GoDz: 'We could only cast from our bedrooms for so long!'

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INTERVIEW: David "GoDz" Parker

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Belated happy birthday David. How did you celebrate your birthday? -"Thanks Eric. I spent the day mostly doing some moving and unpacking to our new place here in LA. In the evening I went out with LD, Purge, and Blitz for dinner and a few drinks. It was very enjoyable, and I got a ton of messages from friends, family, and fans which felt really good." You had been a caster for GGnet for a few years and then you started your own company, BeyondTheSummit. How did that idea came to be? -"I don’t really know (laughs). I wanted to run an Asian tournament since there was nothing at the time (back when I did the Gigabyte Dota Masters), and because I would be casting some and Triumph doing some it made more sense to have a general tournament channel rather than using personal streams. Beyondthesummit was just a catchy name that I liked. The idea for the company came much, much later." What do you think is the hardest step before setting up the company and what is the hardest after? -"The hardest part is always going to be the workload and finding other people to work with. There’s a ton that goes into business development, PR, website development, and other areas for BTS that people don’t really realize (and the same with many companies/organizations). A lot of people think we’re just passionate casters, but we have to keep up all the other aspects of BTS as well as casting. The hardest initial step specifically was finding people to get behind my ideas, luckily I had worked with Gigabyte quite a bit before and TwitchTV were very supportive as well. Once the company is set as a casting studio, the hardest step is going to be pumping out as much content as we want to do while maintaining our high production quality and other areas of the business." BTS has 80 thousand unique viewers. Do you think it will grow any bigger than it currently is? -"I wasn’t aware of that number actually (laughs). For us, as long as the Dota 2 scene keeps growing, we’ll grow along with it. We always hope to increase our viewership and have our content reach more people. I definitely see that happening in the future." More and more casters are popping out these days including some goofy ones like Xyclopz. Do you share the same philosophy with Tobi who thinks the more the competition, the more the game is moving up and everybody will grow together? -"Yeah, more casters makes everyone step up the game. Also gives viewers something fresh and unique every now and then. People loved hearing Xyclopz style and approach to casting, and it provided them of an alternative to the classic professional caster/co-caster setup that they find on jD/BTS/EG Raidcall streams. Whenever someone else’s streams hits new viewership peaks or grows their audience it’s great for the scene, because consequently those viewers will also watch other streams." Recently, your partner LD and you have decided to set up a studio in Los Angeles. What is the benefit of setting up this studio? -"It’s basically putting us in a work environment where we will be able to produce more content with a higher level of production quality, and do more events and cool shit for the Dota 2 community. We could only cast from our bedrooms for so long!" Considering tournaments are being played all around the world on different time zones, how do you and LD cope with that? -"Well, gamers and casters have crazy sleep patterns as it already is. Just ask Tobi how many times he’s slept in his jD office overnight (laughs). I expect there’ll be a lot of complaining, late nights, early mornings, and bulk tea drinking on my behalf." Why LA? Why not in Asia or perhaps Europe? -"LD was already living in the US, so it meant only one of us had to do a major relocation (I was going to have to relocate regardless, #AustraliaInternetBlows). Additionally, there’s a growing local Dota scene here already with Purge, Blitz, Fluff, Demon, and more living nearby. There’s other practical reasons towards it as well which are probably a bit boring to list off though." So have you moved to LA? How do you find it there in comparison to all the countries you have travelled to so far? -"Yeah, I just setup my desk and room today. I lived in the USA for 10 years growing up, so it’s pretty easy for me to adjust to the lifestyle here. I’m already loving it here because of how social everything is living with Purge and LD, as opposed to my lifestyle in Australia where I’d go days or weeks without outside world contact." You have started an Indiegogo page to raise funds for this studio and achieved your estimated target within 24 hours. How do you feel tracing the support of the community going up within the first day? -"I remember deciding with LD that I’d just focus on PR matters during the announcement of the Indiegogo (as we had our BTS Weekend Cup with it, which LD didn’t cast with me). Tracking the immediate huge growth was phenomenal. We raised $10k in the first 3 hours (there I was imagining how many people were asleep), and $25k in just over 24hours. It’s a good thing I wasn’t casting with LD because there were tears in my eyes and I could hardly control my emotions with the overwhelming community support. I never could have dreamed up such a response." In total, how much did you guys raised to build this studio in LA? -"We’ve raised about $33-34k, the kick-starter ends the day after the G-league finals and a few contributions are still trickling in. We’ve made stretch goals, and all contributions past our initial goal do go towards our studio and content, so we’re so grateful for all of the support." Who came up with the idea of stretch goals and the tournament? -"We wanted something for people who wanted to support us and contribute to have to aim towards, rather than the initial goal. The tournament itself is something the community wants more of, but probably wasn’t the most unique idea or that specific to our studio. Ultimately, we just want to make sure all contributions go towards our studio and content, and any revenue/profits the studio as a whole makes gets re-invested into the Dota2 community." The first tournament at a donation of $50,000 will be an online SEA tournament. Why SEA? -"We actually plan to include all Asia/Oceania teams. The reason is pretty simple and has nothing to do with favouritism or bias towards the region. There’s simply FAR less content there. Just last night there was EG vs Liquid, Fnatic vs VP, and NaVi vs nth all at the same time in different tournaments. The amount of content and tournaments in the EU/NA scene is incredible, and is a great sign for the growth of the scene. Unfortunately, the Asian scene has far less regular content and exposure, so we simply want to try bring more of a balance, and help ensure that the overall growth in all regions for the Dota 2 community. That’s also partly why I still try to spend time casting and covering the Australian scene to give them a hand where possible." What will you guys do with the extra eight thousand dollars that have been donated? -"The $25k just covers some of our costs, we use the term “kick-starter” because essentially it just hastened the process of us having a studio setup and gave us that little boost we needed to get our equipment, move to LA, and have additional staff like a full-time producer, graphics/video staff, to get things started. We have various projects coming up that will make full use of all the contributions." With so many games running a day, will BTS be looking to hire more casters in the future? Who is the first person in mind? -"(laughs) That second question must have known the answer to my first! Of course, like any organization out there covering events, having more casters can bring more content and help you grow. We’d love to have Winter join us in our studio, but he still has aspirations to compete, and other issues would maybe come with that. We also have someone in mind in the US who will remain a secret!" Winter has been casting on and off with BTS and many people love his insights. However, he is mostly a co-caster to either LD or your main cast. How has he improved over the months? -"The biggest improvements has come in his ability to bounce off the main caster and not interrupt as much. Most co-casters start by being timid or not talking as much as they could, Winter was the opposite! He wanted to always interject or say what was on his mind, so he’s worked on controlling that a lot (laughs)! He wants to focus on competing for the time being, but that may change. We’d look at possibilities to bringing him fulltime into BTS if his situation changed." What will the focus of BTS be on after the studio is built? -"We’d love to do an event similar to the “Homestory Cup” that TakeTV do for the Starcraft scene. Having pro teams and casters in the studio and house for a weekend of fun and games would be a blast." Will we get a sneak-peek of the pre-built studio today? -"Well, the pre-built studio is empty! We have (finally) ordered all the equipment we need for it, caster PCs, production PCs, mics, audio mixers, video switchers, etc etc. Once it’s being built we’ll release some photos and videos I imagine." Besides the BTS project, you were also the team manager of the late N9 team. Can you give us an insight on what exactly happened to the team? -"For some of these players it was amazing they kept at it so long. Their dedication and commitment to the team was truly inspirational. Shatan, Godot, and r1sk have been giving their all to make it work for so long. R1sk had to step down due to family commitments and the other two still managed to make it work as well as possible. They’ve always had to compete in either Asia tournaments or Na/EU tournaments and timezones, pings, and just general lack of Australian talent proved to be a huge hurdle. After the results in Malaysia, then the inability to have a stable roster of 5 with the results they were after playing in NA/EU tournaments, Shatan and Godot both decided to finally call it. I have all the respect in the world for the team, especially Shatan who announced his retirement who has been competing in top level teams for the past 6-7 years, take on the Chinese at SMM, and represented Australia so well. He’s an absolute legend (no pun intended…) and the best player and ambassador for Dota Australia has ever had." What do you think about the Oceanic Dota 2 scene as a whole? Do you think there will be more teams that will accomplished as much as what N9 has achieved? -"Not any time soon, but give it a year or two and it’s very hard to predict. More regular tournaments are cropping up, and a few people are looking to help grow the scene. I think it’ll be a while before any team reaches the accomplishments of N9, but definitely some teams may make a go at playing in the International scene in either NA/Eu tournaments or Asia tournaments. Already Fumoffu and his squad have, but I think there’s some stronger upcoming teams with potential." What are your thoughts about the recent changes in Na’Vi? -"It’s only natural I guess. After so long, and having issues/conflicts change happens. You only have to look at the Chinese scene where you have the most disciplined and professional teams with the best results out there, yet still find regular reshuffles and changes to realize these sorts of changes happen to anyone. And are almost always for the better. Kuroky reminds me a lot of Faith/Chuan in that as a support player, he does more than just support. He’s a play maker. With less of an emphasis on Dendi’s solo mid play as of late, having a support who can do that is essential and part of the reason for iG’s recent success. I imagine it will work well for Na’Vi." ZeroGravity just announced that there will be more changes tonight. What do you think they can still change in the team? -"I don’t imagine the change will have anything to do with the team roster. Probably something related to the Na’Vi Dota team as a whole such as their move to the USA to bootcamp, or maybe someone like a caster joining them. I know NaVi has been looking to expand their coverage and do more than just have a top Dota team. It is only the beginning of the year and we already have a full list of tournaments to attend. How are you and LD going to decide on who will be heading to which LAN event when your services are needed? For the most part, tournament organizers will approach us and make the decision on our behalf (laughs). Generally big LAN events choose their casters, so if only one of us can go it’s no hard feelings. Especially with the Asian scene I have a bit of a headstart, but with LD’s huge popularity over the past 6 months with TI-2/G-league/G-1 League I imagine events in EU/NA will be fighting over him!" Where will you be heading to next? -"I’m flying to Singapore just in a few days to do live commentating for the Armageddon Dota 2 Asia Grand Slam. Unfortunately, it means I’ll miss the G-League Grand Finals! I guess it’s one of the upsides of having two full time casters though. One can travel, while the other stays home doing content!" Thanks a bunch for the interview David. Do you have any last shoutout for all your fans here in GosuGamers? -"Shout out to my Joy boys!"