1. What makes you 'Kradden'? Tell me a bit about yourself.
To begin with the basics, my name is Dan and I am a 24-year-old having lived in Liverpool, UK for 6 years. By day, I work in automotive logistics as a material planner. This job is something I enjoy due to it being technical, logical and precise, but some of the drawbacks are unpredictable hours. By night, I am primarily a gamer. Despite enjoying Final Fantasy XIV and various Steam titles, most people reading this will know me from my League of Legends shoutcasting and/or community activities. I started playing League in Season 1-2 during the first year in University, and after a few solocasts for fun and recommendation from a close friend, I became involved in CompeteLeague in late 2016. So far I have casted for 4 regular splits [Winter 2016, Spring 2017, Summer 2017, Winter 2017], but there has also been room for other activities such as hosting the CL TCS broadcast, organising the first of many #kradden1v1 tournaments, and spending countless nights playing custom ARAMs with the community. I see the question of "What makes you Kradden?" as a philosophical one, as Kradden is my League of Legends identity, but it's up to anyone who knows me to say how much that matches my real life personality I would say the ingredients that make up the Kradden of LoL shoutcasting are a love of gaming and LoL in general, my association with my caster/player/community member friends, a dab of trashtalking, a dash of memes and a ton of hype. Incidentally, Kradden was the name of my first World of Warcraft character in 2004-5, and had no meaning or inspiration other than random letters on a keyboard. 14 years later, it's become something greater and has remained my gaming handle.
2. What is your motivation for casting?
I would say a mixture of left and right brain. From the left brain, I love the statistical and analytical element of sports. LoL casting is almost a discussion between casters as to the current state of the game, strengths and weaknesses of players and teams, and the likely strategies for players and teams as they try to swing the numbers in their favour. I like the analytical part of the game both on broadcast and also as a discussion while watching a game casually. From the right brain comes all the passion and excitement of getting caught up in a clash between two teams with all the storylines and rivalries involved, and casting allows me to fully get involved in this for LoL. A lot of my louder and more frenzied casting is a result of me being super hyped for a game or a big teamfight. I would like to think that this is why I can flex as both a PBP and a colour caster, as I can call upon my quick description and hype as a PBP, as well as my logic and analysis whilst being the colour. I leave it to the reader to decide which is my better role!
3. What has your experience been so far of casting in the European Compete Leagues?
On the personal side, it's been a great source of development; partly for my actual shoutcasting, but in greater part for regularly working with like-minded LoL fans in the staff team, regularly providing casts for LoL teams, and getting to know the EUCL community. Any sufficiently large population such as the EUCL community will have good people and bad people. I'm glad to say nearly all of my experience in EUCL (particularly G/P) has been positive, and availability/motivation permitting I'd like to continue casting here. Casting on any given night can be an interesting cocktail of voice chat, video, streaming and client spectate technology, which only gets more complex during finals week when analyst desks are added to the mix. Casting blocks can range from the standard 2 hours, to potential 5 hour finals, to the super special 7 hour hosting block of the TCS group stages. Thanks to the volunteer admins, streamers and peripheral staff the technical bit has quickly become second nature to me.
There is definitely a difference between casting a B/S, G/P and D+ game. I still don't have a favourite as they all bring their individual perks and challenges, but once I have started casting for a given league I like to spend as much time with that league as possible to keep up a consistent caster pairing and to keep the storylines of the split fresh in my mind. As an EU community member, there has been a fair share of friction between the playerbase and the management of CL during my casting time here, which hopefully I've avoided! There are still some issues at the organisational level that I would like to see resolved going into the 2018 season, but on an individual basis everyone simply wants the best for CL. I won't elaborate any more :) As I type I feel I haven't fully described the casting experience - but maybe that is because there are so many things involved. If you're reading and want to become my co-caster, there's nothing to stop you applying to CL (or indeed asking me for casting practice at any point). In summary, it's a very unique blast.
4. What is your favourite champion?
Caitlyn. I'm a fan of all 5 roles and have a large champion pool, with skill being another matter entirely However Caitlyn has consistently, during 7 seasons, been my most played and favourite champion. My first champion was Ashe, starting from the tutorial and continuing through the first few competitive games back in 2011. I enjoyed the long range of the ADC-style champions, and enjoyed the PvE, farm-heavy, late-game oriented style of winning a game of LoL. While the no-scope Ashe ultimates and the passive gold from Hawkshot were great, Caitlyn's even longer range and ability to snipe people seemed unfairly brilliant, and 6300 IP later she was bought and deployed onto the Rift. If we're going role-by-role, my favourite champions in all roles are Vladimir in the top lane, Shyvana in the jungle, Veigar in mid, Caitlyn at ADC, and Zilean at support. The late-game link is strong here, although the meta has been kind to some and brutal to others throughout the years. Regardless, 1v1 me.
5. Do you have anything you'd like to add on?
There are a ridiculous number of shoutouts that I cannot cram into a page such as this one, as many people
have directly or indirectly made CL a great place to play and/or cast in for me. The first shoutout must go to Zema (ex-DYD) for recommending a casting position in CL to me in autumn 2016. I must also tip my Caitlyn hat to all of my co-casters during my CL and non-CL endeavours. Of particular note are my regular casting partners throughout - Daniel Bane, Foxhound, Kwee and GreyHart. By extension, thanks to all broadcasters, organisers and casting and community admins with whom I have worked. Name drops go to Aiko, Docda, Louis and Mindmesser. On the community side, shout to you all, and I'll see you in a custom ARAM soon. Special thanks to Steam Golem for providing ridiculous amounts of content, including but not limited to to the website on which you're reading this. This website is officially sponsored by www.slimebattles.com by the way.