The field of Hearthstone casting is a dynamic one and every year new faces emerge. In that scene, the United Kingdom is what seems to be an endless well of talent, from the like of Simon “Sottle” Welch and Alex “Raven” Baguley to the new vanguard of casters.

A part of that new vanguard is Daniel “FalconePunch” Falcone: Streamer, content creator, aspiring caster and now an analyst for Blizzard on the desk of the Hearthstone Global Games. A vocal fan of his work, I sat down with Falcone for what I thought was going to be a quick chat, but ended up so much more.  

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You started your journey into Hearthstone as content producer. What drove you to the game?

Back when I was at school, I used to play World of Warcraft, very casually. I had some friends that played a lot more than me, but I'd just play for a few hours a couple of nights every week. I loved the world of Azeroth and the peaceful feeling of playing the game and slowly levelling up.

I also played a lot of Yugioh, with my friends. We were never seriously competitive, we didn't even have much money to spend on the game. But I'd gather a few people over every Friday evening, and we'd all sit around my dinner table and play card games with each other.

Eventually, several years after I'd stopped playing World of Warcraft, one of my friends who was still heavily invested (and also played Yugioh) told me that Blizzard were releasing a free to play card game and that it was worth checking out.

I wasn't interested at first, but when he got into closed beta and actually showed me the game, I instantly fell in love. The visuals and polish of the game completely put any of the other card games you could play online to shame—and thanks to the combination of WoW lore and lots of enticing effects and mechanics that I wanted to learn more about—I had to play myself.

My friend soon got me a closed beta key, and Hearthstone began its domination of my life as I was starting university.

It’s been about three years since your first entry to the scene and now. How has the demand for HS content changed in these years? Does the community look for something different now than then?

I've always found it very difficult to comprehend what the Hearthstone community looks for. My thing has always been trying to produce content that is as high quality as I possibly can. I have a degree in digital film production, and I really like to push what I can do every time I release a new video. As time has gone on though, I have come to understand that the Hearthstone community doesn't care as much about high quality content as they do high quality gameplay. Or memes. The HS community love their memes.

Understanding of the game from the community has also increased dramatically over the last few years. Back when I started out, I was able to please people just by explaining what the Black Knight does and whether you should or should not put it in your deck. Things have changed since then, and it has become harder and harder to create content that people will actually learn from.

Speaking of high quality content, you did a Hearthstone esports documentary once (that I cannot find anywhere now). How was that accepted?

I think that the people that watched it enjoyed it a lot. The difficulty for me always came from actually getting people to discover and watch it in the first place! I actually made the documentary for university. We had to create a documentary about anything that we were interested in, and esports was an obvious pick for me. I even wrote my dissertation about esports.

Looking back now, I find it a little cringey. There's a lot that I would have done differently if I was making it now, but then that's life I guess. We improve and then we shudder at the things that we've made in the past. That being said, I'm very proud of it, and making it was a great experience. Probably the best experience I had through university!

I have come to understand that the Hearthstone community doesn't care as much about high quality content as they do high quality gameplay. 

To the “naked” eye, it would seem that the content-consuming community cares about a very limited spectrum of topic and personalities. Is that really the case in your opinion? What does it take to make yourself known?

I think the nature of Twitch abd YouTube—and for HS reddit—is that popular things become more popular, and less popular things are never seen. The mistake that I used to make was believing that something high quality would be popular as a result. That's not how the internet works!

Hearthstone has some very famous personalities. It almost feels as though they could sneeze, post on reddit that they sneezed, and have it hit front page immediately! But you know, they all worked to get where they are now. It didn't happen by accident, and it’s great to see them enjoying their success.

On the flip side, I think it gets harder and harder to get yourself known in content creation as time goes on. The market is incredibly saturated and personally speaking, I'm glad that I'm not in the position where I have to rely on YouTube or my Twitch channel for income, because who knows if I'd ever get there?

I have observed the same thing and I have to same it sometimes worries me. Hearthstone is not the first game to walk that path, obviously--League of Legends is doing the same but on a much larger scale--which begs the question if we'll see fewer and fewer high quality content creators in the future if that trend continues.

Ultimately, it's up to the big players in HS content to decide and set the trend. If the big streamers want to hire video editors and create something special there's nothing stopping them. Though it might just not be in their best interest when the community just seem happy watching a few stream highlights.

I'm a huge fan of Trolden, I feel like his content in particular is extremely well made and it's nice to see it still being received so well. Personally speaking, I'll continue to try different things whenever I have the time to. Everything YouTube is definitely on the back burner for me, as I'm completely focusing on casting now. But if I get a few free weeks and a fun idea, then really anything could appear on my channel.

Wondering if we're coming out as unappreciative assholes.

I hope not. *laughs*

To be clear though, when I say high quality right now, I'm referring to production quality. 'Quality content' can be taken whatever way you want. Just a game clip with no sound of someone hitting rank 1 legend by winning a very unfavourable matchup is still quality content, just a different type of quality to what I'm referring to right now.

Like, for me the HGG intro video with Raven, Lothar, Sottle and Torlk is incredible. I was so excited all of the way through the first time I watched it with a stupid grin on my face. Others may find it too cheesy.

I think it gets harder and harder to get yourself known in content creation as time goes on. The market is incredibly saturated.

What is desperately lacking in terms of content production in current-day Hearthstone?

I've just thought pretty hard about that question... And I actually can't think of anything. You want funny stuff? You can find it. You want to learn how to play the game better? You can definitely find it.

Maybe some sort of video meta report in video form- maybe working with VS or Tempo Storm or something could be a fun project. But it's hard to say it’s desperately lacking when everything is available in written form. I just think snappy videos with the 'highlights' of information can be great for the people that don't want to read.

Something like the 9-o'clock-news in video form?

Yeah, I actually started planning a couple ideas for a project like that a year ago. 'Meta in a minute' was one idea I had. Another idea was the 'Hearthstone wrap up.' Unfortunately, they were both too time intensive to create in the way that I wanted to make them, (as I wanted both to be VERY regular) and I wasn't able to go ahead with either.

I think you just need a team for that, it sounds impossible for one person, especially if you want to not slave to this project alone day in and day out.

Yeah, exactly. And as I was still trying to finish university and stream and cast as much as possible while working on it, it definitely wasn't going to happen. I'd spend about a month working on the concept, putting together a skeleton test video on Adobe After Effects and Premiere, hoping to create a good workflow where I could easily slip the new information and new video in each day. Turns out: Yeah, you'd need a team.

Recently you switched into casting, your first major gig being the ELC Esports Superstars in Germany, and now you’re on the Hearthstone Global Games desk. How has the transition been? I imagine moving from a content production and streaming to high-stage casting takes a whole new set of skills.

I'd been casting casually almost ever since I started streaming. Hosting various show matches and having a great time doing it. My first casting job ever was casting Insomnia 55 (the last one before Truesilver) with Callum Leslie. I decided to take a break from streaming last August, and some small casting jobs with Kinguin came up so I thought: why not?

It's not an entirely different skillset to streaming. Streaming is about entertaining, informing, and playing your favourite game. Casting isn't so different, though it's a lot more intense. Having to keep up with the best players in the world, work out what they're thinking, and convey that to an audience—while also thinking about what their opponent is thinking—and preparing to explain their thought processes, too.

Something I struggled with in my first two years of Hearthstone is having a real focus. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to be a streamer, content creator or caster, so I sort of tried to do all three, poorly. 

The transition has been great actually. It's been a long grind (and I do consider the first years of streaming, casting casually and earning no money to be part of that grind) but getting asked to go to another country to talk about my favourite game is just the best feeling in the world. Getting asked to do that by Blizzard? Even better.

Something I struggled with in my first two years of Hearthstone is having a real focus. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to be a streamer, content creator or caster, so I sort of tried to do all three, poorly. Now I know what I want to do, it feels great to be rewarded for my work over the years. Now I just hope I can put on a great show, and continue to be asked to do things!

You are part of the new generation of casters, that follows the likes of Sottle and Raven in 2015/2016 and Frodan, Gnimsh and Admirable in the early days. Which of your peers in this current generation do you think has it to become the faces of Hearthstones like the ones before them have?

We have a very tight knit community of casters in the UK. Sottle and Raven are two of my favourite people, because they're always willing to lend a hand. They've gotten me work, and told me ways in which I can improve many many many times. It should not come as a surprise to you that I believe Lorinda and Gaskin are both incredible. I had a great time working with them on the HGG casting desk this week, and look forward to working with them both a lot more in the future.

Lorinda's Hearthstone knowledge and research is exceptional. He's probably the caster I've worked with the most and possibly even learned the most from. Gaskin might be the best esports host I've seen. He has so much experience casting Halo and CS and he has a real passion for Hearthstone that he makes for a perfect addition to any casting team.

Finally, there's a slightly lesser known caster in the UK, DarrochBrown who has been working hard behind the scenes for quite some time. I believe he has even casted HCT APAC events! He's definitely one to watch in the future.

He's one of DTwo's boys, peddling eastern coverage to the western community. Talented lad!

He's really good. He just this week had his first studio gig casting the ESL UK Premiership. Reminds me of myself half a year ago. Definitely watch this space.

I have the luxury those that came before me did not have, in that Hearthstone casting is no longer in its infancy.

Casters in esports are known to look up to and study speakers in other fields, from traditional sports commentators to stand-up comedians. Do you have that practice, too?

I have to admit, I have no interest in traditional sports whatsoever. Never have. Funnily enough, any studying I've done for Hearthstone casting, has actually been other Hearthstone casters! I have the luxury those that came before me did not have, in that Hearthstone casting is no longer in its infancy. There's still a lot we can all improve on, and you've actually gotten me thinking that I should broaden my research a bit, and hopefully become part of the force to improve Hearthstone casting in general.

Who do you study then from the Hearthstone field? Not in the sense of who gave you advice but which caster do you put on your monitor/headphones and break down why he or she is so great.

I've always liked Admirable, for his energy and the way that he uses his voice. Even before I was really interested in esports, I'd watch him cast and just get very excited from hearing him talking with enthusiasm about the game. It'd be ignorant of me to not study the entire HCT team though, Frodan, Kibler, TJ, Raven and Sottle are all masters at what they do. Sottle seems to get the balance between voice and analysis perfectly. When he casts, every single word that he says hits home and in a very powerful way.

Talent outside Hearthstone have often expressed the opinion that Hearthstone casting and analysis is years behind the one done in other esports, like CS:GO or Dota 2. Some of HS’ biggest caster, like Frodan, have actually supported this opinion to some extent. How true is that observation?

There's a lot to talk about in other esports. CS, Dota etc have constant action and there's so much to analyze from every second of gameplay. Hearthstone is very different, and I don't even believe that it’s a fair comparison. It's a card game with a finite number of available moves each game and a lot of down time between each decision. I think that it's harder to cast Hearthstone correctly because it is completely down to the casters to keep the audience engaged while nothing is going on on screen.

If we're not improving, what's the point?

That's an interesting point. Usually the opposite opinion is expressed, that "loaded" games are strenuous to cast. I've talked with Overwatch casters and personally think what they achieve in that game is something to be applauded.

It can be taken both ways. There's pressure on casters for other games and a lot of detail, but one could argue that it’s harder to keep talking when there's a possibility of running out of things to say.

 “Solving” Hearthstone casting has been an ongoing task. Is there a right and wrong way to do it, or does personal style and preference will always dictate how it’s carried out?

Personal style is definitely very important and again I think that is due to the amount of downtime in Hearthstone casting.

In my opinion, every game of Hearthstone is exciting. Every player has a story to be told about them. It is up to us to convey that to the audience in a way that causes them to find the game as exciting as we do.

As for solving Hearthstone casting: Has the Hearthstone meta ever been solved? There's definitely some sort of parallel there. I don't necessarily share the opinion that we are years behind other esports, but we are improving and will continue to improve forever. If we're not improving, what's the point?