Meet
Tommy952, our current Senior Commentator! Tommy has made a few SNF guest appearances, regularly uploads to the
Shoutcasts and VODs forum and
his YouTube channel, is currently in the #3 leaderboard position with Wehrmacht, and just released his guide for 2.602 Piospam.
GameReplays: What got you in to shoutcasting business, and when was that?
Tommy952: Back in 2010 I stumbled across GR and got into watching shoutcasts, by the then-commentators CallMeSarge and ElDiabolo, with Espressojim who did all the vidding (it remained a mystery to us all until some years later this magic he called 'Fraps'). It was really Sarge's casts that got me into trying out casting for myself as he just cracked me up every time, and I believe the first big cast I saw was the classic Seb vs 12azor tourney final.
I was pretty young when I first started casting and a bit nervous to begin with. I actually came across my very first cast on an old hard drive (an mp3 file only, of course!) and chuckled listening to all the errors and stuff, but over time you really do become pretty comfortable with it. If I had any advice to give to someone just starting casting for the first time, it would be to read Yoink's guide to great shoutcasting, because most of that stuff is applicable to all walks of casting, whether it's CoH or whatever. I do hope that some of the old school CoH casters that have fallen off the radar a bit, most recently Bridger & Rogers who did their final cast a few weeks ago, come back if and when CoH 2 gets released.
GameReplays: You enjoying your position as being our new senior commentator?
Tommy952: Very much so, and I'm hoping to get a few big combined projects going between some other casters. With all kinds of leagues and things being started up, as well as regular tournaments, there's a lot of material to work with, I've just got to find the time.
The advent of vidcasting being so easy to do nowadays though means that there's a lot less of a reliance on other people if you just want to start casting. You don't need someone to do the vidding, someone to do the casting, someone to do the uploading and so on. While this means that the commentator section has become a bit more impersonal over the years, it means we're able to tackle much more varied and interesting projects. I'm currently working on a little 'micro tricks' video series of my own with a few bits and pieces that didn't make it into Arne's brilliant 'Short Micro Tips' guide the other day.
GameReplays: Who has influenced you the most in shoutcasting? Do you have any favorites or do you try to have your own unique style?
Tommy952: Again I'll have to come back to Sarge here, he was always a very funny caster that I tried to emulate at first, but nowadays the emphasis is probably more on analysis than play-by-play; but I try to make a point of only casting games with the very best players, because that's where the really good stuff lies. As time goes by I think I'm definitely leaning more towards the analysis style as I've learned more about the game and just gotten better at it essentially. It's a rare skill to be truly funny as a caster though, so I really do admire those guys. Tycho is another great example there.
My friend FatalSaint who I met playing OMG mod a few years back was really influential in my whole shoutcasting 'career' if you like. Since we did our first OMG mod casts we've branched out into all sorts; Terraria, Minecraft and so on. He's definitely been the biggest influence on my casting and gaming in general as we really did just spam them for the best part of a year or two.
GameReplays: Was the OMG SNF special your first time on SNF? How did you get to make your first guest appearance?
Tommy952: Ouch yeah, we prefer not to remember that episode too clearly, given the knock on the head I took courtesy of some bad driving (not me!) on the M4 just prior to it, not to mention the fact that it was plagued with technical difficulties (laggy stream, skype disconnecting us at random intervals, etc.) it wasn't what you might call an 'unparalleled success'...but nevertheless, it was a trial by fire at least into the world of livecasting. It didn't help that most people didn't understand the style of the gameplay, where you call on pre-built 'platoons' of units and play until you out-attrition or out-cap the opposing team. It's completely different from vCoH, but in a good way, and quite refreshing if you've had your fill of snipers, stags, roos, etc.
Since then though, I've done a ton of livecasts, including being on SNF with Ami and co, which was really a treat and great fun. The whole SNF thing is just doing great things for CoH, even now 6 years after release, so I really do respect Ami for powering through and leading the charge on that one.
GameReplays: FatalSaint does almost all your commentaries with you, but is unknown to most of the community. Can you tell us some about him?
Tommy952: Ah, the Swede from OMG mod eh? Hehe, well, when I first met him it was from watching OMG shoutcasts and such which I saw posted on GR. Most of them were him and either Sarge, Cadmus (some may remember him, a Belgian who I didn't get to cast with too many times but he was a GR commentator for some time), or another caster friend of mine from OMG, Dr Nick.
I remember practically wetting myself with laughter watching this game in particular, and so went on to the mod's website to check stuff out, and Fatal was looking for cohosts, so I said why not. We both had a lot of free time back then so we really spammed casts for a while, and got to be pretty good mates. He was never particularly active on GR except to post casts and such, but he did used to play vCoH way, way back on it's original release for a couple of years before he found OMG. Unfortunately neither of use have as much spare time as we used to, but we make sure to keep casting on a regular, if infrequent basis, although we basically only cast vCoH these days.
GameReplays: Nice job getting to position 3 on the Wehrmacht ladder, any tips for the fellow Wehr players out there?
Tommy952: I won't be able to live it down if I don't say this much: SPAM FOR THE FATHERLAND PEOPLE! Haha, I've said it now, now everyone can leave me alone. *hides*
Watching mags + m3allem's replay packs are really what got me to the top spots though, that and a lot of practice. Defensive all the way though, except versus brits.
I'd say the crux of playing Wehr well is to decide how you'd prefer to play; super aggressive or more defensive, then build your MG play around that. It all comes down to your MG play at the end of the day.
GameReplays: I saw you have a replay pack out recently, what opponents can we expect to see in it?
Tommy952: Hmm, well Sandland and I have a habit of getting each other in automatch so there'll be plenty of those, plus a few notable names like KoreanArmy, Marinez, Noggano, and so on. I've been prepping to release another if I can get to level 20, but really I'd consider my games to be, at best, a decent replication of magpies or m3allem's playstyle, and it's always better to learn from the masters.
GameReplays: So what other games do you play?
Tommy952: I've got a few that I mess around with when I've got time to spare and I'm not playing or casting CoH, like Call of Duty World at War (Nazi zombeeeees!), Payday (a pretty cool bank robbery style FPS that Fatal and I have been powering through) and Mount & Blade Warband (such an underated game in my opinion, it's one of the most open ended games I've ever played and the sword combat is frankly the most satisfying I've ever come across). The Total War series has always resonated really well with me too, as the original Medieval was one of the first PC games I really played a lot and really enjoyed, although I'm eagerly anticipating a Rome 2 or Empire 2 more than anything else.
GameReplays: Tell us some about Tommy in real life.
Tommy952: Well, my real name is Will and I'm in my penultimate year of sixth form before I head to Uni. I can't give a very good reason why I picked Tommy as an alias, I think it was actually because when I first started playing CoH, all I played was Brits for some reason, and thought it was a very fitting name. I can quite distinctly remember reading through all the guides on GR religiously about the ins-and-outs of every faction and just boggling at the sheer depth of the game.
I also worked as the lead editor for a gaming review website GamingBolt.com (which is still operational) for 2 years before schoolwork got the better of me and I had to quit, but I really got into my gaming while I was there, and in a wierd kind of way it also got me into casting, and CoH as well.
GameReplays: Quickfire! Favorite food?
Tommy952: Indian, or anything with enough spice to make my eyes water
GameReplays: Favorite movie?
Tommy952: Die Hard, the original
GameReplays: Favorite alcoholic beverage?
Tommy952: Magners
GameReplays: Favorite athlete?
Tommy952: Right now, probably Roy Elghanayan. If you don't know who he is, type his name into Youtube, there's a brilliant video of him on there.
GameReplays: Favorite musician?
Tommy952: Does Bach count?
GameReplays: Dream job?
Tommy952: Being my own boss at anything, really. Sadly, I don't think it's going to work out that way!
GameReplays: Perfect day?
Tommy952: Any day involving a lie in. Such days are few and far between in the exam season though! Thanks for the interview opportunity!
