Introducing Prove, the voice from Netolic Pro League

NAME: April 'ProveAttitude' Iverson
COUNTRY: United States
OCCUPATION: Caster
 

Hi April, can you introduce yourself?

Well, I am 26 years old and I live in Salt Lake City, Utah! I've been playing Dota for a very long time now (about eight years) and I'm very passionate about Dota 2 now as well. I've been in the community for about five years now, doing odd end things like hosting amateur tournaments, producing Dota videos, and casting. When I'm not casting, playing, watching, or creating something with Dota 2, I enjoy hiking, mountain biking, and snowboarding. I'm often torn with who am I because I'm a huge gamer nerd and also a ski bum. Those worlds don't often collide. (smile)

When did you first get into gaming? Was it PC first or was there another console?

Gaming started early on in my childhood. I have a brother who is just a few years older than I am. Growing up we were very close and I would always play video games with him. So my gaming days started off on the console, playing games on the NES, SNES, and N64. We loved co-op games like Contra and Double Dragon. As we got older, we continued to play games together, but picked up more competitive games like Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 3. I always loved kicking his ass in things like Advanced Wars and Starcraft 1.

Around when I was thirteen I met my would-be future husband on Starcraft 1. From there on out I played a lot of PC games with him and didn't do too much in consoles anymore. Along the way his brother introduced us to Warcraft 3 Dota shortly after it began getting made by Guinsoo. Ever since then I've been addicted! I never knew it would be such a big thing in my life 8+ years later.

So when did you start playing Dota? Do you remember your first Dota game? Tell us, how bad did you feed?

So, it was some of the first few versions. There have been so many different maps of Dota. First with the maps Eul's produced, then Guinsoo, and then finally Icefrog. Although I can't tell you the specific version, I can tell you that it was totally different. Riki used to actually have Death ward, yeah, it was that scary. There used to be a hero called the Conjurer, and he was the ultimate pusher with three summons and illlusions as his skills. The map layout was a bit different, there were more towers than what we have now days. I don't remember my first game, but I'm sure it was something atrocious like 0-30. I just remember thinking, "There is waaaaaay too much stuff to learn in this game".
 

Do you have a day job? What is your daily routine like?

I do! I'm a supervisor at a ski resort here in Salt Lake City. I usually work 30ish hours a week over there. I also have a partnered youtube channel where I produce a Dota 2 series. On days I work it's pretty much go to work, come home and then play Dota. I also have to take care of my dog and cat too. It's extremely hard to work a day job and cast all in the same day, on top of taking care of the house and animals. On days off, things get a little easier. I can work on my youtube videos, or play Dota, or cast. If there's time between all of that then I fit in a little bit of working out or indulging myself in a TV show =P.

The brutal truth is that I'm VERY bad when it comes to time management. I would do a lot better planning out my days off in order to fit in a little bit of everything, but unfortunately I usually just get sucked into playing multiple games of Dota and feeding in half of them... On a good day.

So how did you get into casting? What was your first gig and what was the experience like?

My veeeeeery first cast ever was with my friend named Barrtender, back in a community called Throneit.com (THR). This was easily five years ago. We had hosted an amateur tournament and they needed broadcasters, so we just picked it up and started going. At this point, casting hadn't exploded yet and the only notable caster was Tobi. So our cast was on a whim and we only did a few after that. We didn't do very good, but we tried out best! When the THR ship went down (those who were around will know what I mean), I jumped over to DotaCash and began hosting tournaments for them. Just so happened that they also needed broadcasters, so I began casting once again (about a year after the first instance). Shortly after casting for a few weeks, I was approached by this guy named Purge Gamers! This was back with Purge had just started up his youtube and was beginning his casting career. Before he got picked up by you guys to cast, he had asked me if he could cast DotaCash tournaments. We were looking for people to cast with me, so it worked out great! So, I began casting amateur tournaments with Purge for six to eight months. This is where I feel like my first serious casting began. It was absolutely terrifying but incredibly exciting at the time.

We had players like Demon, Inphinity, 1437, and Power.net playing in our tournaments back then so I felt like there was a lot of pressure to do well as a caster. It wasn't great, but we were doing it enough that my play-by-play continued to improve and Purge taught me a lot of game knowledge. During that time I got a lot of experience casting with him and we made a pretty great duo. Unfortunately, I had to quit casting for a while due to work issues. Purge went on to do great things, though! Finally, I have gotten BACK into casting and this time nothing can stop me (hopefully)! I have to say that despite it taking awhile for casting to take off for me, it has at least given me a lot of experience over the years and I value that.

What is the dream here? Do you have aspirations to be as big as Sheever, Ayesee, or maybe Tobi? Would you like to cast at The International 4?

I most definitely have big aspirations! To be able to cast The International 4, or even 5, would completely blow me away with humbleness. I know I have a long way to go before I'm at that point, but that possibility is always in the back of my mind. I try to take it one day at a time. Right now I'm casting the Netolic Pro League and it's such a great step up from casting amateur tournaments. The experience I'm getting from casting the pro teams is immeasurable. It's a VERY odd feeling going from casting to, at most, 100 people to casting to upwards of 10,000 people. I cannot express how thankful I am to Netolic for giving me the opportunity to prove (no pun intended) myself as a caster.

Do you have any specific casters you take as a role model?

I'm actually a huge fan of LD. I feel like he's one of the most balanced casters out there in terms of voice, game knowledge, and play-by-play. I have mad props and I take tips away from every one of the main casters out there, but LD would have to be my role model. When I look for games to learn from, I try to find LD and Lumi because I feel like that's the best balance between knowledge and play-by-play, and that their cast would help me the most as a caster. I've ALWAYS had a soft spot for wanting to provide super play-by-play, though, so every once in a while I'll listen to Tobi to try to figure out his secret to pumping up an audience.

Tell us some of the stuff you have improved on just by watching them.

Well, LD is just so fluid in his play-by-play and by watching him I'm just able to kinda absorb in what he says and what he's mentioning. I don't want to just yell out random stuff when a team fight is happening, so by listening to LD it does help me kinda hone in on the timeline of a team fight... Sometimes after listening to his play-by-play, I'll re-cast the same team fight in my own way and see if I was able to catch and mention all the things he did. Lumi's analysis is just insanely good, and I feel like that's something I'm a bit weaker at compared to other things. While I do feel confident in my game knowledge, my analysing isn't as good. Lumi gives me A LOT of insight when he casts and I can translate that into becoming a better analyser.

As for Tobi... he's just so passionate about the game, and I think that's where his hype comes from. You can't fake passion about Dota 2, it comes from deep within. The difference with TObi is that he's very, very good at expressing that passion to an audience while not missing too many steps in his play-by-play. I do have the passion, I just have to figure out how to express it in a way that will translate to the audience, and that's what I get when I watch Tobi cast.
 

Many people have said you have a very good voice and accent for the game, much like Ayesee. Is that the way you normally speak or does it need some special training?

Ahah. I have NEVER thought of myself to be a good public speaker. When I talk in person to family or friends my annunciation is muuuch more loose and I tend to slur my words. It took a bit of practice. When I made my first Dota Difference video on youtube, I posted it up on reddit and one of the biggest complaint was that I didn't have a very good public speaking voice and I slurred words and didn't annunciate my words well. I took that advice and actually tried to speak well for the next video and the ones following. People immediately noticed an improvement and ever since, people have said I have a good casting voice.

When I cast, it's basically like putting a mask on. You can't just get up there and have it be like you're talking to a friend. You are a broadcaster and you have to talk to an audience. That involves a different way of talking that I normally don't use in my every day life. When I cast, I'm ProveAttitude, not April.

As for my accent, I used to live in the south and have a very heavy southern accent. It's gone for the most part, but every once in a while it slips out.

How do you juggle between casting and going about your normal life considering you have to cast games at wee hours in the morning?

One of the things I told my co-caster, Kyle 'Ever' Canary, when we first started casting last year, is that I really hate to be inconvenienced, lol. So, basically I told him I wouldn't miss sleep to cast a game, or even cast any games on the weekend. Welllll, that has all gone out the window now, and there's already been a few times where I've gotten three hours of sleep and then went on to cast five-six games.

If you want to be a caster, sleep and family time is something that you're going to have to sacrifice. Things will not always be convenient. I know that a lot of casters operate at awkward times, but that's just how it ends up being with time zones. Now I just kinda go with the flow and take whatever I can get in terms of casting, to an extent. I obviously can't cast for five hours, get two hours of sleep, then go and work eight hours at my day job. You can't cast if you make yourself sick.

Who do you like casting with the best?

I haven't branched out too much, but Ever has been my main co-caster for a while now. I think we have good synergy and we know each other well enough that we pick up on silent clues really well. It's all about chemistry and having fun together and right now I have that with Ever. I've had a few chances to cast with Barry (Gavin 'BubblingBarry' DiManno) as well and I feel the chemistry is there with him too, although we still have a few more kinks to work out.

I've always wanted a co-caster to be my equal in terms of being able to do play-by-play and analyse. I've never thought that there should be a main caster and a co-caster, one with the play-by-play and one with the knowledge. Both casters should have both of those attributes and be decent at them. No one should have to stop talking and let the other person cast a team fight. I have that with both Barry and Ever, so I'm very happy casting with them!

Some casters are can be described as analytical, while others love to run through the play-by-play. How would you describe your own casting style?

I feel I am better at play-by-play than I am at analysing. The thing is, I improve my play-by-play the best by casting games. The knowledge I need for analysing is something I have to seek out. I do know that as I go along, analysing will become easier for me and I will also feel more confident in stating my thoughts. Right now I might think about analysing something, then I get scared and think I might be dead wrong, so I don't say it. Moments later it appears to have been the correct thing to say and I proceed to kick myself for not saying it. I need to build up that confidence in analysing and accept that it might not always be spot on. I don't want to be known just as a play-by-play caster!
 

Your supporter base is growing bigger every day. What is the funniest feedback you have received from your fans?

I try not to read the twitch chat while I'm casting because it's utterly distracting, but I've heard some things like people wanting to lick my feet??? Yeah, it's that odd. The funniest one I've ever gotten was a youtube message to me and basically it was some guy trying to hit on me with DBZ references and it was so awkward and hilarious. My husband and I shared a good laugh on that one. It gave us the idea that one day we should hold a contest on who can write me the creepiest message. I look forward to that day.

Do you have any special routines or superstitions before going on a casting session?

I always make sure to eat before a cast because there's not a lot of time for food during a set. I also HAVE to have some sort of caffeine also in order to set the hype up. I don't drink soda, but for a while I was going to coffee for that. I get so lightheaded and jittery once the coffee wears off though, so now I'm starting to drink green tea because it has less caffeine. Recently I looked up a bunch of information about "wonder foods" in terms of increasing your focus or helping your voice. We'll see if those pan out or if they're just myths. For the most part, I just try to calm myself before a cast and get in the mood!

Do you prepare cheat sheets or notes when casting unfamiliar teams?

Most definitely. One of my biggest insecurities when beginning to cast Netolic matches was that I didn't know the competitive scene well enough. Everything from who's on which team, to who plays which role, to what kind of drafts they do. Before this season started, I took a good two-three days and found out all the information I could on the teams that would be participating. After I found out that information, I wrote it down to retain the information in my memory better, then I watched two-three VODs of each team to get a feel of their playstyle. I couldn't go in to it nearly blind. Because I was casting so many amateur tournaments, as well as working, I really didn't have time to delve into the pro scene. I could give you a lot of information about amateur teams, but when it came to the pro scene, nope! Even after just these past two weeks, I feel I have a decent understanding of the teams I've been casting and studying. As I go along, I'll continue to study other teams.

What are the big highlights of your casting career so far? Which game or tournament has been the most memorable to cast?

Earlier in summer, when I was a part of NLGSeries we had a fairly decent sized tournament for the Oceanic scene. I was casting with a friend named DareDevilDan, and for those two weekends of casting I felt like I was at the top of my game. I had been casting consistantly for six-seven months and a lot of things had been ironed out. Those games always stood out in my mind. The biggest highlight of my casting career would be some of the first Netolic matches I had a chance to cast last season. It was really a moment where I was like, "Is this actually happening?", because it was my first big break into the competitive scene. My favourite cast was when Smash from team Sweet Revenge completely blew away everyone with his plays. Oh, and a Dazzle mid with an Armlet, that was awesome too.

Thanks for your time April. That concludes our interview. Any shoutouts to your fans?

I wouldn't be casting if it weren't for people actually supporting me in doing so! You guys have been great so far and I hope you'll continue to support me for as long as I continue to improve! Big shoutout to my husband for supporting me through this adventure. Shoutout to Ever for securing us gigs and constantly pushing me as a caster. Shoutout to Barry, DareDevilDan, Elle, Bacon and Sean! Much love to Bear, Fate, Rawrsome, and Barrtender for all the fun nights of Dota and always being there to carry me!