I took a break anyway.

EI: You mentioned that you began covering amateur tourneys with your co-caster at the time. What is the difference between tournaments two years ago compared to today?

KaeLiu: Well back then, tournaments were smaller and teams didn’t enjoy the same level of support as they do now. The large gaming brands and even more mainstream brands weren’t looking to support teams, especially in smaller scenes like Vietnam. Some of the teams back then were just supported by cybercafes. They didn’t have salary support or anything, just a space to practice and train inside the cybercafes plus a small allowance.

EI: It seems like you were comfortable getting into broadcasting for eSports right from the get-go. Is broadcasting and media part of your day job?

KaeLiu: I actually hate my day job (laughs)! I want to quit it really soon and focus either on the eSports industry or find my own tech start-up. I’m super into both eSports and tech and I feel like both industries are growing really quickly.

I have never been into broadcasting before I started casting, but I was big on Baseball while growing up. It has actually influenced a lot of the way I do my own casts.

EI: Can you elaborate on that? The image I get in my head when I think about Baseball and commentating are those from the movies: “Bottom of the night, here batter batter” and so on.

KaeLiu: (Laughs) Well, it’s more like the way they call the action. I’m usually the seat one or main caster, in charge of calling the plays as they develop. In Baseball, commentators call the action but before something happens, they really look into the details to see what went right and what went wrong. I try to look into the details.

I think both Baseball and Dota 2 are very complicated spectator sports so I try and focus on the details to give viewers better insight into the game. I usually call things like how many hits before a hero can secure a kill, or the tiny decisions that lead to a misplay.

EI: I’d like to touch on the subject of eSports as a spectator sport. With global revenues for eSports exploding in 2014, even mainstream companies like Pizza Hut and T-mobile, even Red Bull are looking to get a piece of the action. In your opinion: What does eSports, especially in our part of world, need in order to reach that next level?

KaeLiu: I think eSports suffers one particular problem: If you don’t play the game, you won’t necessarily get what’s going on. So to be a true spectator sport, you need to address that for your viewers.

When I was casting the Mineski Pro Gaming League (MPGL) SEA Grand Finals in the SkyDome, I thought that the venue and the atmosphere — the emphasis on making things more casual, light and entertaining in between games — was really great as far as organizing events go. Why not make things more entertaining, sort of like WWE.

EI: WWE? As in the World Wrestling Entertainment company? Like Wrestling?

KaeLiu: Yeah, but not in the sense that it’s all scripted; we are fighting for money and the competition is fierce. What I mean by that is the way WWE is packaged. Sports Entertainment focuses on making things as entertaining and intense. They do this either through storylines or by focusing on the individual player personalities or team personas. I think it’s important to really create a story around the professional scene; make things intense for that young male demographic that’s our main player base.

I think when most people watch professional matches of Dota 2, or any eSport, a lot of them are trying to project themselves onto the same stage that those players occupy. A lot of us will never be as good as the players playing in big tournaments — similar to traditional sports — so it’s important to make those players relatable to the viewers.

EI: I guess we need to get this out of the way: The Jeyo incident during MPGL when you started chanting “Jeyo! Jeyo! Jeyo!” while casting drew the ire of Twitch chat. What are your thoughts on this?

KaeLiu: Well, I’m not really a vulnerable person so I’m no stranger to the toxicity of Twitch. What I will say is that it was not my intention to seem biased or anything. What most people didn’t know was that the atmosphere inside SkyDome at the time was really charged so starting that kind of chant was something that was well-received inside the room. Of course, it’s not that I was favoring Rave or anything. That was never my intention.

EI: Switching over real quick to Dota 2 things: It was your first time in the country for MPGL. What are your thoughts on the Philippine Dota 2 scene? How different is it from two years ago?

KaeLiu: I have said this once during the group stages of MPGL: The Philippines is the heart of SEA Dota, and I mean that. A fun fact is that before I came to the Philippines, I had this thought that everyone was so rude and would call you names from across the street similar to Twitch chat or other places on the net. I had no idea what to expect when I got here. After I visited, I just really enjoyed my stay! I love the Filipino people and the Manila people were super accommodating to us, although I did hate the traffic. Everyone on the Mineski Events team took good care of us and the other foreign teams. Although the event had its rough edges, I’d say it was a 9/10 event, easily one of the best in SEA.

But more than that, coming to the Philippines is a dream come true for me. In Taiwan, when I go to a cybercafe, everyone is hunched over playing League of Legends. For a Dota 2 fan like myself, Philippines is like Mecca! Philippines is such a big Dota 2 country that I enjoyed myself immensely. People here even fight for Dota 2 on Facebook! I have never seen that before!

EI: When it comes to playstyle though, how different is the Philippine scene compared to the rest of SEA and the world, especially from a shoutcaster’s point of view?

KaeLiu: The playstyle is definitely crazy. Just as an example, nobody then thought that Arcanys was going to pull out Phoenix in a LAN finals. During the playoffs or the group stages, I’ve seen Miranas build Dagons to counter the Phantom Assassin. Because Phantom Assassin dodges physical damage, most other regions I feel would build Ghost Scepters to dodge her damage output but here in the Philippines, it seems like the best defense is offense; they built the Dagon to blow her up instead of trying to survive her.

You don’t see that kind of mentality in the western scene or in China. On the whole, I think the west is more conservative compared to SEA and China is even more conservative than that. My friends here in Taiwan who play Ranked matchmaking in SEA say that even in the upper MMR brackets like 5,000 and up, the games still tend to be crazy, with weird builds coming out everywhere!

I think that comes from the playstyle of the Filipinos mirroring their lifestyle and it’s beautiful. What I saw from my short stay here was that Filipinos love to live life to the fullest and enjoy every moment. It’s identical to their style of play. Everything is go big or go home. You really get the sense that both teams are just enjoying every moment of every match.

EI: We’re nearing the end of our interview so now is the best time to ask: What do you think is in store for us at the finals of Razer NeXT this weekend? Should we expect to see the same kind of aggressive playstyle and crazy builds coming out from Insight.PH and Arcanys Gaming?

KaeLiu: I definitely think we will see some surprising strategies. These two teams made their way into the finals after all so I’m sure they both have things hidden up their sleeves. I think it’s especially exciting because we don’t know Insight.PH as well as we know Arcanys Gaming so who knows what kind of strategy they have to upset Arcanys!

On one hand, you have Arcanys who has forged their own place and reputation in the country while on the other, you have Insight.PH who have nothing to lose. I definitely think Insight will go full-on crazy while Arcanys might play the role of the more conservative, methodical team. I think we’re in for some unconventional strategies for pro play!

You can catch KaeLiu in the Razer NeXT Season 2 Finals this weekend, Sunday starting at 4 p.m. Philippine Standard Time. Catch the epic action between Bacolod’s Insight.PH and Cebu’s Arcanys Gaming as they battle for the crown!

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