Karam "KYAN1TE" Kabbara casting the epic.LAN CS:GO tournament with fellow co-caster James "BanKs" Banks.
Source: ESL
British commentator Karam "KYAN1TE" Kabbara has had his fair share of casting for both lan and online events, ranging from smaller, local tournaments such as Insomnia all the way to major international tournaments like ESL Cologne. He has also had a stellar track record at all the events he has casted, proving to be both an enthusiatic and passionate commentator. If anyone knew something about the UK eSports scene, it would be KYAN1TE.
What’s your daily routine like being a professional CS:GO caster?
Well, I don't know if it's safe to call me a professional as it isn't my full time job as it's just a hobby of mine I enjoy doing, but I guess at the current moment in time I'm currently taking a year off University to do a year in the industry, meaning I wake up at 7am, start work at 9am, finish at 5:30pm, get home at about 6pm and cast whenever I'm needed. Other casters keep me updated if they can't cast a game and that's when - providing I'm free - jump in and help out. Nothing abnormal really, I'm just a normal guy who loves Counter-Strike like the rest of us!
CS:GO has grown significantly in the past few months, with EMS One Katowice and ESL Cologne that set new records for viewership. How much more do you think it will grow in the coming future? Is it possible that CS:GO could grow to have extremely large majors like the International?
I think the statistics speak for themselves. More and more people are starting to become familiar with the game as more tournaments crop up and are streamed online. I think the key to Counter-Strike's success ever since the old days prior to Global Offensive is how simple it conceptually is. Ten players, five versus five, shoot the living daylight out of each other - simple. Unlike Dota or LoL which I feel are difficult for your average bog standard gamer to sit down, watch, understand and resultantly enjoy unless you know a lot about the game yourself or have played it for a short period of time. Look at the amount of CoD pros who have started streaming Counter-Strike and my friend who is a professional LoL player for Team Infused told me he loves watching the game because of how much action is involved.
When people enjoy watching the game, naturally it will pull them to want to play it and because of how easy it now is for beginners to play competitive game modes and queue with their friends due to the matchmaking system (whilst most new CS 1.6 or CS:S players had no idea 5v5 competitive existed or how to work IRC for that matter to find games), the game can only grow in my opinion.
Regarding large majors like The International, my opinion on that is simple. If we're going to see a large event like that come in as an addition to what we already have - then sure. But if we're going to see the smaller 250k tournaments, CPH Games, Gfinity's etc halted throughout the course of the year in favour of one big tournament that everyone practices towards then I'd rather see the money spread out rather than to plump it all in one big tournament.
KYAN1TE casted Gfinity 3, one of the UK's biggest CS:GO tournaments that even attracted international level teams such as Virtus.pro and iBuyPower.
Source: TheDailyDot
"I myself need to snap out of the idea or mentality that the Europeans are a level above the Americans when in truth they are not and we saw that in Cologne."
The European CS:GO scene has long thought to be far superior to the North American scene. However, with teams such as iBuyPower and Cloud9 performing exceptionally well at international tournaments, do you think that is still the case?
I'm not going to lie, I bet against Cloud9 one too many times during Cologne. I think before I can answer that question, I myself need to snap out of the idea or mentality that the Europeans are a level above the Americans when in truth they are not and we saw that in Cologne. I think it's a no brainer that the Americans have become a force to be reckoned with and perhaps with players like Steel with European experience joining the likes of iBP and with players like Skadoodle who came in to CS:GO from a different game meaning he can introduce different ideas etc has given the North American teams something that the Europeans don't have which is an element of surprise regarding how they execute things and an underdog mentality going into games which they use in their favour. I think most people were under the impression that because the Europeans play against top opposition regularly that it'd work in their favour, but it rather seems that the Americans always have something new to bring to the table which they save for the big events to use the element of surprise in their favour against the Europeans. So the Americans technically have more material (demos, footage, etc) to work from in comparison to vice versa.
You’ve casted many tournaments, both online and at lan. How is the atmosphere different when casting online and at lan? What do you think is the major difference between the two that affects the teams the most?
I always feel I perform better when casting from home because I'm comfortable in my surroundings and hear my voice better in order to control it. I'm very inexperienced when it comes to casting in front of a crowd (as we saw at G3) and I think that attributed as to why I admittedly felt I significantly underperformed at that event however. I feel I addressed most of the issues at i53, two days ago, where I found myself casting in front of an even bigger crowd and didn't let the nerves and excitement get to me.
With regards to how I think it affects teams, I think it's a similar concept. We've seen it happen time after time again where certain players just don't perform offline let alone newly recruited players who have never played in front of crowds before crumble when it comes to the real deal then get called onliners. Whether it's playing or casting, experience is mandatory in my opinion and what we as a community need to bare in mind is that at the end of the day a) we're all human b) you can only gain experience by experiencing... if that makes any sense.
There has been a lot of controversy regarding popular skin betting website CSGOLounge. On one hand, some people say it’s hurting the scene because it has caused DDoS attacks and death threats to the players, not to mention alleged match throwing by top-tier teams. On the other hand, Twitch viewership skyrockets when a match is on the website. What’s your take on the situation?
It's a question I've been asked a billion times and answered a billion times so I'm going to try and summarise my opinion.
Basically, I don't have an issue with people betting. Death threat wise, I've never seen any of them and I don't know if any of that has occurred recently so I'm going to try and dodge that one as it's sickening and doesn't have a place in the world let alone eSports.
Regarding betting, the only thing that worries me is how young some of the kids are who are gambling. I had a 12 year old add me on steam, say he enjoys my stream, then ask me to pick his bets for him and that he was betting upwards of $50. Firstly, I have no idea where a child like that gets that kind of money from, however I just don't feel that such a young child should be exposed to gambling as it can play tricks on your mind...
I don't know how else to say it really. I think there needs to be some sort of 18+ moderation but again that's really difficult. Regarding DDoSing, there isn't a way to avoid it really other than to ensure players take the required precautions. If a professional player has a static IP for example for whatever reason, I think it's not only in his best of interests but his organization's as well to provide him with the means required to prevent it from occurring. It will always be on the cards but if we can somewhat narrow down the number of times it occurs on a regular basis, it's a start. I also think that any games where DDoSing has a significant outcome on the match should result in players getting their skins returned to them. The problem here is that teams who have bet on themselves and find themselves losing could fake a DDoS... so really it's a never ending circle and you know what they say... gambling is a mugs game.
As for twitch viewership... CSGOLounge is a huge reason for CS:GO's success and why more and more people started tuning in and watching it. I think if Twitch channels can be moderated correctly to prevent the spamming of penis ASCII's and constant insults being thrown between different people then at the end of the day the viewing numbers are just a number and the higher they are the higher the more potential the game has to get new viewers and continue to grow.
"If you think you have what it takes and you just want to give it a shot, just do it."
Being a caster is obviously an extremely hard job; you have to know exactly what to say and when to say it, all while providing analysis of the game. Do you have any advice for aspiring casters?
Well I got in to it accidentally... and I'm still unsure how on Earth I've accomplished what I have done in such a short period of time and of course it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for great people in the community spurring both myself and other casters on to continue and companies like ESL, Gfinity, Multiplay for contacting us and giving us a chance to cover their events.
The same thing applies to anyone else out there who wants to be a caster and the point I'm trying to make is that YOU TOO might accidentally get in to it. You too might be casting in a funny voice which people find entertaining then be asked to try things out in your regular voice and then be approached and offered further opportunities. Just CAST and see what people think.... and at the end of the day if YOU enjoy doing it then keep doing it!
I think there's a huge gap at the moment in CS:GO to see new colour casters (analytical casters) delve forward in to the game as I personally love play by play and colour combos rather than two play by plays who don't bring much to the table from a certain perspective. Of course, many would argue that in order to be a colour and know what you're talking about, you need to be an ex-professional. However I still honestly think that if you think you have what it takes and you just want to give it a shot, just do it. Even if someone wants to try casting with me as a small push in the right direction or they have any questions then they can feel free to contact me through steam and ask away.
I would like to personally thank KYAN1TE for the interview and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. Also, be sure to check out his twitch channel over here.
Rotator Image: Reason Gaming
