I had the chance to talk to Challenger League caster Lynxx about his start in esports, casting, and his thoughts on the upcoming Stage 3 of NACL.
You can follow Lynxx on socials here:
First question I like to ask people when it comes to esports casting especially is how did you get involved with casting? And how’d you get involved with esports overall?
So I’ll start with how I got involved in esports because in terms of how I got involved professionally, the two pretty much coincide. In terms of how I got involved in the field, it was just a general interest. I’d watched a very small amount of professional Counter Strike, like maybe a major once every two years.
But I really enjoyed playing the game Siege. One night after I got home my senior year of high school, I was just scrolling through my YouTube recommended and a game of Rainbow Six Pro League, I think it was season nine, was recommended. So it was like, “Oh, I love this game. I’ve been playing it since launch.” I knew it had an esports scene but I never watched it. So I started watching it. And I’d say at that point, I was pretty much hooked. Now this was before Milan, I think it was like January 2019. So that’s how I got involved in esports is just a casual fan, fairly simple story.
How I got involved professionally is a little bit more complicated. In senior year of high school, I did speech and debate for two years. And in 2020, our state tournament got canceled because of COVID. And so I was just sitting at home, I was like, “ah, I don’t really have a lot to do.” I felt this kind of hole in my heart from not being able to continue and reach the culmination of what was at that point, kind of the main thing I enjoyed in high school.
For probably about six months I just mulled about in my head like “Man, I like speech and debate. I like public speaking. These people like Interro, Kix, Stoax, a lot of people that I’ve watched at that point, they seemed to be able to find their niche in casting and I feel like I’m good enough at public speaking. Maybe I can make this work.” So that’s how I started professionally in esports. It was: COVID hit. Didn’t have a lot of extracurriculars to do. But I decided since I had so much time at home, this was the time to finally start just seeing if I could make it work. And eventually it got me this far.
That’s crazy hearing you talk about the CS videos, because I think that’s how I first got my first taste of esports to was random CSGO like theScore esports videos like “How Fallen Made It”
Oh, same. I’d actually say it was a combination of watching CSGO majors- I never played CSGO I just saw it as a fun game to watch. But also those theScore videos like “Who is Fallen”, “Who Is S1mple”. Those are very easily digestible videos that did a good job relaying the storyline. So those did help keep me interested in just like esports as a whole outside of Siege. So those were also very good. I did watch a lot of those.
When it comes to casting, with the game of Siege being as complex as it is, what’s your hierarchy of needs for prioritizing information to give to the viewer? Without overloading them or talking too fast? How do you balance that out?
It’s a very interesting question, because maybe people who are more experienced could go in depth. But in the moment, it’s almost just a matter of instinct. I’m not really consciously thinking I need to prioritize this over that. I think it just comes naturally in the moment. But with hindsight and just being able to look at it from an outside perspective right now, not actively casting. I would say it starts with learning what a team’s objective is. Are they a type of team who likes to get the bomb down? Are they the type of team that ends the round by killing all five of their opponents? Usually starting from there, that’ll do a lot of the heavy lifting for what you should prioritize in a round.
Usually seeing how the team is maneuvering to get the opening pick is going to be important no matter what end they’re going for. Whether they’re wanting to get the bomb down or wanting to kill off by people getting that early bit of advantage is absolutely critical. But at that point, that’s when the prioritization starts coming, because you might see somebody, say on Oregon, going down and lurking in the basement and an attacker goes down to meet them. That could be one of the only bits of action happening in the round, but in the grand scheme of things, it might not be the most important. Say the attacker goes down and kills that defender, it’s a 5v3 on site. That’s very important. Depending on the time, whether it be 30-15 seconds, they could still end up losing the round.
So I would say when you’re looking as to what you prioritize in a round, it depends on after they get that first pick, is it something that if it were to succeed, the attack would dramatically increase their chances? Or is it something that might look cool to the viewer but it’s really not that impactful for the round? And same for the defense? Is it someone just kind of sitting on site, who’s holding a necessary angle that is worth mentioning but isn’t worth 30 seconds of focus? Or is it someone in a position, whether it be on site or off site, that has a good shot of boosting the defense’s chances of winning the round?
That’s actually very insightful. So you focus on the moments and the players in momentum or swing positions, which is contextual to the round?
Yes. It’s absolutely contextual, because if somebody gets a 3k, that’s obviously huge. But the more consistent strategy, at least that I found for me personally, is identifying where those key points, those swing kind of positions, where if a gunfight goes a certain way, could dictate the entire course of the round. That’s how I found a more consistent method of prioritization as opposed to going “Where do I think the next big play is going to happen”
Yeah. That’s really insightful. Because I find a lot of the time you get to see how people think and visualize how the game plays out. What they prioritize as the more important aspects of the game overall. If you ask a coach, how do you build a team? Or how do you think about using operators. Just a little bit of insight outlines a whole heck of a lot more about how they think about the game.
More on the casting part, what kind of play styles do you like or not like casting as much? Is it all just the same? Like “just show me a good game” kind of deal for you?
I would say, generally, it’s more “show me a good game,” there isn’t one specific play style. But one thing I will say is kind of following a similar philosophy in my previous answer. That type of play style that I find the most inconsistent with an enjoyable cast is when a lot of it is just coming down to people swinging and the odd gunfight going a certain way. And sometimes that can make for a close game, coming down to one gunfight or a clutch that can make it exciting.
But I’m talking about the kind of game in which, when the gunfights happen it seems more by happenstance than by skill. Not to say that no effort went into it. Not to say that there might not have been some solid droning, or there might not have been some solid coordination between teams. But if it’s just a messy, chaotic game, it can make for a good storyline in that this was a battle of attrition. That it was incredibly difficult for both teams.
It can sometimes not be the most enjoyable the cast when it just looks like…if you’ve ever seen Game of Thrones, there’s a there’s a fight that happens in Season 4 between the Hound and Brienne of Tarth, where they’re fighting with swords, their swords get knocked out and then it’s just a brutal fist fight. Cheap shots everywhere. And again, it makes for a good story. But it’s more just a brutal mess than a true show of skill. If you get what I mean. Those are the kinds of games where again, I can still make it interesting to the viewer and it can certainly still be interesting to the viewer. But for me, just sometimes becomes a slog to cast
Talking about Challenger League specifically, what are your thoughts on this upcoming Challenger League stage? We lost a lot of good talent to NAL teams this stage, so there’s a lot of fresh blood and a lot of new teams. A lot of old teams that were underperforming that either disbanded or made major changes to change that. We’re going into a really exciting season. What are you kind of expecting out of this?
In terms or what I’m expecting? As you said, there is a lot of new blood coming in. Even though, like you said, we did have a lot of teams disband. And we did have a lot of people go to the NAL, that can be and should be one of the most exciting times for CL because players like Xeno, players like Ferda, even though he technically did come back a little recently. He took a little bit of a hiatus. Players like Xeno, or Ferda, or even Gasher are making it to Pro League. You know, these are players who have been in CL for quite a long time. So going into a season like this, it’s twofold:
One, we get to see whether the so called “CL alumni” succeed in the NAL, but then see who are going to be the people who ended up filling the gaps in those teams, and also filling the niches that those veteran and journeyman CL players left behind. So I would say that’s what I’m looking forward to the most in terms of stories. Like alright, we’ve seen record graduation levels amongst Challenger League to Pro League. Who are going to be the players who now fill those niches?
But I would say also, in terms of actual teams, we’ve had a couple of very close stages of Challenger League. I don’t know exactly if this is going to be a close one like the previous ones. But what I can say is that we’re seeing teams like RealityTV come to the forefront. A lot of us in Stage One did not expect to be in the position that they are. Going with the players who left to Pro League, a lot of teams are losing their star players. It seems like with this stage and of CL there are a lot of factors that are coming to a head in which it seems like a really good time for RealityTV to make their mark and get and cement their position at the top.
A lot of these teams are losing some of their best players or losing what have been their best players, and maybe not exactly having the time to make the new pickups work the best. So what I would say is it could be a close season, but this could be the stage in which because of these NAL pickups we’re gonna see the teams at the top right now only widen their lead.
I think for RealityTV specifically, they only made two changes and Gity for Trist is just a straight upgrade in firepower. And then like Woos was less of a voluntary change from the roster’s perspective. But I think Tristan is another solid pickup as well for the team. Considering you have Gaveni and Packer as your firepower. That’s a really strong roster. Given how much work Mr.B did with what were essentially scraps in Stage Two, I can’t see like this, a two player replacement, not end well. what do you think?
Oh, I’m with you. 100% on that. I mean, Gaveni, when he got picked up I wasn’t really familiar with him just because of being in college and casting CL. I haven’t been able to keep as in touch with the amateur scene as I once did. So I didn’t know who Gaveni was when he got picked up. But he certainly surprised me. He did an incredibly good job there. Bring it in Gity, who as much as you can in CL is bringing a kind of more veteran presence that will really complement Mr.B, who I also want to highlight.
Let me say this, when Mr.B was in the amateur scene, he wasn’t a bad player but he was kind of memed on in a similar vein to how Gasher was. They had been around for a bit. They were one of the main IGLs in the Tier 3/Tier 2 space, but he did a lot of wonky stuff that got a lot of attention. It made people be like, “Mr.B, that dude who put the shield in oil pit? Oh, what a weird guy.” But he has really created a team, like you said, and it started out as this question mark going into CL. But now he has made something really impressive out of it by not only taking Tier 3 talent, once they turn 18 and are able to play in CL, but making them have a really good niche and showcase their own skill. But even bringing in Tristan just now is like you said, continuing to try and bring in people on the cutting edge of the amateur scene while bringing in Gity, who was a more veteran player in CL. It just looks like a recipe for success. I really don’t think unless something has gone on behind the scenes that is monumentally bad, I don’t see how their momentum is going to stop in Stage 3. I really don’t.
Outside of RealityTV, who do you think the heavy hitters to close out Stage 3 are going to be? Who do you think’s going to be just absolutely kicking ass and taking names for Stage 3?
Alright, heavy hitters. I would say 1Shot is probably going to continue to being successful. They’ve been challenged a lot more than I would have expected by RealityTV but I still think you can put a lot of stock in them being a contender for top three. I don’t think they will really, really face a lot of missteps while at least that I can predict right now.
There’s so much veteran talent you kind of feel that there’s very little that you can do to take them out of the top 4 right?
Yeah, and plus every iteration of that roster has just been very successful once they changed from LennyGG to 1Shot. Every time that roster, even its been one or two changes, that roster has never really disappointed majorly so they’ll they’ll probably still be quite solid. I don’t know if this is going to be a heavy hitter, but I am quite intrigued to see how Luminosity does with the loss of Azian and Ferda. I don’t think Azian made quite as big a splash as everyone thought, but that’s because people thought he’d be undisputedly the best player in the league and he was just a really good player. But Ferda especially did quite a lot of work on LG and while Splash and Ryce coming in to replace them can still be quite good. That team, [Luminosity] I suppose it’s not a team I’m going to think is a heavy hitter but I want to see how that team is going to work out after losing Azian and Ferda.
I guess I’m kind of changing your question, I’m saying teams that people should keep their eye on. I would say this third category is- I’m gonna cheat a little bit and I’m actually gonna give two teams for this final spot. I would say the other two teams that I’m at least interested in are Aqualix and Public Enemies.
Aqualix because bringing in P3NGU1N and Hat. I don’t know how P3NGU1N and Beastly are going to mesh in terms of leadership. But Aqualix now has Hat, Saikosys, and Apher to play with. So even if the leadership might have conflicts or maybe the style isn’t 100% cohesive, they have three extremely mechanically skilled players that have their own system they built. Probably residual from Gasher being there. They’re probably going to thrive in the middle of the pack at a minimum no matter what. I’d be surprised if they were in the bottom, though I suppose there are only like, there are much less teams than there were before. So maybe it’s a lot easier to be in the bottom now.
And the other team, I would say to keep your eye on is Public Enemies [RentFree in Stage 2], because they’ve lost Dexter. But Public Enemies, Renfree, whatever you want to call them, now that now that they’ve lost Dexter it seems like a lot worse of a loss than I think it actually is because they’re picking up Creators. While he had a rough time on Parabellum, didn’t have the same success, I still think he’s probably going to be similar to how Chala was when he first got dropped a couple years ago. Got dropped off SSG, went to Pogchamp and was slaughtering everyone in CL.
I have a feeling Creators might be a similar story, having an OK season on Parabellum, having an offseason and coming back in Stage 3, I think he’s probably going to put up a similar statline, being on entry and have a lot more success in Challenger League. Also bringing in Poison, I think will give a really good support inside of Tier 2. Previously they had Butterzz, no offense to Butterzz, but he can be a little bit inconsistent. And I think having a very solid support alongside Filthy will do good for them to allow Creators, Twiizt and Max1ly to thrive on the entry.
So to summarize: obviously RealityTV. I think they’re a team to look at and see if they can cement their lead. 1Shot I think will be their main challenger in CL Stage 3. And the two teams that I think will just be interesting to watch whether they perform good or bad will be Aqualix and Public Enemies. Aqualix because picking up Hat and P3NGU1N gives them another solid leadership figure, but more importantly, adds a third gun to their already strong arsenal. Renfree [Public Enemies] will bring a Tier 1 player who I think can perform extremely well in Tier 2, and Poison who is already a fairly solid support in Tier 2. Which is something I think that team will heavily benefit from.
Do you think Poison as IGL will have a lot more value to Public Enemies or do you think that it’s negligible at this level of the game?
I certainly think it in the meta as a whole, it isn’t as important. But I also think in CL a rock solid IGL has never had importance in the meta, even if it was something that pro play desired. CL is just far more chaotic than Tier 1 is. People are still learning the game, people are sometimes even just making it in accidentally and just playing to play, not even scrimming. It’s the kind of thing where if you have a really good leader, it can mitigate it. But in a really good, rock solid IGL not only doesn’t make the difference that it once did, but it also usually doesn’t make the difference in Tier 2 as it would in say the NAL or in Pro League.
However, what I will say, Poison is just still a solid support, a reliable support in Challenger League. So having him to hold things down, even if he’s not directing everything like the puppeteer throughout the round. He’s still just a support you can rely on and that will free up that concern of Creators, Twiizt, or Max1ly on the entry to let them do their thing when they have Poison. He might not be the number one support to go to Pro League, but in CL he certainly proved himself to be solid at this point. And both him and Filthy have proved that they can hold their own Challenger League. And even if they don’t have the biggest physical impact from their own skill, they will certainly be able to free up a lot of attention for their three entries to make their jobs a lot easier. And that still is a very good job for support to do. Just freeing up space in their entries mind.
Okay, so on the flip side of the question of what strong teams do you have good expectations for. Are there any weak or underwhelming teams that you’re not necessarily out on, but not very excited for?
Yeah, I would say there’s really only- it makes me sad to say. There’s really only one team I’m truly not excited to see and that’s and that’s Ex-Elyssar. Listen, no disrespect to Phish.
They’re all good players.
Oh yeah, they’re all good players, and I it makes me sad because I want all of that core to succeed. I love Whimpy. I’m so sad he did not get another Pro League spot in Stage Two. I think he got 100% robbed especially after the performance he had.
His subbing in [on Parabellum] was actually pretty good from what I recall.
Yeah, he was one of the best parts of pB in Stage 1. At least on the scoreboard and in game. And Vivid and Inryo, they’ve been able to come so close to success as part of this core, even before when you had Gity on the roster, that I want them to succeed. But picking up Phish. Phish has always been a player who, maybe it’s not accurate anymore, but a year and a half ago he just always seemed like a kind of player who just played the way he wanted to play and didn’t really conform to a system. Now sometimes, more often than not, the system is just kind of pug stacking and just trying to go for kills and that totally vibes with Phish’s playstyle.
But I have never really seen a team that Phish has been on and I’d be like “Oh yeah, Phish is making this team better.” I don’t think he’s actively detrimental to the team, but whenever I see teams pick up Phish I never think “Oh this roster is going to last three stages” or “Oh this roster is going to be able to build success.”
He’s never the piece that takes them to the next level. He’s a good piece, but he’s never unlocking the last bit of potential?
Listen, I guarantee you probably in Stage 3, he’ll show up. He’ll get his kills. But he won’t do much more than that. And from what I’ve seen he’s never really done much more than that. And as for the other new pickup Seezy, I think he’ll be solid. Like it’s Seezy. He’s very mechanically skilled but when I look at this roster I get kind of worried that we’re starting to lose focus and we’re just kind of grasping for anything we can. That might be a bit of a negative reading of it. I might be being a little too harsh.
But after the very poor Stage 2 they had, I just don’t really see them trading out one of the you know best Sledges in Challenger League. I guess I’ll sum it up this way. Ex-Elyssar had a bad Stage 2. I don’t think Phish is really going to help a lot with the issues that they had. I also am still just worried that if they’re going in with the same kind of structure that they’ve had it’s just not going to work out. That’s not the most satisfying answer.
They’re not addressing the problems they had in Stage 2 and these new players aren’t the solutions to what was already broken?
One of their key issues was that they were starting to relapse into old, old Investigation File or Oblation. When they were taking extremely long on their attacks to get to an execute and part of that is losing Kento. Part of that might be trying to still mesh Whimpy and Yungalec into the system, having to deal with two new pickups. So it could be a lot of things. And Phish and Seezy, I do probably think will give them a lot of aggression and just cause chaos in the round that they might need.
But I’m worried it almost might be going too far, in that they might not have the same problem of being very slow on their attack, assuming they’re changing kind of the overall system. But I’m worried it’ll just be more haphazard and not as directed. That is how I’ve looked at Phish and Seezy, but more so Phish over the years. I think Seezy can be directed. I think the Phish is probably just going to do what Phish has done for the past two years, which is okay, just go just go for kills wherever he wants, whether it’s maybe the best idea or not.
Is there any new blood coming into Challenger League that you’re particularly excited for? Not necessarily players who have been in and out of the league but someone who’s very fresh to this level of competition that you’re either excited for or heard good things about?
There’s really only two players, Briyohs going to Unemployment [The Favelas] and Tristan going to RealityTV. I want to see how Tristan is going to do. We’ve already talked about him earlier. But Mr.B picking up Gaveni was extremely good for the team and Gaveni impressed quite a lot. If Tristan is of the same vein, I’m only expecting good things from him. I’m more intrigued to see how Briyohs does.
Unemployment has been toiling around with various rosters for two years now and they have never really achieved any lasting success. But I have heard extremely good things about Briyohs. At least from just seeing a few things on Twitter and I’ve heard things behind the scenes. Though I did see a couple other people say Briyohs might be a little overrated by some. Assuming that the good things are correct, if Briyohs ends up being on the same level as a Gaveni then Unemployment might have a much better shot.
Tra also had a solid showing on Aqualix last stage. I think these are two good pickups for the roster. But for Briyohs, coming in from T3 and joining Unemployment. I don’t think the problems have been new talent. I think the problems have been how that team is run at a fundamental level. They’ve had Wittloc, who at one point was believed to be one of the best players in T3. Probably behind Gunnar and a few others, but he was on that Arial Arise roster that won CCS. They had Xeno, who now is in Pro League. They had Panbazou, who is now in Pro League. They had Razorr who was in Pro League. And they’ve had plenty of other extremely good mechanically skilled players come on this roster. Hat being one of them, Seezy being one of them last stage. So many either really good T3 players or very mechanically skilled T2 players have been on this roster. And for two years now this roster has really not achieved much of anything.
It’s hard to read that roster even with Briyohs and Tra may be being some exciting pickups for them. Briyohs especially. It’s hard to read that roster as anything other than another likely disappointment. Because so many other really exciting players have joined that roster and it’s still floundered. And I will need to see a mountain of evidence in Stage 3 before I’m convinced that these two new pickups will be different. That is to say, it’s not the pickup’s fault. I think it’s just how that team is run.
To close out the Challenger league specific discussion. What do you think of the announcement of relegations being put on pause potentially removed? We don’t have full details, outside of they’re just not happening this year. What is the end goal for teams now that relegation is gone? For players there’s always getting picked up into the NAL, but for teams as a unit, what is the end goal?
Obviously relegations being put on pause, at least for the time being, seems like on the surface its going to be bad. And as you said, for players, I mean, we just had, I think now a third of all NAL players just started playing the NAL this year. You have all been pickups from Challenger League or transplants from Tier 3 to Tier 2.
All of them have had insane explosive growth like you look at Gunnar, Panbazou, even Njr when he first got in. All these players have been like big performers when they get called up.
In the past two years T2/T3 has had way more players thrive and flourish than flounder [in the NAL]. Indisputably and by a wide margin. But for teams as a unit, I think on the surface relegations not being there seems worrying. But keep this in mind: while there isn’t as direct an opportunity to make it as it did with relegations, I mean, we saw Parabellum. They were a unit they made it in. We had a team like Mirage, who has been making 2 roster changes repeatedly. And if the rumors are to be believed, they’re making five potential roster moves in the offseason, just trying to figure out what the hell they’re doing and not getting anything settled until the end.
A team is not just an advertisement of your overall skill, it still shows how you all collectively put together a system and then implemented it. That is still something that you can bring to a team as an individual player. But if your concern is really, “We have this team, I really like it. I’m worried that our best chance is together and not separate.” Teams could still certainly take note of that. And even if they’re hampered by two roster moves, who’s to say that they pick up 2 of your players in Stage 1, then pick up another two in Stage 2, and basically just recreate the team?
And I also don’t know how I can remember how it works in the end of Stage 3 of one season and the beginning of Stage 1 for another. I mean, I would assume it’s possible for an org to pick up a new roster anyway. So you might still be waiting for the end of the year. Anyway, I might be wrong or that again, I’ve never been the best at remembering all the offseason and transfer window rules.
But again, even if that might require cost benefit analysis from an org. Usually, in most circumstances, we’re slotting in one player. That is what makes the difference. Think back to when SSG went to Invite in 2020. If you only view it in a very narrow scope, yes, slotting in Canadian was the one change they needed to make to make [winning] Invite 2020 happen. But it was still a long project to make work.
They needed to get Rampy from Noble a year prior to get a lot of aggression and to take some of the stress off of Bosco’s mind. They picked up Fultz from Challenger League. Each one of those players on that SI2020 roster were picked up one at a time over the course of a year or two. Rampy from noble and Pro League, Fultz from Organized Chaos in Challenger League, Canadian later on from Evil Geniuses and then ThinkingNade as well. 3/5s of that SI winning roster was meticulously crafted over the course of a year.
Do you have anything you want to say to the readers/viewers?
I don’t have much else other than follow me on Twitter at CastingLynxx and watch Challenger League on twitch.tv/R6esportsNA. Nothing else that I even need to say except those two things. All right, well, and I guess follow R6esportsNA on Twitter but the first two were more important.