Interview with Major "Shadowboy" Cosby, Caster for SmiteCentral

I spent some time with Major "Shadowboy" Cosby discussing his passions and aspirations regarding eSports, and casting in particular. We also chatted about his experiences as a caster, his opinions on the Smite competitive scene, and even his predictions for the Smite World Championship in January 2016.

What first sparked your interest in the eSports industry?

Shadowboy: Well, I was always interested in gaming, and have always been somewhat competitive in it, but Smite was actually the first game that pulled me into watching Twitch and regularly keeping up with any kind of “professional” scene. I can remember times when I would wake up on Saturday mornings just to catch a big series between rival teams. So from there, it became a really easy transition to becoming more interested in the eSports aspect, and not just playing the game. 

 

What made you choose casting specifically as your area of expertise?

Shadowboy: I actually didn’t really have a huge epiphany saying “I want to cast.” It was more of a spontaneous moment. One day, a Smite teammate (at the time) and I were watching a community tournament, and while watching this tournament it was painfully obvious that the casters who were present had very little experience, as they would often go silent or just completely have no idea what to say. So I told my teammate that I thought I could do way better, and he basically replied with “Go for it.” I messaged the tournament host on Twitch, and he gave me the “Yeah, cool. We’ll try you out sometime.” Later on, I found out that he had no actual intentions of doing so, because he felt like I was “a random who was just trying to say I sucked at casting.” But one day a caster couldn’t make it last minute, and so out of desperation they called me in, and since then I’ve just ran with it.

 

Give us a brief history of your casting career. Where did you start, what are some good experiences you’ve had, and where are you now?

Shadowboy: As I mentioned earlier, I started out with a community tournament that was being hosted by Team Resist and their players. Well, eventually that died off and I had a bit of a break for a while, but then one of the players reached out to me about a new company that he and one of his friends were starting up in the eSports scene, and they greatly wanted my assistance with casting. That was the beginning of a weekly tournament by the name of “Parabellum.” Those tournaments ended up giving me an invitation to cast one of the SmiteCentral tournaments that happened right before the launch tournament, and I got a lot of exposure from that, hitting a high point of approximately 12k viewers. Immediately after the launch tournament for Smite, Parabellum was bought out by SmiteCentral, and I became a caster for them. Since then I’ve been casting for SmiteCentral as well as Tiermonster. One of my more proud moments was being a part of the Iron Gaming Series, which gave me an opportunity to be flown out to Atlanta, Georgia and cast live at MoMoCon.

 

Can you see yourself potentially casting for other games in the future? If so, which ones?

Shadowboy: It’s always something I consider. “What would be the next game?” Even now I still throw back and forth the idea of trying to jump heavily into another scene. I think it is a real possibility once I get out of college, but for now I’m a bit more content with sticking with what I know. But in the event that I did try and branch into other games, it’s hard to imagine me avoiding Blizzard and their many games, especially Hearthstone.

Image courtesy of SmiteCentral 

Could you see yourself casting for HiRez in the future? Why or why not?

Shadowboy: Honestly, I could see potential in terms of me casting officially under HiRez in the future, mainly because of close friends I have who did come from different small sections of the community and are now officially working in HiRez. In fact, they are the main reason I think I still care deeply about the game to an extent. Just remembering the fun times I had with those guys has really been a big drive for me in a lot of situations. 

 

Do you have any role models in the industry (i.e. someone who impresses you, or that you aspire to learn from)?

Shadowboy: My favorite caster ever has to be LionHeart, as he was partially the reason I was able to so easily fall in love with Smite’s competitive scene. He had a great knowledge base of the game, was very clear in the way he spoke, and he was always able to get a rise out of the crowd. Unfortunately for me his casting was short lived, and I never got to see him perform in a live environment like the launch tourney. However, he’s still my favorite and a role model for me.

 

What’s your opinion on the current competitive state of Smite? Where are some areas that you would like to see improvements?

Shadowboy: The best way that I can describe the scene right now is stagnant. There isn’t a whole lot of growth in the competitive scene, or even the semi-competitive scene. The biggest dilemma right now is that after some of the high points that Smite has reached, there was just no stable environment for a player to still make a living as a professional player in Smite. As a result, a lot of players either moved on to other games, or just decided to give up on becoming a professional in general. Now this wasn’t completely the fault of HiRez, but the improvement I would have liked to see is a bit more reaching out towards private companies to try and get some of these players an official job, which could foster a very exciting eSports scene for Smite.

 

What’s your opinion on eSports as a whole? What does it mean to you, and where do you see it going in the future?

Shadowboy: I think eSports has a lot of meanings to me, but most importantly I don’t view it as just an eSport, but a sport. I come from a background in football, and my entire family has played football, so a lot of times their reaction to what I do is that of confusion, but when you look at the two entities by themselves, they have all of the same traits. They both have the endless hours of training to strive for perfection, the long struggles and frustrations of failures, the friendship and bonds that form through constantly relying on each other. To me it is all there - all the things that you can admire about an “actual sport” are in the eSports scene. So if you ask me what are eSports and why I like them or what does it mean, my only real answer is that it has all the beauties of a sport. I can see this going as far as society will let it go, and with my generation being the forefront of it, I can’t see it failing any time soon.

Image courtesy of SmiteCentral 

Currently, who are your favorite NA and EU teams in the SPL and why?

Shadowboy: I’d say that my favorite NA team has to be AFK (now EnVyUs as of 10/5/2015), simply because I’ve met a lot of those guys and one of my best friends who works at HiRez used to coach that roster, and because he was always cheering for them, I ended up doing the same. Now for EU it has to be London Conspiracy. Back when I was in Atlanta for MoMoCon a lot of the same members who are on London Conspiracy now were part of a team that came out of nowhere and did fantastic, and just seeing that start-up team come out and do well was really awesome for me.

 

Based on current standings, any predictions for who will win the LAN finals in each region? Any predictions for who wins Worlds?

Shadowboy: I’m really EAGER to find out myself, but I’m sure whoever does win will feel ecstatic, almost like a CLOUD9 feeling. Only time will tell which of the TITANs in each region will pull ahead, and who knows, maybe an upcoming team will show that the PARADIGM for most teams doesn’t have to be the same for the others.

 

Will you be attending this year’s Smite World Championship? If so, any big plans during the event?

Shadowboy: I actually will be attending the event, but I’m mainly just hoping to get to spend a lot of time with the friends I don’t get to see a lot, as well as get some drinks with new friends. Maybe this year I’ll actually make an effort to visit more of Atlanta.

 

Finally, where can those who may be unfamiliar with your work see some of your casting in action? Feel free to provide any social media links as well.

Shadowboy: Well, if you want to watch me, and if you happen to read this interview within the next few weeks, I’ll be casting the Challenger Cup series, which is being broadcasted on www.twitch.tv/smitegame2 for the next month and a half. Most weeks I will be casting the SmiteCentral tournaments on Thursdays. All this and more can be found on my Twitter @shadowboygaming. Thank you very much!

 

Thank you for speaking with Team Dignitas! Below is an embedded VOD of one of SmiteCentral's weekly 5v5 tournaments, where you can hear Shadowboy's casting in action. We encourage readers to check it out and support Shadowboy, SmiteCentral, and the competitive Smite scene!