GosuGamers had the opportunity to sit down with Honcast caster Mark 'Tralfamadore' Seidl to discuss the recent changes in his career. Also topics like the competitive scene, the future of HoN and possible returns were discussed.

Mark "Tralfamadore" Seidl, former pro-player turned commentator.

Hello Tralf, it's been two month now since you became employed by S2 Games and a regular member of Honcast. How has your time been so far?

So far, it's been a really good experience. After meeting everyone at S2 I've found just how dedicated they all are to creating a great game. I was welcomed with open arms and I think Breaky and I really make a good team for Honcast.


Was the transition from being a top tier competitive player into a full-time commentator hard for you or did it come naturally?

I think that's the most natural transition, honestly. I find that in most e-sports games (as well as sports that you see on ESPN) that the best commentators were once professional players. Because of that, it makes it very easy for me to comment on the games with very little dead space.

Are you sometimes thinking back, wishing you could have played one match, one tournament or one event, as opposed to follow the action as a caster?

“you have to make the best decision possible for yourself”I think I would be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that still wishes I was with my old team (what is now Complexity). It was a lot of fun playing with those guys. But ultimately you have to make the best decision possible for yourself, and right now I think this casting position was the right move for me.

You mention your former team compLexity, do you sometimes have an issue staying unbiased when casting former teammates or your old organization?

I am probably the most objective person you'll meet, and if you've watched my commentating you will realize that. Yes, I'm always cheering for my former team, but if they make a bad play or something of course I'm going to comment on it. So no, I would definitely not say I am biased.


Still, you have a relationship developed with a lot of guys over the years. Was it hard to publicly call some of them out for mistakes or did you just saw it as "part of your job"?

Haha, it is actually hard a bit, because I don't want them to get the wrong impression! My job, though, is to be the critical one. Breaky does an outstanding job of commentating on teamfights, explaining the tournaments, things like that. But I feel that my job is really focused more on the intricate parts of a game, the competitive insight if you will. Most of these guys have pretty thick skin, and realize that if I point out a mistake that's been made, they know that I'm not trying to go out of my way to make them look bad. Unfortunately, there are other players or teams out there that do take it persona, but that's just the name of the game - if David Beckham misses the most free goal of his life, I would suspect that the commentators aren't going to sugar coat it :D

In your two month tenure has anyone ever complained about you calling out a bad play by them?

Oh definitely

Fair enough, let's switch the topic though. A lot of people see you in front of the camera, but they have no idea what the "office part" of your job is. Can you walk us through a typical day in your job?

“When we're not casting, we're setting up our brand new studio for Hontour”Well, right now we're working on a lot of things to prepare for HonTour. There have been a lot of meetings discussing how to make Hontour big and interactive for viewers, so we've been planning for a weekly update show once HonTour is launched. When we're not casting, we're setting up our brand new studio for Hontour, and preparing some really cool effects for it. When I'm not working on that, I find myself often hanging out with the designers and balancers and discuss things with them on how to improve the game :P

Okay, so you've got all that going on, one piece of the puzzle is still missing. How do you prepare for matches? Do you watch scrims, replays or is there no special preparation?

I wouldn't really call it 'special preparation' but yes, when I'm not playing or casting I'm always watching scrims and replays so that I have an idea of how teams play, what their strategies are and things like that. The great thing, though, is that isn't like a chore for me - it's something that I just love doing. I would be watching these scrims and replays even if I wasn't casting games, so it works out nicely.

Let's leave your casting gig for a while and focus on the scene. What are your thoughts about the recent tournaments and the games that we have witnessed in the last couple of weeks?

I'm really happy to see this consistency in the competitive HoN scene. It definitely makes what I'm doing more entertaining :D The competitive HoN scene is growing no doubt, and I hope the strides S2 has made bring back a lot of the good players that we have seen come and go. Currently, there's a lot of player-shuffling going around from tournament to tournament, and that can only make teams who stay together for a longer period of a time much stronger. While I would love to see Complexity take every tournament they can, I think it's a lot more fun for me and the viewers to see a more diverse competitive scene in terms of having multiple teams who can contend for that first place spot.

You have been very outspoken about coL being the most dominant team currently. Who do you think comes closest to them?

“tdM - they have been rather consistent in their practice the last week. ”That's really hard to say, to be honest. The teams that come to mind are tdM and TTeS, but both have had changes to their rosters recently. To their credit, they have both been scrimming frequently and that has to be applauded. If I had to go with one that could take a game off of coL it would be tdM - they have been rather consistent in their practice the last week. I think TTeS has great potential and I think sLiCkZ their captain is one of the best players in the game currently, but I question their strategy and drafting a bit.

Also, I feel I should defend myself for being outspoken about coL...:D - Their game mechanics are some of the strongest I've seen in the HoN scene to date. At the same time, I do give them some slack for picking a very, very predictable line-up - but there has to be something said where teams know exactly what they're playing against but lose every time to it.

Beside the established teams, we have some "Rookies" coming into the tournaments recently. FyKu, iLight, CallItKarma or Dendi's JunglDevos have all been seen numerous times in tournament. What do you think of the "youngsters" so far?

“keep watching their games, particularly the ones where it didn't go so well”

For these new teams coming on to the scene, all I have to say to them is to keep watching their games, particularly the ones where it didn't go so well. I think these teams without a doubt have the personal skill and talent of all their players, but don't have a strategy or a strong idea how to draft at the highest level.

Do you have a personal favorite of those young teams?

I'd have to say Dendi's JunglDevos because they seem to try some interesting drafts ;p

From the young teams in the scene to the future of the scene: how do you see the HoN scene developing in the next couple of weeks and month with all the changes and big things looming over it?

I really do think we're going to see a resurgence of old competitive players come back into the scene, especially with HonTour coming VERY SOON. Believe me, if anyone in the competitive scene was skeptical of HonTour it was me, so coming from me that says a lot! But seriously, I already know of a handful of players looking at HoN and are thinking to themselves "there is a lot of money floating around in these tournaments and I want to get involved again." It's going to take a small amount of time for these players to find a stable team, but after that I think the competitive scene is going to develop at a very high rate.

Can you "name drop" some of the people that might be coming back? Or at least give us, as the community, a hint? :)

I like bacon.


Last question is something hypothetical. You have been a player at DreamHack Winter and you are going to return to Jönköping as a commentator, what do you think will be the better experience?

To be honest, I actually think casting will be a better experience. Yes, of course, the chance to play on stage for a large sum of money is always exciting (especially when my former team is looking as strong as they are right now) but there actually is a lot of downtime between matches that can REALLY make it tiring on the players. Hopefully for their sake, we can make the schedule as smooth as possible but there's always going to be things about it that make it really hard on the players. So with that said, I will get to cast and view game after game and I think that will make my experience at Dreamhack Winter very exciting.

Best of luck for the next weeks and for the huge changes and tournaments. Thank you for taking the time - want to do any shoutout to close this interview?

Well first of all thanks for having me and big shoutout to YOU for being so active here - shoutout to my girlfriend Lisa, shoutout to my old team I'm really proud of you guys! Shoutout to Breakycpk for being awesome and the easiest person to work with, and finally shoutout to Emperor, Kyler, my Mom, and childsplaycharity.org. Also, follow me on Twitter @TralfHon or facebook at /MoBaTralf!