It's Gosu announced the December HoN Invitational Tournament, featuring a $500 prize pool.
Eight of the arguably best HoN teams will battle it out in a best-of-3 single elimination bracket on Thursday, December 29th starting at 01:00 PM EST / 19:00 CET with commentary by 'Zyori' and 'Dawz_' available at It's Gosu stream.
It's Gosu December Invitational
Participating Teams
Team Bacon WarriorsTrademark eSports
Team It's GosuLions eSports
Jah & FriendsFrom Pubstars
Frenetic ArrayFnatic
The $500 It's Gosu December Invitational is bound to be quite a tournament!. Out of the participating teams, who is your favorite and what do you expect from the event in general?
“At present, S2 sponsors us with a set amount each month. I have to say that S2 has been very flexible with us and given us complete control over how we want to run our events. Our primary focus has been to provide the community with two key elements: 1) to be entertained and 2) to be able to participate. All of us at It's Gosu believe that it's essential for a competitive scene to have opportunities for players of all skill levels to participate.
That being said, we decided that this would be a good time to try a small, invitational tournament. I'm completely blown away by the line-up of teams that are going to be competing. We are definitely expecting this to be our biggest tournament yet.
Naturally I'll be curious to see how our team performs, but I think I'm most excited to see Lions.”
The HoN community also seems to have a fairly positive opinion about your early casting efforts. Since it's known as one of the more hostile environments within the eSports scene, does it feel good to be welcomed like that? What aspect of your casting do you think appeals to the audience the most and what do you think you have to improve on the most?
“To be honest, it feels great to hear positive feedback from a community that is notorious for being hard on anyone in the public eye. I've been casting consistently for about 18 months now, so I'm rather used to the trolls and naysayers, but I've been a little overwhelmed by all of the feedback viewers have provided. Right now the StarCraft scene is so saturated with casters trying to make a name for themselves; it's refreshing to be in an environment with less casters fighting for the spotlight.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about eSports broadcasting is that people seem to think you can't be a good caster if you aren't a pro player. Although most pros have the insight to provide interesting analysis, very few of them have the communication skills to really commentate effectively. I like to think that my play-by-play and ability to entertain are my strongest attributes as a caster. Most of the positive feedback I've received has been in regards to my silly analogies like "LeBron arrow."
The area where I need to improve the most is in analysis. I was disappointed by the lack of replay analysis that is available to the community. My primary objective right now is to improve as a player and hopefully start providing some analysis insight both during tournaments and on my personal stream.”
Links
It's Gosu - Source
Twitch.tv - It's Gosu stream
Zyori.tv - VODs & caster info
Eight of the arguably best HoN teams will battle it out in a best-of-3 single elimination bracket on Thursday, December 29th starting at 01:00 PM EST / 19:00 CET with commentary by 'Zyori' and 'Dawz_' available at It's Gosu stream.
It's Gosu December Invitational
Participating Teams
Team Bacon WarriorsTrademark eSports
Team It's GosuLions eSports
Jah & FriendsFrom Pubstars
Frenetic ArrayFnatic
We sat down with Andrew 'Zyori' Campbell, It's Gosu HoN community manager and anchor shoutcaster, for a quick chat about their involvement with the scene and the tournament itself.
It's Gosu entered the MOBA/Dota genre scene with quite the bang, picking up LoL, HoN and Dota2 teams, respectively, as well as organizing tournaments. Are you satisfied with the response from the communities thus far and what are your plans for the future?
The $500 It's Gosu December Invitational is bound to be quite a tournament!. Out of the participating teams, who is your favorite and what do you expect from the event in general?
“At present, S2 sponsors us with a set amount each month. I have to say that S2 has been very flexible with us and given us complete control over how we want to run our events. Our primary focus has been to provide the community with two key elements: 1) to be entertained and 2) to be able to participate. All of us at It's Gosu believe that it's essential for a competitive scene to have opportunities for players of all skill levels to participate.
That being said, we decided that this would be a good time to try a small, invitational tournament. I'm completely blown away by the line-up of teams that are going to be competing. We are definitely expecting this to be our biggest tournament yet.
Naturally I'll be curious to see how our team performs, but I think I'm most excited to see Lions.”
The HoN community also seems to have a fairly positive opinion about your early casting efforts. Since it's known as one of the more hostile environments within the eSports scene, does it feel good to be welcomed like that? What aspect of your casting do you think appeals to the audience the most and what do you think you have to improve on the most?
“To be honest, it feels great to hear positive feedback from a community that is notorious for being hard on anyone in the public eye. I've been casting consistently for about 18 months now, so I'm rather used to the trolls and naysayers, but I've been a little overwhelmed by all of the feedback viewers have provided. Right now the StarCraft scene is so saturated with casters trying to make a name for themselves; it's refreshing to be in an environment with less casters fighting for the spotlight.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about eSports broadcasting is that people seem to think you can't be a good caster if you aren't a pro player. Although most pros have the insight to provide interesting analysis, very few of them have the communication skills to really commentate effectively. I like to think that my play-by-play and ability to entertain are my strongest attributes as a caster. Most of the positive feedback I've received has been in regards to my silly analogies like "LeBron arrow."
The area where I need to improve the most is in analysis. I was disappointed by the lack of replay analysis that is available to the community. My primary objective right now is to improve as a player and hopefully start providing some analysis insight both during tournaments and on my personal stream.”
Links
It's Gosu - Source
Twitch.tv - It's Gosu stream
Zyori.tv - VODs & caster info
