Team Dignitas Interview OGN Caster DoA

I had a chance to sit down and talk with Erik 'DoA' Lonnquist, the OGN caster alongside MonteCristo. Originating from the Starcraft scene, he has travelled a long journey to reach where he is now. Starting out on GSL, he has been part of the team for It’s Gosu Esports, IGN ProLeague and now Ongamenet, which he has been with for over a year now. We talked about his partnerships, his time in Korea and his thoughts on the Korean scene.

 

Firstly, I'd like to ask you what it's been like as an OGN caster and what do you feel are the advantages of being an OGN caster compared to casters in other regions?

DoA: Being an OGN caster is great! The company has a pretty prestigious history with Esports and it's an honor to get to be part of that. I think casting in Korea does have certain advantages. I believe we've got the best players and the best productions in the world, but there are definitely some trade-offs too in that you have to be willing to sort of leave your old life behind and accept not getting to see your family and friends a bit less often. To me it's been worth it, but there are plenty of other people that wouldn't want that.

 

Players that watch the OGN games have dubbed you the funnier or the comedic caster whereas, MonteCristo is the one that has a deeper knowledge of the game explaining certain plays or decisions. What is your approach to casting on the casters desk?

DoA: I think you pretty much nailed it already! In simple terms, I'm play by play and he's the analyst. Those roles are what we've both worked on developing personally before we started casting together and it's a good fit! That said, Monte certainly has the capacity to be extremely funny and hyped up as I'm sure people have noticed from time to time and I like to get analytical with the games I cast as much as I'm able to! This year in fact, I'm making it a priority to show the community my game knowledge as much as I plan to show them movie references and horrifyingly bad puns!

 

Off-Camera what do you enjoy doing and how is your partnership with MonteCristo?

DoA: Well I'm still a gamer so outside of work I do play a lot of games! Lately It's been a bit of Skyrim and some DayZ, but I also love old school platformers like Donkey Kong Country 2 (which I speedrun a little bit for fun). I've also got a 3DS that I play games on once in a while. I've probably mentioned this on casts before, but I've played through the Super Nintendo RPG Chrono Trigger at least once every year since 1995. Just started this year's run actually!

Monte's the best casting partner I've ever had. Hands down. I had never met him before we started casting Champions and didn't really know what to expect, but it's been great working with him for the last year or so. He's the rare kind of professional in Esports that you really need to be if you're going to survive in Korea. We do hang out plenty outside of the cast too and I daresay my wardrobe has improved substantially in the last year thanks to his advice. I doubt I'll ever hit suspenders and vintage ties level though.

 

Due to you working for OnGameNet, I understand you are now living in South Korea. How is life as an American living in South Korea working for you and what are your plans to do for the future?

DoA: I've lived in South Korea for about two years total now and I really enjoy it. The culture of the people and the history of the Korean peninsula is extremely fascinating and I've liked learning a lot about it. It's actually extremely easy for an english speaker to live in Korea as nearly everyone speaks at least a little bit of english and pretty much all labels/signs have english on them as well. It's definitely worth it to try to learn the language though! Language is the key that unlocks everything wherever you go and it's actually a lot of fun! My Korean isn't where I'd like it to be right now because I've never had time to take any formal classes, but I've at least gotten to the point where I'd rate myself as "conversational" and I'd feel comfortable traveling anywhere in the country by myself.

As far as the future goes, it's really hard to predict! Esports is still a very new and very dynamic industry and a caster needs to be ready to go where the best opportunities are. Right now Korea is the place with the best options for me and I hope I get to spend at least a few more years here, but I think eventually things will shift to Europe and North America as more money enters the scene and the cultures become more accepting of professional gaming.

 

Throughout your Esports career, what has been your signature memorable moment or moments?

DoA: There have been quite a few and it's impossible to pick one as most memorable, but a few have definitely stood out. Casting KiwiKaki's insane game 2 win vs Stephano on Shattered Temple at IPL3 is probably my most memorable Starcraft moment. For LoL I'd say it's got to be Faker's 1v1 versus Ryu in Game 5 of the Champions Summer finals. I don't think I've ever been that hyped about a moment in a game before.

Another thing that stands out for me was getting the opportunity to open the broadcast for Champions Winter this year on both the global stream and Korean television! It was the first english-language intro ever for a Korean Esports show that actually aired on live TV and I was honored to be a part of it.

 

It’s not a secret within the League of Legends community that the Korean scene is significantly ahead of other regions. What do you think puts the Korean scene ahead of other regions like North America and Europe?

DoA: I think it's a combination of culture and infrastructure. They do definitely have good environments for their players to practice in, but there are certainly some teams in NA and EU that have similar setups now too. Culturally it seems like when a Korean person decides to do something, they tend to go all out to be the best at it. An important part of Neo-Confucianism, which is a big portion of Korea's cultural history, is based around self improvement. That's oversimplifying it, but I do believe that Korean players are culturally trained from a young age to work harder than players in other regions.

 

Recently teams such as NaJin Black Sword failed to make it into the bracket stage, CJ Entus Frost losing their tie breaker game against Xenics Storm; losing 0 - 3 against Samsung Ozone and CJ Entus Blaze going 1 - 3 against KT Rolster Bullets. At one point these three teams were strong and said to be the best teams in Korea, dubbed ‘the three Kings’ and now they have failed to make it to the Semi’s of OGN winter. Were you expecting these results?

DoA: Ha. It's definitely a disappointment to a lot of fans! The CJ teams and Sword have fallen off pretty heavily this year. If you had asked me a year ago I wouldn't have expected the results we saw this season, but coming into Champions Winter this time around I think everyone was pretty suspicious on how the three teams would do.

Blaze is in the best spot out of Frost/Blaze/Sword right now, but they're still stuck in a bit of a rut stylistically and it shows.

I feel like Samsung Ozone is worth mentioning in this conversation too since they're another team that was strong early this year, but fell off for a while. They certainly seem to be recovering, but we'll see how the season ends for them!

SKT T1 K and Samsung Ozone have shown strong performance throughout OGN winter what would you say makes these teams stronger than other teams such as CJ Entus Blaze, Frost and NaJin Sword?

DoA: I still have my doubts about Samsung Ozone's strength. They've looked good, but they've also had a much easier road to their semifinal than SKT did.

SKT is just on another level from everyone else in Korea right now. Their decisions are crisper and their mechanics are better. Where most teams have at least one player that's a bit weaker, everyone on SKT is a superstar! I do think Ozone will win their semifinal, but I'd be surprised if they could take out SKT in the finals.

 

What would you say these teams have to do to be as promising as SKT T1 K and Samsung Ozone?

DoA: I think the biggest thing that SKT T1 K has over everyone else (including Samsung Ozone) is a superior understanding of the S4 vision changes. Knowing when to swap to the Sweeping Lenses, when/where to put Pink wards. They're looking really good.

I really don't think you can compare Samsung Ozone to SKT right now though. It sounds harsh, but I still think Ozone is not anywhere near the same level. Then again... that's what everyone said about Ozone going into their finals vs Blaze...

 

At the start of the OGN winter 2013-14 season, who were you expecting to make it to the semi’s, if not finals, and who do you expect to make it to the finals now?

DoA: I predicted SKT T1 K to be our first repeat champion in Korea at the beginning of the season and I'm sticking to that! I think if the KT Bullets had been on the other side of the bracket we would have seen a SKT T1 K versus KT Bullets finals rematch. The other team I felt had an opportunity this season was actually CJ Entus Blaze. They looked better than they have in a while, but weren't quite good enough.

Samsung Ozone should be able to beat NaJin White Shield tonight and take the other finals spot. They're a great team when they play at their best, but you never know if they will or not on a given match day. NaJin Shield has the capacity to be extremely good, but they're also extremely inconsistent. They've had a good run so far this season though!

 

From what’s been seen so far, which players do you think are the best in the Korean scene (1 person per role)?

DoA: It may seem like kind of a cop out, but I'd pick the entire SKT T1 K team except for Bengi, who I'd replace with Dandy. I think in general the SKT players have the best mechanics and have also adjusted to the S4 preseason meta the best. Dandy still takes the award for Jungle though because I feel like nobody understands pathing and counter-jungling as well as he does. Bengi's close though!

 

To finish this interview off, Recently in Korea, champions like Shyvana, Olaf, and Dr. Mundo have taken a shine to many of the professional players and have been either banned or incredibly hard to deal with in games. What is your opinion on these champions and what do you think makes them strong?

DoA: Right now, the top lane bruisers are extremely strong for a couple of reasons. They take advantage of the extremely strong new defensive mastery tree (especially Mundo) and most of the champions also offer a strong split pushing potential, which fits with the current meta of having your top laner split push or be there to stop a split while you're other four teammates make picks or siege. Having a tanky champion in a team fight never hurts as well. They're also strong as far as grouping and closing in the late game goes. I doubt we'll see it change for a while unless there's a patch!