Med1cz is a Croatian ESL community caster who has, in the last few months, been apart of a number of independent leagues both in front of the camera in the One Game Agency (OGA) Pit tournament and behind the camera in the Cyber-athletic Championship Series (CCS). We asked him what it was like to work with these various leagues as well as his thoughts on the ongoing OGA Pit tournament:
To start, tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi, my name is Ante Medić, I'm a 23 year old online FPS fanatic, bachelor of Computer Science and amateur caster for R6:Siege and CSGO.
How did you originally get into Siege as a player?
A Siege free weekend is to blame! Somewhere around Operation Red Crow I downloaded Siege to try the free weekend and immediately fell in love with it because the movement of operators and the general feeling reminded me a lot of Call of Duty 4; aiming down sights, sprinting and wallbangs -- something that CSGO and arena shooters didn't have. I had some spare money in my Steam wallet and went to buy Siege Starter edition. After few initial months of completely playing solo, I managed to gather a group of people, started a team and tried to kickstart a regional community of Siege players.
In the EU League of CCS you work as an observer, what is it like working in this lesser known role?
It was great! Before CCS I solo casted (and observed) ESL cups and doing observing and casting at the same time would cause some confusion in my head and I always felt that I am not doing good enough. Joining aa dedicate observer role in CCS allowed me to completely immerse into every round, focus better and notice some small details that decide the outcome of rounds. After spending a decent amount of time observing teams, I feel my camerawork improved a lot and that I often successfully predict behaviour and action of some teams which in the end gets shown on the stream and viewers (along with casters) see more things happening in the round from preparation, to build up, and then the gunfight itself.
More recently you have become a caster for the OGA PIT tournament; how exactly did this opportunity come about?
I am still not sure how OGA staff decided to send me an invite. At first, I declined the offer because of my IRL obligations to my full-time job and family, but in the end, I managed to combine both onsite studio work and remote work from home. I am really glad that the guys behind a tournament this big decided to invite me and so far the cooperation was great! I am looking forward to future OGA tournaments and hope they won't be invite only.
How have you been finding your first high profile casting experience?
I have to say a bit stressful. I am definitely camera shy and this was my first work from a studio. I feel like expectations have been set high and people always expect a good performance by casting talent when Tier 1 teams are playing in a tournament. I still feel that I am not good enough for that kind of level of production. Still, it has been an interesting and exciting experience. If someone told me a year ago that I would be casting a $45,000 tournament from a studio, I would tell them that they are mad.
We’ve seen a number of upsets so far in the 3 OGA Cups, what have been your favourite games so far to cover?
I have to say... the LATAM region! This was basically my first contact with LATAM teams (besides watching LATAM streams) and I have to say that I am impressed by their dynamic playstyle that is more aggressive than most EU teams have. BootKamp and paiN showed a lot and I have to say that I am really happy to see "underdogs" taking the first two places in OGA R6 PIT tournament. Shout out to all LATAM participants for their fair play and professionalism.
The NA OGA Cup only recently began as of last Tuesday with the finals next Wednesday; what are your predictions for this event?
I really don't know and I don't have proper predictions. I am not really familiar with NA region as I have been focused solely on EU as a community caster. Obviously, expectations are high from teams like Rogue and EG, but everyone likes a good "underdog" story and I'd like to see some other teams outperform big names.
Which role have you enjoyed working on the most -- observer or caster?
Observer; I think I observe better than I cast. Casting in English is not that easy for me as English is not my native language. When I try to speak fast, I often mumble and mess everything up like losing myself in the middle of a sentence. I still think that I need to improve a lot of areas of my casting. On the other side, I think I got a good hang of observing and I feel that I have somehow unique approach to observing as I tend to use a lot of birdseye view mid-round.
Going into the future is there any extra projects we can expect?
I am really not sure. My full-time job and family will always be the priority over casting and working among Siege community. I'd love to do an Adria tournament on the ESL platform during operation Para Bellum though. I feel that Adria region has many decent players that would make a fine team.
Finally, do you have any tips for anyone wanting to become a R6 caster or observer?
Casting and observing is something that demands a lot of time and will and not anyone can do it. Having competitive experience would be a huge plus. But I would encourage anyone who wants to try to just...try! Plenty of R6 VODs online, you can make a record of yourself casting, listen to it over again and review it. ESL always welcomes community casters that are able to cover a bunch of community cups every week. One thing I like to have in mind is "you're not doing this for yourself, you are doing this for players and teams". Many Siege teams want to break into the scene and community casters streaming their matches could help them out a lot. I feel that I am on friendly terms with many teams and players because of that mindset. It is really nice to see a good amount of Siege players supporting me on streams, brings a smile to my face.
Med1cz will next be casting next alongside Sternab tonight when the OGA Pit North American tournament continues with Rogue vs SK, and mousesports vs Noble esports tonight at 6PM EST. Tune in to watch it on the ogarainbow6pit Twitch channel when it begins.