Mzo is an American R6 caster who primarily works as one of the four main English language Pro League casters alongside KiXSTAr, Interrobang and MiloshtheMedic. As well as Pro League Mzo has also casted in a number of other smaller tournaments such as the two most recent DreamHacks in Austin and Valencia as well and the regional leagues of the Cyber-athletic Championship Series (CCS) Season 2 and the T3H eSports Premier League Season 1.
Mzo alonside his fellow casters at the 2018 Six Invitational
We spoke with mzo to discuss his career so far as well as to get his views on the most recent season of Pro league:
To start, tell us a bit about yourself.
How did you originally get into Siege as a player and then caster?
This season debuted a huge number of changes in how the competitive scene was played with the addition of the ban phase and the change in role rotations. How, as a caster, have you dealt with these changes and what impact do you think they’ve had to the game overall?
As well as changes in the format these last two months have seen a number of “superweeks” in which multiple play-days are played for a single region in a week; how have you and your fellow Pro League casters handled these constant back-to back playdays?
We have seen a number of surprise results during Season 8 so far, especially in the Latin America League, which teams have you been the most surprised with so far?
The Latin-American Pro League leaderboard after 6 playdays via Liquipedia
As well as Pro League, last Friday you casted the US Nationals qualifier finals; as a caster how does this differ to Pro League to cover?
Due to Interrobang being unavailable, over the last few playdays you have been casting alongside KiXSTAr, a rarely seen duo, and while at DreamHack Valencia you casted alongside Demo, a community caster; how do you adapt to casting alongside someone different such as this?
As well as the Pro League studio in Poland in recent weeks you have also casted in the US and Spain at the DreamHack events; how have you been finding each of these countries?
One perk of this job is definitely getting to travel, a lot. Unfortunately, it usually doesn’t offer a lot of off time to see much of the destination, but I usually manage to squeeze in enough to get the flavour. The Dreamhack events have both offered some awesome locations with some unfortunately very warm weather! It was great to see Spain as it’s somewhere I might not have normally gone, and thankfully my fiance speaks fluent Spanish or I definitely would have had trouble getting around! Being from California it was actually great to do 2 US LANs in locations I’d never been (Austin and Atlantic City), so I even got to see more of my home country! Since joining the PL team I’ve only missed a single LAN, which was Brazil so thankfully I’ll still get a second chance at Brazil at this upcoming LAN finals in November, although I imagine that will also be warm weather!
Mzo and Milosh outside the DreamHack Valencia venue in Spain
With the Paris Major upcoming what are your predictions for this event and are there any teams which you think could surprise?
The teams that will be playing at the Paris Major
You recently wrote an article for SiegeGG in which you reacted to the newest patch and the subsequent developer AMA; are there any unreferenced changes you’d consider making to improve the competitive side of the game?
What would you say is the highlight of your casting career so far?
And, finally, what tips would you give anyone wanting to become an R6 caster?
Mzo will next be casting next alongside Milosh tonight when the European Pro League continues, beginning with the crucial matchup of i don’t know vs Millenium tonight at 7PM CEST. Tune in to watch it on the rainbow6 Twitch channel when it begins.